J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes Simone de Beauvoir

I've just watched a two-part video that has recently been released by the BBC; the video was originally broadcast in March 1968 as part of the BBC series In Their Own Words British Authors and features J. R. R. Tolkien, with comments from Oxford students who reflect on his work. It's quite a treat (if you can overlook the overly spacey soundtrack).

I had some difficulty understanding Tolkien himself, at times; he speaks quietly and quite rapidly, and with the accent, well, there were a few phrases that got past me.

Toward the latter part of part two, Tolkien reads from a quote by Simone de Beauvoir, French existential philosopher and social theorist. Since Tolkien felt this quote significant enough to read in its entirety, I thought I would share the quote with you here, and then embed below the two videos, should you choose to view them. [It is actually a single 26½-minute video that has been split into two parts.] Now, the quote:

"There is no such thing as a natural death: nothing that happens to a man is ever natural, since his presence calls the world into question. All men must die: but for every man his death is an accident and, even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable violation."

—Simone de Beauvoir

Part 1; time 13:46 --

Part 2; time 12:48 --

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