Tolkien was the Catholic.

Speaking of times changing and smoking, I just remembered candy cigarettes, which were very popular when I was very young (before 1975, for sure, and probably earlier). Now, what kind of message did those send? I'm surprised the smoking rate for Gen X isn't higher than it is.

Lewis got some kind of psychological charge out of being too old-world for the brave new world, you know? Tolkien, same deal, although he managed to create a whole different old world, rather than to oldify this one.

Precisely.

I just remembered candy cigarettes,

I remember when they stopped having the "good" ones -- which had powdered sugar that you could puff out -- and I don't remember much prior to 1978 or so.

I loved candy cigarettes. We used to get them at the bowling alley. Which would have been when my mom was in a bowling league, so late 70s, maybe early early 80s. (eta: ooh, I never even knew about the puffy ones. Jealous)

I'm surprised the smoking rate for Gen X isn't higher than it is.

I think those were gone by the time Gen Xers really started hitting the ground. By the early 80s, anyway.

They had them into the late 80s.

Yeah, I definitely remember candy cigarettes from the late 80s.

He was, in fact, rather anti-Catholic; his friendship with Tolkien foundered on his contempt for Tolkien's religion.

Ah, yup. Today's Anglican church is a different institution than 1945's version, up here, anyway.

What I do say, and will continue to say, is that it annoys me, just as the anti-semitic stereotyping in Sayers annoys me.

I've never questioned that. I think part of the underlying back and forth of this discussion is the question of whether there is any relevance to today's society and individuals of what these old fogies wrote and I would suggest that of course there is, but their writing has to be considered in context and absorbed by an active reader, like any work.

You could buy them at the on-campus grocery as late as 1993.

Candy cigarettes are out of fashion, but they're not gone.