1) Tolkien's distrust of technology, bordering on the Luddite, seems to me to be in harmony with Heidegger's ideas in the same area - and also to be in tune with views of high modernists such as TS Eliot. Usually equated with being almost reactionary, the quote Cristopher Tolkien reads from a letter on Tolkien's analysis of how the 'Machine' (remember the Pink Floyd song? ) supposedly saving labour would actually make the work more disgusting and invisible, by locking it inside the factories (and now sending it to distant lands!) is interesting - providing a more nuanced and interesting intellectual image of Tolkien, to me at least.
2) Landscapes - the idea that Tolkien preferred green and cozy English landscapes is countered strongly here, in another quote from a letter - where he confesses to a strong preference for the barren - but first and foremost for space. It seems that he would have felt very much at home in the Icelandic highlands....
3) The story about the way he wrote letters from Father Christmas to his children, keeping their fantasy world alive for years made me feel more at peace with the shoe business in my native land's customs and my enthusiastic participation in those rites (oblique on purpose).
4) The English spoken by Tolkien's children, and indeed all those is involved in this documentary is beautiful.
5) Last but not least I must around to reading Leaf by Niggle.
6) Thank you.
