XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien, alt.fan.harry-potter   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 22:34:10 +0200, Troels Forchhammer   
    wrote:   
      
   >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).   
      
   One of their traditions was reading their work to each other.   
      
   Did Rowling discuss her work with anyone while she was writing it?   
      
   >   
   >   
   >> 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.   
      
   Yes, and I think the same applies to Pullman.   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/litmain.htm   
        http://www.goodreads.com/hayesstw   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)