XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien, alt.fan.harry-potter   
   From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid   
      
   In message    
   Weland  spoke these staves:   
   >   
   > On 10/10/2010 9:49 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:   
   >>   
      
      
      
   >> One of the reasons Sayers is sometimes described as an "honorary   
   >> Inkling" is that she was a fairly close friend of some of the   
   >> Inklings, though she never attended any of their gatherings. That   
   >> would not, of course, apply to Rowling.   
      
   I think we should look at the 'in the tradition of the Inklings' part   
   rather than waste too much effort on the 'honourary Inkling'   
   statement -- the latter is, as you point out, attributed to Sayers   
   because of some very specific historical circumstances and it is   
   nonsensical to attribute it to Rowling or any other author who didn't   
   belong to these particular historical circumstances.   
      
   Dirk said that   
   ||| I guess to answer this question one would first have to agree   
   ||| what this "tradition" is in the first place.   
   which I think is a very relevant question -- what, if anything, is   
   the 'tradition of the Inklings'? As I said, I am (in the present   
   company) particularly unknowledgeable about other Inklings than   
   Tolkien, but as Steve has pointed out, the Inklings' literary   
   production spans very widely (with some of them, as I understand it,   
   publishing nothing and others only non-fiction).   
      
      
      
   > I would say that one of the traditions Rowling is following is   
   > Lewis and Tolkien, rather than the Inklings. And it should be no   
   > surprise: she's educated in the British system,   
   [...]   
   > There's no question she's influenced by the same texts as Lewis   
   > and Tolkien, and in addition by those authors as well as by T. H.   
   > White among other things.  So sure, following at least in part   
   > the tradition of the "Inklings", but hardly an honorary Inkling.   
      
   But, as you put it here, you seem to imply that this tradition is   
   merely the tradition of any reasonably well-educated British fantasy   
   author? I'm sure much of the same could be said, for instance, of   
   Philip Pullman . . .   
      
   Is there anything that distinguishes the Inklings from the broader   
   background of British twentieth-century (sub-creative?) literature?   
      
   I'm fishing here, I know, but though there has been a lot of writing   
   about the Inklings, I don't think I have seen it suggested that their   
   work belongs to a common 'tradition' -- if anything the 'tradition'   
   was one of communality, of testing ideas on each other and openly   
   discussing each others' work, but this would, as I understand it, be   
   particularly inappropriate for Rowling who appears to have worked   
   very much alone.   
      
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   Troels Forchhammer     
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