Patrick Curry | |
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| Born | 1951 (age 74–75) Winnipeg, Canada |
| Alma mater | University of California, Santa Cruz,London School of Economics,University College London |
| Occupations | Scholar, author |
| Notable work | Defending Middle-earth |
Patrick Curry (born 1951) is an independent Canadian-born British scholar who has worked and taught on a variety of subjects fromcultural astronomy todivination, theecology movement, and the nature of enchantment. He is known for his studies ofJ. R. R. Tolkien.
OtherTolkien scholars have endorsed many of Curry's views of Tolkien's work, but have found it inappropriate that he combines scholarly analysis with polemic or political advocacy.Tom Shippey agrees with Curry thatcritical responses to Tolkien have too often been hostile, and that enchantment differs from magic; he suggests that Tolkien would endorse Curry as the critic "closest to the secret of enchantment".[1]
Patrick Curry was born inWinnipeg, Canada. He took his B.A. in psychology at theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz in 1978. He gained his M.Sc. in logic and scientific method at theLondon School of Economics in 1980, and his Ph.D. in history and philosophy of science atUniversity College London in 1987.[2]
He lectured on cultural astronomy and on astronomy atBath Spa University from 2002, and on cosmology and divination at theUniversity of Kent at Canterbury from 2006. He is the editor-in-chief ofThe Ecological Citizen. He writes book reviews for British national newspapers, essays, and non-fiction books. He appeared in interviews on two of the extended DVDs onPeter Jackson'sfilm trilogy ofJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings. He is a contributor to Blackwell's 2014A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien.[2] He has written two books of poetry,Lockdown andDesire Lines.[3]
Curry is divorced and has two children. He states that he has had "a long relationship with Buddhism (Sōtō Zen)", taught byKōbun Chino Otogawa.[2]
Juliette Wood, reviewing the 1997 workDefending Middle-Earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity forGale Academic, calls Curry's use of Tolkien's fantasy in the debate about theecology movement "with its resacralisation of the environment and its neo-pagan overtones" both interesting and wide-ranging. She notes that Curry provides examples on both sides of the debate, but calls it unfortunate that Curry then takes a side and launches "a diatribe" against Tolkien's critics.[4]Stratford Caldecott, reviewing the same book forThe Chesterton Review, wrote that Curry had at least one essential qualification for writing aboutThe Lord of the Rings: he loved it. Caldecott states that Curry both does an excellent job of rebutting "accusations of right-wing or authoritarian conservatism" against Tolkien, and instead "paints him as more of a Green subversive", opposing the global "monoculture" which makes everywhere the same.[5] Adam Schwartz, reviewing the book forVII, writes that while Curry is "insightful" in identifying Tolkien's subversion of "prevailing modern norms", his "ideological commitments cloud his comprehension of Tolkien's radicalism". In Schwarz's view, "scholarly analysis and political advocacy are distinct discourses", and blending them is unsatisfactory.[6]
Bernice Martin, reviewing Curry's 2019 bookEnchantment forThe Times Literary Supplement, states that Curry came to Buddhism via the New Age movement from seemingly a Christian background, and that in the book he indicts thereductive "modern secular and technocratic culture". Martin admires the way that Curry handles the subject, using his personal experience, collective examples likePrincess Diana's funeral, and Tolkien's writings to build a picture of what is wrong with modern society.[7]
The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey, in theJournal of Tolkien Research, reviews Curry's 2014 essay collectionDeep Roots in a Time of Frost. He lists the main themes as "the nature of 'enchantment' and the need for re-enchantment"; "opposition to 'modernism' and the hopes for post-modernism"; and "thestrange nature of critical responses to Tolkien". He endorses the last of these as clearly true, if remarkable. Shippey states that he entirely agrees with Curry about the early literary modernists likeT. S. Eliot andJames Joyce, but not that modernism remains "as a major and continuing threat" as Curry argues in the book, complete with "the co-dependent power of corporate and finance capital, the modern political state and modern science"; Shippey writes that he is "not happy with this". He notes that Curry is most passionate about the first theme, enchantment. Shippey states that while he cannot always follow Curry or see what he means, he also agrees with him. They agree that enchantment is not the same as magic, but Shippey finds "wonder" inearly science fiction, something that Curry would (he writes) link with modernity; and he disagrees that the world has been disenchanted (inMax Weber's phrase). All the same, he suggests that if Tolkien were alive, he would endorse Curry as the critic "closest to the secret of enchantment".[1]
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