Sunday, March 19, 2006

At least I didn't slight Tolkien

HeoCwaeth is peeved about my comment that too many medieval women writers are canonized because they are women, not because they are good -- peeved enough, in fact, that she wrote a pretty long response to that aside here, followed by some "You go, girl!" comments by some of the best female medieval bloggers out there.

I'm out the door in five minutes, so I don't have time to respond, except to say that I did not, as her post title implies, suggest that women medieval women writers do not belong in the Canon. Instead, I suggested that some are in the Canon because they are women, not because of their writing. I think a fair reading of my post would also reveal that I think that some women writers deserve to be in the Canon regardless of whether they are women or not.

Of course, this angry response is nothing like the heat of wrath I felt when I mentioned, in an aside, that I found the Silmarillion boring. I still fear for my life over that one.

3 comments:

  1. Never know when an elven arrow will shoot out of the trees! *LOL*

    Anyway, I just reread the Silmarillion not that long ago and I think its a book that's entertaining to a very specific kind of person. Nerds, obviously, but a certain kind of nerd, for which I'm having trouble finding a good adjective. Cosmological nerds, perhaps? Nerds (like myself, BTW) who happily pour over the genealogies of medieval nobles for fun? I don't know.

    Anyway, the point is that if you're not a certain subspecies of nerd, you probably are going to find the Silmarillion boring.

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  2. I'd just like to point out that in a post about medieval women writers, my first two comments are on Tolkien!

    I think if I entitled a post "Live Nude Tolkien," I'd be the most visiting blog in the 'spere.

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  3. Anonymous10:12 AM

    The Silmarillion... boring?

    I guess I'm one of those "cosmological nerds," mentioned.

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