Polar Bear's Article on Religion, Tolkien, and Silver Age Comics

[Polar Bear]

For about three years, I've been telling a few of you about an article on Silver Age comic books, Tolkien, and religion I was working on. Yes, it got sidelined for a while. But it's finally done and online!

Here's the first bit from the article:

J. R. R. Tolkien spent nearly 20 pages defining fairy tales in his 1946 essay "On Fairy-Stories" (found in The Tolkien Reader). This essay, a favorite of his friend C. S. Lewis's, summarizes many of the attitudes toward storytelling that guided his creation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Tolkien's insights provide general guidelines not only for the reasons behind the trilogy's popularity, but the popularity of fairy tales in general: Through these stories, we satisfy "certain primordial human desires," including the desire "to survey the depths of space and time."

Oddly enough, that doesn't sound like a fairy tale to me -- it sounds more like an average issue of Fantastic Four. Tolkien also discusses "the longing for the noiseless, gracious, economical flight of a bird," bringing forth, for comics readers, images of Superman, while "the desire to hold communion with other living things" is reflected in telepaths from the X-Men's Jean Grey to the Justice League's Martian Manhunter.

Part of the appeal of the 1960s Batman series was obviously to make readers wish they were themselves Robin. "If [fairy-stories] awakened desire, satisfying it while often whetting it unbearably, they succeeded," points out Tolkien, and Batman comics in the mid-1960s succeeded -- to the tune of millions of copies a month.

But the greatest desire in our hearts is often deeper than the wish to fly, or even the desire to become someone else: It's what Tolkien calls"the consolation of the Happy Ending," a meaning he assigns to the word "eucatastrophe." Tolkien argues that our natural attraction to this eucatastrophe reflects our innate desire for justice, for mercy, and, in fact, for virtue.


Click here (http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3138&Itemid=48) to read more. Hope you like it.

[Senormac]

Hmmmm....that was pretty good PB. Prob cuz I can see that same picture. But why did you pick FF #50 for the comic picture at the top of your article? You know about the silver surfer.....don't you?

Anyone want a worm sandwich?

[Polar Bear]

Thanks for the kind words!!

I didn't pick the photo; the editors did, and I only saw it today.

[Senormac]

HA....thats good. Well, what do you think about the Silver Surfer? And do you know what Kirby said about him?

[Polar Bear]

The Surfer is a nifty character, but he didn't figure into the article. Not sure what you're getting at, though. Do tell . . .

[Senormac]

Well, without leading this conversation down the road of religious debate (but it may be too late for that now)....Kirby said his character The Silver Surfer was patterned after Satan.....the fallen angel. I just thought it was interesting, your article magnifying the idea that there is great value to moral hope filled endings in comics......the goodness and hope of Tolkiens world....and the parrallels that the christ story has for people.

Your editors paired your article with a picture of the representation of one of the most tragic stories ever understood in christian teaching. The symbolism here is astounding to me. Funny how things happen like that.

[prince hal]

Senormac wrote,

"Your editors paired your article with a picture of the representation of one of the most tragic stories ever understood in christian teaching. The symbolism here is astounding to me. Funny how things happen like that."

I guess I'm a bit lost here. Are you suggesting that the Silver Surfer is a generally accepted symbol of Satan (aka Lucifer)?

[Senormac]

Well, I don't know if he's generally accepted or not. I just know that I have a video cassette of an interview with Kirby and he starts talking about the inspiration for alot of his ideas. And he says that he turned to The Bible and the stories in it for inspiration alot......and the story of Satan (aka Lucifer) was the inspiration for his creating the Silver Surfer.....and Galactus too. I guess you can't get any closer to the source than that eh?

[dan bailey]

Perhaps that explains the title of the old Sonic Youth song "Satan is Boring." Because so I find the Surfer. Only Silver Age character I haven't the slighest interest in ever picking up an Essential of.

Not sure why ... but I find his every hand-wringing utterance tedious in the extreme.

Oh, well.

[prince hal]

Well, I don't know if he's generally accepted or not. I just know that I have a video cassette of an interview with Kirby and he starts talking about the inspiration for alot of his ideas. And he says that he turned to The Bible and the stories in it for inspiration alot......and the story of Satan (aka Lucifer) was the inspiration for his creating the Silver Surfer.....and Galactus too. I guess you can't get any closer to the source than that eh?

Well, yeah. The similarity is obvious, to a point. But the Surfer (and as Dan says, he could be sententious at times), was never Satanic in either motives or behavior. He wasn't looking to rule in hell rather than bend his knee in heaven, to paraphrase Milton.

And he's certainly not some universally recognized parallel to, avatar of or counterpart to Satan, not even in the comics world.

If anything, his similarity to Jesus (all-powerful, but suffering for all; epic struggle with Mephisto; saving those who forget and even reject him, in agony over his responsibility, etc.) has always been the more common observation, and as such, using his image in the article probably makes sense.

[Polar Bear]

Actually, the cover to Silver Surfer #3 might not have been a bad thing...

[Polar Bear]

For those who are interested, I just posted online the first (and only!) comic book story I ever had published. It is controversial (a horror story about abortion), so only click here (http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Sunday-Comics-Wheelbarrows.html&Itemid=127) if you're willing to deal with that.

[dan bailey]

Very well-written & obviously heartfelt, PB. I found nothing offensive at all, despite being an ultraleftist (albeit one who in no way toes the party line on all aspects of abortion) who tends to find the very concept of religion absolutely flesh-crawling when I'm in a bad mood (i.e. most of the hours I'm awake & quite a few when I'm not).

[Sir Tim Drake]

I'm completely pro-choice, so I have to admit I went into that story expecting to be offended, but I instead found it surprisingly touching. I would note, though, that your argument seems to presuppose the premise that heaven exists.

[Jesse Hamm]

[SPOILER]

Perhaps I misunderstood the story, but my impression was that the story's version of Heaven is hypothetical, and that the rather sad corner of Heaven where the babies end up is a metaphor for their lost potential here on Earth.

[END SPOILER]

I enjoyed both the story and the essay, by the way. For similar reading, check out Chesterton's Ethics of Elfland (http://www.chosunjournal.com/ethics.html). He makes some interesting points about the fantasy genre.

[berk]

Well, yeah. The similarity is obvious, to a point. But the Surfer (and as Dan says, he could be sententious at times), was never Satanic in either motives or behavior. He wasn't looking to rule in hell rather than bend his knee in heaven, to paraphrase Milton.

And he's certainly not some universally recognized parallel to, avatar of or counterpart to Satan, not even in the comics world.

If anything, his similarity to Jesus (all-powerful, but suffering for all; epic struggle with Mephisto; saving those who forget and even reject him, in agony over his responsibility, etc.) has always been the more common observation, and as such, using his image in the article probably makes sense.I think you have to distinguish between Kirby's conception of the character, which did have parallels with Milton's rebel angel, and Stan Lee's Christ-like version, as seen especially in the Surfer solo series. The FF version has elements of both, as Kirby's story was (mis?)interpreted through Stan's script.

[prince hal]

I think you have to distinguish between Kirby's conception of the character, which did have parallels with Milton's rebel angel, and Stan Lee's Christ-like version, as seen especially in the Surfer solo series. The FF version has elements of both, as Kirby's story was (mis?)interpreted through Stan's script.

I see your point now. And it might have made for a better series if the Surfer had been more like Lucifer and less like the Lord.