In his seminal essay “On Fairy-Stories,” J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that the joy of the happy ending, “or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn’...is not essentially ‘escapist,’ nor ‘fugitive.’...It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.”
While it’s easy to think of fantasy literature, and the happy endings that come with it, as merely an “escape,” to Tolkien, this idea ignores one of the genre’s foremost purposes. Instead, fairy tales point us toward perhaps what is most true about human nature—our ability to find hope in the midst of suffering. Tolkien’s best-known exploration of these ideas is found in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but this December, our book club will test these ideas (and more) as we read one of his short stories, “Leaf by Niggle.” This story follows a painter named Niggle, who lives in a world that does not value art. His magnum opus is a painting of a great tree, on which he spends a great deal of time and energy painting individual leaves. Before he can finish, though, the menial tasks of life get in the way, and what follows is a fantastical, and perhaps even allegorical, story about art, escapism, and hope.
Tolkien wrote this story between 1938 and 1939, when he was feeling anxious that he might not finish The Lord of the Rings in his lifetime. This is why some believe that Niggle may be a stand-in for the author himself, despite his well-known hatred for allegory. However, it seems that telling this story was important enough for Tolkien to bend his own rule. We hope you’ll join us to discuss all this and more at our next meeting on December 15 from 7:30-9pm Eastern. You can find the story here. Sign up for the Zoom link here.
Sarah Linville, Book Club Editor
