A charity hopes to turn J.R.R. Tolkien's house into a meeting place for writers, screenwriters and filmmakers from all cultures and faith backgrounds. A new book helps the reader imagine art from the perspective of labor, rooting it in the charism of the working class. And in the latest Soul Seeing column, Amy Morris-Young says the us.-vs.-them mentality in our church and country is insidious and dangerous.
Fantasy novel enthusiasts wish to turn the house of famed Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien in Oxford, where he wrote "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit," into a meeting place for writers, screenwriters and filmmakers from all cultures and faith backgrounds.
In 1930, Tolkien moved into the house at 20 Northmoor Road where his children would grow up during the Second World War. Project Northmoor is a charity created with the purpose of buying the house, currently for sale for roughly $6 million. The project has already raised about $1 million.
"I think it would be wonderful to go and read and be inspired by Tolkien," said Julia Golding, an award-winning author and screenwriter who founded Project Northmoor. Golding said she hopes the place will be "a version of Rivendell," the elven city in "The Lord of the Rings" where sojourners from all fantastical races and backgrounds meet for reflection and, of course, adventure.
You can read more of the story here.
Pope Francis recently proclaimed this "The Year of Saint Joseph," making this a good time to look at art from the perspective of labor.
John Molyneux's new book The Dialectics of Art offers a solid Marxist framework to help inform our visual imagination — rooting it in the charism of the working class. Molyneux is a British socialist, activist and writer, writing from outside of the academy without a specific art historical specialization, which "frees him to create a compelling, wide-reaching story of art in the age of capitalism, roughly from the Italian Renaissance to today," writes Ciaran Freeman in the review of the book.
For Molyneux, art is "is a kind of spiritual health food which contributes to the development of the human personality, especially among working-class people" when they can freely access it.
"Art arises out of a definite historical and social context, creating a human response to that specific moment in the history of class struggle," Freeman writes. "What makes something art is the nature of the labor of its production."
You can read more of the book review here.
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Weekend wrap-up
I'm thrilled to announce this weekend newsletter will be taken over next weekend by our very own NCR opinion editor, Olga Segura. The newsletter will be called NCR Culture Weekly, and focus on all of the great content you expect each weekend — book reviews, spiritual commentaries and movie reviews — but will also feature Olga's thoughts on the different ways pop culture can inform our Catholic faith. Each week, she will share with readers what art, whether a song, book or TV show, she's moved by that week and why. As a reader of this newsletter, you are already signed up, but if you know someone that might be interested, they can sign up here.
Thanks for your readership,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Managing Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
P.S. NCR Forward members play an important role in allowing NCR to pursue new ventures, such as more coverage of culture. Join today to be part of the community.
