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05-11-2004, 03:12 PM | #1 |
Face in the Water
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 728
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Tolkien, Technology, and... War
Tolkien's distrust of industry is well known (see Scouring of the Shire, Fellowship of the Ring if you don't know what I'm talking about). Reasons commonly given for this, and supported by the above chapter, include the corruption of nature. Is there another reason? Technology makes war easier and more impersonal; I imagine it's easier to drop a Tomahawk (or whatever missile) from an unmanned Predator than to cut someone's head off with a sword. In his books, Tolkien seems to portray war as a necessary evil (see ), but technology, as I said, makes war easier and more likely. Medieval monarchs had to think about raising an army and provisioning it. Now, weapons can kill an increasing number of people at one time, often without any risk to those who utliize them. Tolkien would have had a taste of this in WWI, with machine guns and poison gas. Technology also makes subjugation of one nation by another easier, if the other nation is a superpower. Both impersonal war and subjugation are themes Tolkien treats with dislike (although, curiously, he has no problems with Gondor's colonization of Harad after the War of the Ring); I believe all instances weapons of mass destruction in Middle-earth were utilized by the bad guys (ie dragons, siege, and the blasting fire of Orthanc), and it was the proud and corrupt Numenoreans who subjugated Middle-earth. Did Tolkien do this on purpose, or is easy war just another side effect of technology, like despolation of Nature?
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05-11-2004, 03:28 PM | #2 | |
Princess of Skwerlz
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: where the Sea is eastwards (WtR: 6060 miles)
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There's a wonderful passage in The Hobbit that gives a comment about the Goblins and their love for technology and weapons. From it, we can assume that Tolkien connected technology with its negative destructive effects.
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05-11-2004, 03:40 PM | #3 |
Stormdancer of Doom
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I think the Fell Beasts (and flying dragons as well) indicate Tolkien's dislike for Terror From The Air. Although the good side has eagles, the effects are quite different. I don't think he was fond of airplanes.
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05-11-2004, 05:39 PM | #4 |
Haunted Halfling
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: an uncounted length of steps--floating between air molecules
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Also the idea of waste, such as the needless building of a bigger mill (at the expense of much of the natural landscape) in the Shire, when there was no need. This small event in the larger scheme took autonomy from the small and gave power to the outsider over the people themselves, thus echoing the rise of industry and the faceless conglomerates. There was also much senseless waste of human life in the Great War of attrition, when the generals' strategies were often, "throw as many men as possible at them and hope they run out before we do." The Germans attacks on Verdun were designed specifically to draw the hordes of French defenders to their doom in the defense of a national treasure. The Germans knew that the French would endure unthinkable human loss before they would give up Verdun. Senseless waves of young men dying in an impossible assault on Gallipoli before they realized how impossible it was...there was more human life lost through sheer waste in World War One than in any subsequent war, as far as my limited knowledge goes. I haven't read the "war-machines" version of the Fall of Gondolin, but I have read accounts of the Somme, and I imagine they would not be so different as one might think.
Cheers! Lyta
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“…she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea.” Last edited by Lyta_Underhill; 05-11-2004 at 05:41 PM. Reason: my treacherous fingers...typos |
05-11-2004, 07:58 PM | #5 | |||
Regal Dwarven Shade
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: A Remote Dwarven Hold
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Warfare
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I also disagree that technology makes war essentially easier. It makes the process different, and it is certainly more destructive. However, it has its own kind of difficulty. I seriously doubt that you could get anybody who has actually had “their boots on the ground” to say that it was particularly easy for them. Even flying around in some planes can be just as physically demanding (in different ways) as running around hacking at somebody with a sword. Technology also creates layers of complexity and economic expense. In an economic sense I’d say that it is perhaps more burdensome for a modern nation to wage a real war than it was in the past. One key difference between modern and (for lack of a better word) archaic warfare is its continual nature. Back in the good old days you’d set to for a day or so, or you’d settle in for a nice little siege. Once that was done then you’d likely have a little breather before continuing on to whatever was next. And then most everything stopped at the end of the campaigning season. Now, the war stops for no reason. It is fought under all conditions. In fact, it comes to resemble one long never-ending siege. This is on several levels more difficult and demanding than the good old days. Quote:
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My essential point is that mere technology does not make humans more or less warlike. The problem has always lain with the human beings wielding the technology.
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05-11-2004, 09:09 PM | #6 | |
Hauntress of the Havens
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05-12-2004, 03:09 PM | #7 | |
Face in the Water
Join Date: Dec 2003
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