Italy and Tolkienians

So, sometimes admirers of Tolkien find themselves amid surprising company. I was recently reminded of how reception to his work can differ strongly from country to country. For example, while in the U.S. Tolkien's work by and large was embraced by liberals of a hippy/ counterculture cast, in Italy Tolkien was much admired by conservatives (including arch-conservatives). That dichotomy persists, as witnessed to by a major exhibition in honor of his life and works: 

TOLKIEN: MAN, PROFESSOR, AUTHOR

I strongly became aware of this when I attended a small Tolkien conference Robin Reid organized in Commerce, Texas in about 2014 or thereabouts. There I was a panelist with Doug Anderson and an Italian Tolkien scholar whose name I have forgotten, and first heard about right-wing youth camps like 'Camp Hobbit'. 

Looking back at this now, in conjunction with the big new Italian exhibit, this interests me most as yet another piece of evidence about Tolkien having worked himself into the mainstream, even if it's paradoxically slightly different mainstreams. Rather than small displays on college campuses, the past few years have seen high-profile exhibits in Oxford, Paris, New York City, and now Rome. Or as the museum's curator put it, The show, he said, was a watershed moment. 'It has been legitimized' ." This point is driven home by the name-dropping: attendees to the Rome event include the prime minister, the minister of culture, and the economy minister, some of whom got private tours.

An odd moment comes with mention of a wall displaying blurbs praising Tolkien, including one from Ringo (who is not so surprising) and another from Obama, which is. At least I've never heard before anything to indicate that Obama was a fan of Tolkien. Here's the quote:

Mr. Obama was quoted in the exhibit as saying he had moved on from the Hardy Boys

In a second quote, from an interview with student journalists, Obama is reported to have said

. . . that when he was about 13 years old, he started reading 'more serious books' like To Kill a Mockingbird, that made you think a little bit more. They weren't just kind of adventure stories, but they were also, you know, stories that taught me about social problems'

I have to say the part that attracted me most while reading the piece is the news that a photo from Tolkien's Italian costal cruise, of JRRT "posing in a monastery on vacation in Italy" was apparently included --that is if I'm reading the captions rightly. I assume that image is behind the paywall. Pity.

Thanks to Andrew H for the link to the New York Times article

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/world/europe/italy-tolkien-exhibition-meloni.html 

Those who want to pursue the issue in more depth, including information on the 240 page catalogue (TOLKIEN: UOMO, PROFESSORE, AUTORE)  can find it at the Tolkien Collectors website: 

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=53075#:~:text=Man%2C%20Professor%2C%20Author%20sets%20out,above%20all%20a%20modern%20mythmaker.

--John R.