Poor diet, inherited disease made Gollum mad (duh? could it be because he murdered his friend?)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1517&e=15&u=/afp/healthliterature ^

[mewzilla]

LOTR meets the Twinkie Defense.

[Peelod]

The BMJ traditionally publishes tongue-in-cheek articles at the end of the year.

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7480/1435?eaf

[AnAmericanMother]

. . . vegan-Atkins binge . . .

Now THAT's an oxymoron!

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Gollum didn't eat just fish. He also ate baby Orcs. Didn't these"doctors" read the book?

[DoctorMichael]

"Nasssssty Doctorsssss! We hatessssss them, Precious!"

[Alouette]

I suppose that this is what happens when really really intelligent people try to explain things without God, spirituality, and sin.

I suppose that this is what happens when really really intelligent people try to speculate about the religious beliefs of an imaginary creature of fiction.

I don't recall reading about the existance of any churches, synagogues, mosques or temples in Middle Earth. If you want to claim the whole story is allegorical, that's fine, but I think psychological analysis of individual characters is going a mite too far.

[Peelod]

This thread is NOT about Carville.

[Alouette]

He also ate baby Orcs.

Orcs reproduce? Where were all the Orc women? Or did they mate with Palestinians?

[DoctorMichael]

"Carvillesessss! We is MUCH better looking than Carvillesessss!

[Tench_Coxe]

In true secularlist spirit, these folks feel the need to explain away the fact that it was the Ring, carrying a large portion of Sauron's evil, that drove Gollum.

Of course, they can always put out a press release saying there is a consensus, and peer reviewed articles passed around their group have supported the preponderance of evidence that shows no metaphysical evil affected Gollum--it was all due to poor diet and a misunderstanding of society.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

They look like Orcs to me.

[Tench_Coxe]

Tongue out of cheek--it's a book, for Pete's sake.

[Squeako]

Well, if you're referring to me, I'm just pointing out that there are simple physical deficiencies that cause the kind of emotional and physical issues that very much resemble Gollum's behavior, in real people. I know because I have been there and it's not pretty. Taking a B-vitamin made a world of difference.

To simply say "It's sin" as did my family and pastor, and dismiss the obvious physical contributing factors (again, as did my family and pastor) doesn't end up solving the physical problem. If your stomach is growling because you're hungry, you need to eat. If you're deficient in a particular vitamin because of a poor diet, you need to modify your diet or supplement it. It's one of those things we can figure out with the brains God gave us.

It's not arrogant to recognize your body requires certain things and denying it the sustenance causes problems.

[SamAdams76]

Just goes to show what a genius J.R.R. Tolkien was. Not only did he create an entire alternative world but he made it believable. Not only did he research extensively the timelines in his novels (ensuring that full moons occured at the proper intervals for example) but he took into consideration what Gollum's personality would be like if he had a diet of nothing but fish. Pure genius.

[Cvengr]

I'm not implying anything about your position or statement.

IMHO, the author of Lord of the Rings had more to say than to refer to a Vitamen B deficiency. The term Gollum alone syas volumes.

[SaltyJoe]

You're right, if they read "The Hobbit", this would have been obvious. Funny how "cannibalism" never popped up. I don't know how closely related Orcs are to Hobbits, but both are intelligent creatures. I suppose secular psychologists would have tried to parallel human dysfunction with a fictitious anecdote of people eating dolphins or dogs...that makes you crazy, you know.

Have there been any real psychoanalysis of cannibals (human flesh eaters...excluding the abortion industry)? Or, have cannibals been killed off. I bet the ACLU would put such people on an endangered specie list and try to bring them back to stronger numbers.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Gollum also was ready to eat some rabbits he had caught before Sam took them away and ruined them by cooking.

I think despite the differences between Elves Men Dwarves Hobbits and even Orcs, they are all close enough to make it cannabalism.

I vaguely remember some Anthro person telling me that true cannabals, as a culture, were rare to nonexistent. Only a few primitive warrior cultures consumed parts of defeated foes.

But it certainly lingers on in the human psyche.

I read a lot of psycho babble stuff years ago, but I only remember that except for that which was obvious to all, it's mostly the ravings of psycho psychoanalysts and not worth paying attention to.

I don't think cannabalism is good for the health. A good way to pass on horrible diseases.

[SaltyJoe]

I have to thank Tolkien for raising the awareness of the human element among secularists. Concepts like "hope" are foreign to those without religion. "Hope" is an absolute impossibility without God. Yet, "hope" is an all to real element throughout the Ring novels as it is in real life.

We are touched so thoroughly by God's Divine Plan that no creature can exist or even create within creation itself without reflecting the goodness of God's Divine Plan. And as Tolkien stated, those fallen in the shadow cannot create. Fallen creatures can only crudely mimic and pervert goodness. Truth of God as absolute goodness is so evident that even a novel as that as "The Lord of the Rings" cannot escape analysis without reflecting upon God. When psychoanalysts refuse association with God in explaining Smeagol's personality, they themselves become a twisted joke. These secularists mock their own intelligence and become the unwitting fools who provide the punch line to the comedy of their own destruction.

BTW, I saw your page, and I do support the IDF. I even buy Israeli hardware (IMI - Magnum Research). Do any of soldiers carry .50 Magnum Desert Eagles into combat? It's probably too bulking and slow, but what a hand cannon! Watermelons and milk jugs beware!

I was blessed to visit Israel, but unfortunately it was during the 1st Persian Gulf War. The women are straight up sexy though. They looked a little funny in over-sized combat fatigues, but I wouldn't laugh since they were armed to the teeth. I complement them on fashion sense and accessories. Beautiful hair, make-up, nails polished, magazine pouches, purses, Galil Assault rifles...they all matched perfectly! I was smitten. Do they date goya gaijins?

[SaltyJoe]

Maybe they reproduce by masturbation? Or, two fathers and a test tube? How did Saruman do it with his hybrid Uruk-hai?

[SaltyJoe]

Vitamins or lack thereof are not what drove Smeagol to the caves where there is a lack of vitamins and only blind raw fish to eat. Vitamin deficiency is a symptom of a greater wound. Even if Smeagol returned to a healthy hobbit diet, the possession of sin would have driven him to the same bad habits that keep him out of a state of Grace.