Visitors to this site will probably be well aware of the excellent work being done by Louis Markos. Now, however, I’m excited to announce that he has written a film script for a proposed movie focusing on the friendship between Tolkien and Lewis. Visit this website for more details about the film:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelionawakes/the-lion-awakes
To hear Louis Markos discussing the spiritual aspects of the proposed movie, follow this link:
Interesting! Hope it gets made (and made well I might add…).
But this only brings up two questions I have for the good professor (Pearce that is):
1)When is your sequel documentary on Tolkien coming out?
and
2)I’m not sure how well aware you are of the fantasy genre in general (other than it’s father, Tolkien), but in your honest opinion, has there ever been a true heir to Tolkien?
{Many have copied him, many have imitated him, few have ever actually followed his guidelines for writing fantasy (“on faerie stories”), and sadly today, there are those who try and leave him behind, those who would have fantasy “grow up” (in their own words). And of course by “grow up” they mean have fantasy become dark, nasty, gritty, nihilsitic, etc, have it incorporate the, you know, the REAL Stuff™, not all this make believe nonsense! Alot of modern fantasy strikes me as antifantasy.}
And if not, do you think he will ever have an heir?
And I mean a true heir, not only in form, but in spirit as well!
Dear R.C.,
Pardon me for commenting on a question you directed to Joseph Pearce, but the question reawakened a sore spot I developed when I was a member of the Tolkien Society: I often read that Tolkien’s LOTR invented the fantasy genre. Not so, I think. Tolkien wrote–in his own words–“myth”, not fantasy. And he wrote it in accordance with his own definition of mythopoeia. The stuff that’s out there called “fantasy” is not related even remotely to myth or to mythopoeia. I think he’d be horrified to be told that he invented it.
R.C.,
Forgive brevity. In haste.
I’m filming the second Tolkien special for EWTN in November so it will probably not be shown until late 2013, at the earliest.
I should also direct you to the 8-part lecture series on LotR that I have filmed for Catholic Courses. See http://www.catholiccourses.com.
I agree with Dena’s comments. But, in any case, Tolkien has no true heir. He’s in a league of his own, like Homer, Dante and Shakespeare.