![]() |
![]() |
Visit The *EVEN NEWER* Barrow-Downs Photo Page |
![]() |
#1 | |
Illustrious Ulair
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
![]() ![]() |
AN Wilson on Tolkien.
Nice analysis http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj
Quote:
I'm not sure I go all the way with Wilson (though I suspect Tolkien would have...) but the piece is worth a read. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#2 |
Guard of the Citadel
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Oxon
Posts: 2,205
![]() ![]() |
I especially liked the part about the Professor's vision on globalisation. I often wrote on threads discussing the criticism of industrialisation as brought to the Shire by Saruman for example, but I never thought of the criticism of globalisation, of the hobbits losing their old culture in a time in which the old tales are being forgotten, the old songs no longer sung.
__________________
“The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.”
Delos B. McKown |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#3 | ||
Illustrious Ulair
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
![]() ![]() |
Quote:
Tolkien in one of his more pessimistic moods - & possibly not to be taken as a canonical statement - but the pursuit of 'food', of things, does seem to be at the root of our disconnection from our own culture, & the forgetting of the old songs & tales, & that does seem to be what Tolkien is attacking. Of Course, Sauron is the great advocate of 'globalisation' - he will gather all peoples under his rule & make of them a homogeneous 'society', sweeping away each culture's history, replacing their traditional songs & stories with new ones (as he attempted with his invention of the Black Speech) which will unite them into a single people - all 'global citizens'. You'll be able to get the Middle-earth equivalent of a Coke & Big Mac from Forodwaith to Far Harad, & every citizen will have their own 50inch Palantir in their living room to watch game shows & sitcoms on. Quote:
|
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#4 |
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 5,990
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Will have to come back to read davem's link, but I'm sure there's one question about cultural diversity that Tolkien would have been interested in: that of the disappearance of linguistic diversity.
Interesting study here which claims that in our liftime half of the languages now spoken on earth with disappear: The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World.
__________________
I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#5 | ||
Illustrious Ulair
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
![]() ![]() |
Quote:
Linguistic diversity is lost not so much by 'forcing' people to give up their native tongue, but by offering them 'stuff' - lots & lots of shiny stuff - on condition they join the 'modern world' - why would you need the old songs & stories when there're soaps & Pop/American Idol just waiting for you? Of course, there is the inevitable reaction by a minority, who resort to a religious/political/ideological fundamentalism (which we're seeing all over the world) but its a blip, because any kind of fundamentalism is false & ultimately short lived - plus it enables the Saurons/Sarumans out there to present any kind of linguistic/cultural diversity as dangerous & divisive - better move on from all that dangerous atavistic nonsense & join the 'modern' world. As Wilson says, this is the 'War of the Ring' Tolkien is describing - this conflict between 'motorcars, iron and steel, machine tools, nylons and chemicals (or The Machine as he called it, or 'Isengard' in the context of the story) & 'shared mythologies, ideologies, folk memories' (The Shire/Rivendell). The heroes (upholders of the latter) come together to fight the forces of the former - but they come together as individuals, & never sacrifice their cultural identity, because it is their individual cultures that give them an identity & prevent them being subsumed into the mass which Sauron/Saruman wants to bring into being. Can't help but think of Chesterton's lines: Quote:
|
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
![]() |