The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All (Popular Culture and Philosophy) [Paperback]

Gregory Bassham (Author), Eric Bronson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Popular Culture and Philosophy | Publication Date: August 4, 2003

Can power be wielded for good, or must it always corrupt? Does technology destroy the truly human? Is beer essential to the good life? The Lord of the Rings raises many such searching questions, and this book attempts some answers. Divided into five sections concerned with power and the Ring, the quest for happiness, good and evil in Middle-earth, time and mortality, and the relevance of fairy tales, The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy mines Tolkien’s fantasy worlds for wisdom in areas including the menace of technology, addiction and fetishism, the vitality of tradition, the environmental implications of Tolkien's thought, Middle-earth's relationship to Buddhism and Taoism, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Review

General reader will find much to think about...would also be useful for students of Tolkien and in undergraduate teaching. -- Science Fiction Research Association, #271, Jan-Feb-Mar 2005

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Open Court; 1ST edition (August 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812695453
• ISBN-13: 978-0812695458
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #57 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > History & Criticism

More About the Author

Gregory Bassham was born in 1959, educated at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Notre Dame, and has been teaching philosophy at King's College (Pennsylvania) since 1992. Among his books are: The Hobbit and Philosophy (forthcoming, 2012), Critical Thinking (2011), The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy (2010), Basketball and Philosophy (2007), The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy (2003), and Original Intent and the Constitution: A Philosophical Study (1991). A competitive runner, Bassham has twice run the Boston Marathon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Review to Start Them All: or, Gandalf and Genius, August 20, 2003

By 

David Boyle (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All (Popular Culture and Philosophy) (Paperback)

This book, despite the ostentatious title which Tolkien himself might've disavowed (he might humbly have thought that the Bible and other works, not his own books, were the true "books to rule them all"), is well worth reading.
It covers many aspects of philosophy and thought, including Plato, Nietzche, existentialism, Eastern religion, etc., which do not always receive the discussion vis-a-vis Tolkien that they deserve.
One of the best essays is Alison Milbank's "'My Precious': Tolkien's Fetishized Ring", an analysis which resembles Brenda Partridge's (in)famous 1983-or-so essay "No Sex, Please, We're Hobbits: The Construction of Female Sexuality in The Lord of the Rings", in its commentary on Shelob's scary voracity. Milbank also mentions Karl Marx's "commodity fetishism" as a factor in Tolkien's work (and the Ruling Ring is certainly one hot commodity in Middle-earth, even before Frodo "gives Gollum the finger" on Mount Doom and the action heats up a bit)...though Milbank notes that Tolkien probably had no "People's Republic of the Shire" in mind when writing Lord of the Rings!!
Another standout essay is "Happy Endings and Religious Hope: The Lord of the Rings as an Epic Fairy Tale" by John J. Davenport. Of all the essays, it perhaps draws most deeply on a variety of Tolkien's works, including the Silmarillion and Tolkien's influential essay "On Fairy-Stories". Davenport, whose essay is the last in the book (and, significantly, at the end of the "Ends and Endings" group of essays), poses the hope that "Day will come again" ("Aure entuluva" in the Elvish spoken at a desperate battle in the Silmarillion) not only in Middle-earth but also on our own earth, at least from Tolkien's Christian point of view which hopes for eventual reward for those who strive for right throughout their lives.
Davenport ably invokes the Beowulf epic, the tales of King Arthur, and the Tolkien-favorite medieval story of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" in showing how Tolkien's goal of finding "joy, poignant as grief" is forwarded through The Lord of the Rings' combination of epic narrative with "eucatastrophe", Tolkien's brilliant term meaning more-or-less "a catastrophe of good" or "a surprise turn for the better, such as found in fairy tales". And indeed, as Davenport notes, the various "eucatastrophes" in Tolkien's trilogy do leave one with a taste of hope for something better in our futures, dark as the interim may be.

Back to the book as a whole: although the still photo of the resurrected Gandalf from the Two Towers film gracing the cover looks a little cheesy (though still impressive), the light-from-above in the picture does remind us that there is something gleaming or "eternal" caught in the mesh of Tolkien's work, not mere idle fantasy. Though lacking the coherence and focus that a book-length piece would have, as opposed to the various scattered and short essays in "One Book to Rule Them All"--and I was sorely tempted to give only 4 stars for this book, because of this scatteredness--, "One Book" does a fine job of reminding us of the genius of Tolkien not only for entertaining narrative but also for offering serious thought about the meaning of life, and "One Book" does so all the better by its drawing on his fellow geniuses throughout the millenia to illustrate or complement his points.

Two thumbs up (and any ring-fingers left on one's hand).

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Its about Philosophy., July 21, 2005

By 

J. Colon (San Juan, PR.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All (Popular Culture and Philosophy) (Paperback)

If you buy this book looking for what philosophical ideals Tolkien imbued his literature with, you may be disappointed with this book. While there are some essays I think Tolkien would certainly agree with, there are also many he wouldn't. This book is first and foremost about philosophy. What this book does is illustrate different philosophical ideas by using characters and situations from the Lord of the Rings as examples to help you understand. With this in mind, I think a lot of people can certainly enjoy this book.

41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I waited this long for this?, February 22, 2004

By 

Emily Held (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All (Popular Culture and Philosophy) (Paperback)

the most disappointing so far in the 'popular culture and philosophy' series, these essays have little to do with either LotR or Philosophy in the traditional sense, instead attempting to cover everything from environmentalism to narrative structure. As a general format, the authors state their intentions to mold Tolkien's world to their own pet ideas and quote profusely while saying little that convinces. One of the essays even admits that the Buddist parallels it's spent the last few pages proposing are clearly "superficial" - why waste the print, then? Another oddity here is a collection of quotes by various noted philosophers that have nothing to do with either the themes in LotR, or, in many cases, the topics the essays address. Extremely discouraging.