A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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December 28, 2006Differences Between Tolkien's World and Ours (Back From Blogbreak)Watching Lord of the Rings DVDs over Christmas inspired me to write this post (we finally broke down and got a DVD player). Tolkien in effect created a very detailed world to back his linguistic inventions and novels. That world had some major diffences from ours. It strikes me as the world of a chess player. The greatest era of Middle-Earth was the first one, when all sorts of major, now-killed-off, pieces were in the game. Maybe the biggest difference is that the equivalent of angels are present in the flesh in Middle-Earth and affecting events big-time. Sauron ruled big turf, and Saruman and then Gandalf were running the resistance against him. Hierarchy was much more real than our world - The people running Middle-Earth really did have more ability (though not necessarily morality) than their followers. Presumably because Tolkien was more of a language scholar than a historian or economist, in his world, monarchy outprospers democracy. There appears to be just one instance of freedom, the democratic Shire, which was given freedom to choose its own rules by a succession of Kings over a thousand years ago. In our world, freedom outprospers monarchy. We'd see The Shire put the rest of Middle-Earth in the technological, cultural, and economic shade. After all, Gondor's biggest advantage comes from having been settled by Numenoreans thousands of years before. In our world (fortunately), you can't just sit on an advantage like that. Nope - you need continued innovation, baby.
That's not to say that Tolkien was a monarchist fool - LOTR is a great
novel for freedom. A middle-class and lower-class hobbit collaborated
to have as much effect as the top people in his book, and Aragorn
might've been so effective partially because he spent decades as not
much more than a wanderer. They had much more effect than the
(out-of-their-depth) kings in office at the start of the novel. As a
side-effect that they didn't really expect, perhaps, they even ended
the top parts of those hierarchies.
I feel about ready to bug the hapless Web again for another while, bwahaha. The break was really needed, though. Posted by Jon Kay at December 28, 2006 06:03 PMComments
Random comments..... It's a fun series. I think Jackson did a helluva job turning it into film--and having watched Jackson's career since Bad Taste came out, I was very pleasantly surprised. Even though I loved The Frighteners and knew he was loaded with talent. Tolkien wasn't just a philologist, but a true student of Germanic and Nordic mythology. A most extraordinary man who lived a most extraordinary life. (How many know that he was the person who converted C.S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity?) He's buried next to his wife (a moving love story in itself) and their tombstones read: Edith Mary Tolkien · Luthien · 1889 – 1971 It's bad taste to be bragging I know, but I can't help myself. :) nerds Posted by: WHQ at December 29, 2006 01:01 PMWHQ: Too right. And proud of it! Posted by: wj at December 29, 2006 01:13 PMDamn straight. And proud of it! Do you all have the action figures too? Posted by: c3 at December 29, 2006 02:31 PMI guess I shouldn't talk. I'm dressed up like Boba Fett right now. Posted by: WHQ at December 29, 2006 02:55 PMNaw, they didn't come out with action figures for LotR until I was already over 40. My only action figure is my Kinky Friedman one. "Why the hell not?" Posted by: Tully at December 29, 2006 02:56 PMYeah, in fact, both Tolkien and Lewis belonged to the same writer's group; the Inklings. (love the pun) In fact, my own writer's group (now sadly defunct) once talked about the rivalry between C.S. and J.R.R; Lewis was publishing his much beloved Narnia series, each volume coming out to greater and greater financial success and critical acclaim, (sort of the JK Rowling of the group) while poor Tolkien seemed doomed to produce chapter after chapter of this huge, obscure tome that he doubted anyone (outside the Inklings) would read. Even inside the Inklings, Tolkien's world came in for some good natured ribbing. When J.R.R. introduced his upteenth Faery character, another author burst out "Oh, God, not another But anyway, read C.S. Lewis if you want real monarchial fantasy. He was much more in love with kings than Tolkien was. Posted by: Blue Jean at December 30, 2006 07:47 PMHere in Austin, they're selling a cool Leslie action figure. What? You don't know who Leslie is? He (she?) is a homeless transvestite who hangs out downtown and ran for Mayor once or twice., He also once got a great house-sitting gig in an expensive part of town. Leslie gets a 50% cut of sales. I think I remember him. Didn't he have a small part in Esther's Follies? Posted by: Blue Jean at December 30, 2006 09:49 PM |
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