ext_139773 ([identity profile] pearlette.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] mechtild 2013-07-05 09:11 am (UTC)

This is "...jazz from a man who was always a classicist....."

Definitely. :) Fascinating.

Great period in art, that, the early 1900s to 1930s. I'm fascinated by Surrealism in particular. Weird and often disturbing, but such originality and creativity. I went to a wonderful exhibition on Surrealism at the Victoria & Albert museum about 6 years ago. It all coincided with the new 'religion' of psychology and Jungian-ism, etc etc.

All vastly different from Tolkien's own creative sources and stream. But I like this one and only experiment with Cubism he did!

I didn't realise he had family hols at Lyme Regis (I should do, since I've read his biography, although many years ago now). My mother loves Lyme Regis - it's where she spent her summer holidays as a child, during WW2. It sounds like a peaceful holiday haven, even though the Germans were bombing Portland just up the coast! It's a lovely place - you've got the medieval Cobb, and the Jurassic Coast, and the literary associations with Jane Austen and 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'. ;)

Of course JRRT and Edith retired to Bournemouth in their old age.

Now here is a funny thought - my family were in Lyme Regis during the summer of 1973, when I was 11. It was a very hot summer. Tolkien died that year, in September. My brother was reading LotR during our holiday. I began reading it, but got scared by the Barrow Wight (and it was very long, even for an 11 year old bookworm). I was determined to return to it one day. I did, 10 years later!

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