Posted on 12/31/2002 10:59:06 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
Tolkien Picks Up A Few More Bits Of Cultural Baggage
By Chris Mooney
Sunday, December 29, 2002; Page B03
Early in the new film of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," the heroes happen upon a pile of burning carcasses, the smoldering remains of a party of orcs bred by the evil wizard Saruman. These orcs were ambushed and slaughtered by horsemen from the kingdom of Rohan, the heroes' allies in the great war enveloping Tolkien's fantasy world. Despite their military advantage, the riders took no prisoners; in fact, they slew so recklessly that they didn't even notice that the orcs had prisoners of their own. As a memento of their victory, the horsemen left behind an orc head gruesomely spitted on a spear.
In the real world, the horsemen's wanton slaughter of the enemy -- no matter how evil -- would probably qualify as a war crime. In its gorily violent film incarnation, however, it is just one episode in a rousing tale of good versus evil. The heroes' sense of mission remains unclouded...
More... WashingtonPost.com, see link.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
yeah... I was thinkin "I want summa what that guys smokin'"... skewered both lungs top to bottom... yiiiee
As with all such articles, they are interesting while reading them, but ultimately seem maddeningly futile when finished.
Trying to tell us that Tolkien would have thought such-and-such about this or that based on reading LOTR is a mug's game of silly guesswork. Ultimately the books stand on their own as a great story: maybe, because it IS a great story, people across the political spectrum can find parts of it useful to promulgating their points of view, which is their right with free speech, but wrongheaded as a deliberate effort. I was willing to take Tolkien at his word when he said he disliked allegory since he was old enough to recognize it, especially after I first read LOTR, and I still am. I think going through minor intellectual gyrations to apply it to current events isn't just showing off but does disservice to a wonderful, pure story. Pardon the stinkin' purist over here!
Let me illustrate the danger of over-interpretation: "the take-home message" (a dreadful expression) "here would seem to be that even one's most bitter and murderous enemies can nevertheless act like ordinary Joes sometimes." Well, duh, Mr. Mooney, the sky is blue, and if the orcs couldn't get along on some level Morgoth's empire would have dissolved in madness as soon as it started, in the same sense that if homosexuality were normal, the human race would have ended pretty much the moment it began! I don't think this makes the orcs any less irredeemably evil, but some might, with some justification, and would therefore think they didn't deserve their rough treatment. Fine, but ANY work of fiction can be deconstructed to absurdity, why go through a futile effort to ruin a what is just a story, or in this case, a damn good story? (By the way, I doubt Mr. Mooney thinks ordinary Joes want to get away from the boss to be free to commit vicious rapine at their leisure!:^) Ordinary Joes have more sense than to instigate that kind of anarchy!)
Well, Miss Hair, some of your earlier posters put all this much more succinctly than I have, didn't they? I'd better wrap up about now. Thanks again!
Oh, he knows! He just wants to deflect us from it.
Recently read some of Tolkien's discussion on this point. He apparently kept changing his mind over the 60 years he spent writing on the subject of the origin and destiny of the Orcs.
By the time of LOTR, orcs apparently had strains of both Men and Elves in their blood.
The Eldar loremasters believed that the Orcs of the First Age were perhaps not ultimately irredeemable, and they also believed that it was not right to torture them or refuse to accept their surrender, if they offered it. Although these rules were not always followed in the stress of the wars.
So since I'm a man, I have to ask: what is it that makes Aragorn so ruttily appealing to young women?
I believe the word "Beserkers" comes from the Norse and the Vikings. They used to get naked and get insane before battle, and go "Beserk" on their enemies.
Kind of imagine a 6'2" crazy blond Viking with a broad sword coming at you!
Now, since your knickers got in a twist one must wonder if either you are a closet journalist, and no doubt offended by my mean little insult, or you haven't been around FR long enough to fully grasp how poorly regarded both journalists and El-Eds are here.
Chris Mooney, is that you?
Heh... It is hard to explain "it", even when we see "it". He is handsome, he's the hero, he has a sword, he made a joke. That would be enough, probably, but there is more...
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