Joseph Pearce, the ultra-passionate Catholic interpreter of literature, has a new CD title that claims to "unlock" The Lord of the Rings.
I'm hoping that the title, which is in fact "Joseph Pearce Unlocks 'The Lord of the
Rings'" is just some kind of provocative mumbo-jumbo that his editor invented.
It makes me nervous whenever someone claims to have the real interpretation of a text, to have really solved it this time, as if all those other interpretations just don't get it.
The fact of the matter is that just about anyone who can get past the fake-textual scholarship in Tolkien's introduction can "unlock" The Lord of the Rings in their own way...and a good many of them are equally valid. Tolkien is, in this regard, much like Shakespeare (although I suspect Pearce only thinks Shakespeare is truly unlocked with Peter's keys as well).
Tolkien (as is often cited) claimed to have not written an allegory. If it isn't an allegory, then there is no magic code to decipher. If there is no magic code to decipher, than there can be no definitive "unlocking" of the text. Besides, Tolkien also happens to be rather directly transparent with motives. He's left us a rather large body of paratext, commentaries, letters and whatnot that pretty clearly lay out motives, thoughts, revisions, themes, and whatnot...not to mention his invitation for readers to apply the text however they see fit...to "allegorize" it if you will.
Pearce's interpretation might be inspirational. It might be thought-provoking. It might even be academically sound. But, please, don't think that Joseph Pearce has the magic key to unlock the text.
If you really want to unlock Tolkien, all you have to do is say "friend" and enter.
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