Joseph Loconte - J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm

On this week’s episode of The Current Thing I am joined by author Joseph Loconte to talk about his new book, The War for Middle-earth, which focuses on how J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were shaped by the two great wars of the 20th century.

We discuss:
-How Lewis and Tolkien preserved their belief in heroism and honour even after suffering through war
-How the West became disillusioned from the 1930s onwards
-What Lewis would have made of the current political predicament in Western nations
-Tolkien’s support of Franco in the Spanish Civil War
-How to reclaim our ‘civilisational confidence’
-Whether Lewis would have eventually converted to Catholicism, as some claim
-How Lewis’s work compares to Tolkien’s in significance and quality
-The lost art of male friendship
-Why Joseph converted from Catholic to Protestant
And lots more!

Watch the full episode here: https://www.nickdixon.net 

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Make a one-off donation here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/nickdixon 

Nick's links
Substack: www.nickdixon.net 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nick_dixon  
X: https://x.com/njdixon 

Joseph's links:
https://www.josephloconte.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@JoeLoconte/videos

https://rivendellcenternyc.org/