The Powers of Distance: Cosmopolitanism and the Cultivation of Detachment Book

It is difficult to know how to rate this book. On the one hand, it comprises a staggering amount of work on the part of Shippey and Haarder, not just in collecting the articles of previous critics, but in translating, editing, and arranging them. On the other, much of the criticism itself is of the very worst kind, where the data is not so much analyzed as manipulated, distorted, or simply made up. Perhaps it is only because I began my academic career as a scientist, but I find it offensive when critics cut out the bits of a poem they don't like simply because the decide it cannot be genuine. Without corroborating evidence, how can we know? Now Tolkien's frustration is more readily understandable. That said, knowing what has come before is always valuable, if only so that one can not repeat the errors of the past.