Some Commonalities

When I chose J.R.R. Tolkien, Walt Disney and William Faulkner as the focal points for my sabbatical I did so because they all hold a particular place in my passions.  When I tried to justify this odd triumvirate, I found that they all lived contemporaneously.  So, I based my Clergy Renewal Grant proposal on the variety of their works even though they lived in the same time period.

Over the course of the past three months, I have found many similarities some surprising between them.  Some of them I have noted.  Some may be important.  Some are clearly trivial.  I wanted to share a partial list with you of what they share and you can decide which belong in each of the previous categories.

1.  Each had a major work published in 1937 (The Hobbit, Snow White, Absalom, Absalom)
2.  Each served or tried to in World War I
3.  Each drank and smoked
4.  Each had dealings with Hollywood
5.  Each drew on the settings of their childhood for their work
6.  Each had a reverence for wilderness
7.  Each experimented with ground breaking approaches (Tolkien invented the modern category of fantasy literature, Disney brought stereo sound, color and feature length to cartoons, Faulkner's use of stream of consciousness, variety of narrators and non-linear storytelling were trail blazing)
8.  Each, in their childhood, were active in the church and knew its stories
9.  Each had a brother who was significant in their lives
10.  Each were recognized during their lifetime, but also had significant critics who questioned the importance and value of their work

There are others of course, but this list illustrates that the men's lives and thought have more in common than one might think at first glance.

It's a small world after all.