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A review by lanceschaubert
Mr. Bliss by J.R.R. Tolkien
5.0
At first blush to modern readers, this book will seem like an equally absurd, “ancient” version of the nonsequitors found in [b: Axe Cop|8911496|Axe Cop, Vol. 1|Malachai Nicolle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403203487l/8911496._SY75_.jpg|13787873]. But that’s mainly because our books for children have become so shallow. In Axe cop, the introduction of new characters and plot points never rises above the absurd. In [b: Mr. Bliss|175203|Mr. Bliss|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1270105486l/175203._SX50_.jpg|2964544], nothing is spared and nothing unintended: everything has a point.
Tolkien wrote — and in my version lettered and illustrated (!) — this book for his own children. And it’s hilarious and goofy at times, but in a way that the imagination of children and grandparents alone can most appreciate. The book doesn’t stop to explain how Girrabits exist or why one of the brothers is insanely fat. Such things just are.
We can then move on to show the problem with upgrading our technology and industry to the modern age: how it slows down every category of our being in terms of efficiency while speeding up the one thing that ought be slow: our reflection and relationships. It damages household pets and houses, picnics and excursions, the wild and the tame, domestic life and sylvan, and even industry and economy themselves suffer for such advances.
This is a long picture book. THAT is a good thing, for picture books have ventured towards an asinine brevity of late and it took a voice like Rowling to remind us that yes, in fact, the attention of children can be trained to be sustained on story, logic, speech, and song.
How pertinent, then, that we learn to be slow with the thoughts and people that matter and to rid ourselves as fast as possible of the modern constraints of technology?
Or at least recant, restrict, and release its stranglehold upon us for the sake of neighbor, forest, friend, and the rest?
In fact, perhaps the funnest part of our modern adventure happens precisely when the most modern parts of them break down and leave us nothing but the true essence of adventure.
Tolkien wrote — and in my version lettered and illustrated (!) — this book for his own children. And it’s hilarious and goofy at times, but in a way that the imagination of children and grandparents alone can most appreciate. The book doesn’t stop to explain how Girrabits exist or why one of the brothers is insanely fat. Such things just are.
We can then move on to show the problem with upgrading our technology and industry to the modern age: how it slows down every category of our being in terms of efficiency while speeding up the one thing that ought be slow: our reflection and relationships. It damages household pets and houses, picnics and excursions, the wild and the tame, domestic life and sylvan, and even industry and economy themselves suffer for such advances.
This is a long picture book. THAT is a good thing, for picture books have ventured towards an asinine brevity of late and it took a voice like Rowling to remind us that yes, in fact, the attention of children can be trained to be sustained on story, logic, speech, and song.
How pertinent, then, that we learn to be slow with the thoughts and people that matter and to rid ourselves as fast as possible of the modern constraints of technology?
Or at least recant, restrict, and release its stranglehold upon us for the sake of neighbor, forest, friend, and the rest?
In fact, perhaps the funnest part of our modern adventure happens precisely when the most modern parts of them break down and leave us nothing but the true essence of adventure.