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02-20-2009, 12:37 PM | #161 | ||
Cryptic Aura
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02-20-2009, 01:13 PM | #162 | |
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02-20-2009, 03:34 PM | #163 | |||
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http://www.suvudu.com/2009/02/the-re...-k-morgan.html
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02-20-2009, 07:43 PM | #164 |
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I know I'm not responding to davem's last post quite as seriously as it deserves (and I mean this quite seriously), but as soon as I read about Shagrat and Gorbag representing the poor bloody infantry this popped up in my mind:
Marching Song of the Mordor Orcs (tune: The Old Barbed Wire; cf Chumbawamba, English Rebel Songs) If you want to find the Dark Lord, I know where he is I know where he is, I know where he is If you want to find the Dark Lord, I know where he is He's sitting in safety on top of his bloody tower If you want to find the Nazgűl, I know where he is I know where he is, I know where he is If you want to find the Nazgűl, I know where he is He's riding aloft on his wingéd beast If you want to find the Uruk, I know where he is I know where he is, I know where he is If you want to find the Uruk, I know where he is He's scattered in pieces all over the Pelennor I saw him, I saw him Scattered in pieces all over the Pelennor (Note: Originally I meant to write this from the perspective of a Gondorian or Rohirric private, but it doesn't work for the good guys - which tells us something about good and evil, doesn't it?)
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI |
02-21-2009, 02:23 AM | #165 | ||
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But is he attempting to elicit sympathy for sentient beings in a hellish situation, or contempt? |
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02-21-2009, 08:30 AM | #166 | |
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it. |
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02-21-2009, 01:53 PM | #167 | ||
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Tolkien clearly struggled over the nature & motivation of Orcs, whether they were 'robots' or sentient creatures. If they were sentient one can analyse their behaviour, attitudes, whether they lived empty, hopeless lives, & if so to what extent they had any option in that. The point of this particular discussion is why Tolkien (uniquely, I think) chose to, for a brief moment, give us a glimpse into the essential 'humanity' of Orcs. We get to see more deeply into the psyche of these two creatures than we do into most of the other characters in the whole book. In a real sense these are 'modern' people who have snuck into Tolkien's epic romance. Quote:
What's interesting, though, is that these 'glimpses' are always associated with the 'bad' side. The good side wanders in Faery, beneath the stars to the accompaniment of Elven hymns to Elbereth. |
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02-22-2009, 10:50 AM | #168 | ||||
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Now to the Orcs. Quote:
The sparse glimpses of the other side's perspective Tolkien offers us (not only in the Gorbag/Shagrat scenes, but also in the dialogues of Uglúk and Grishnákh in the Uruk-hai chapter) are very interesting in this respect. Among other things, they show us that the Orcs did believe in such values as honour and solidarity, just like the 'good guys' - but they also show us their utter inability to act according to these values, even in their dealings among themselves; rather they treated each other just as badly as they were treated by their superiors. But how did they acquire any idea of such values in the first place? And if their inability to act on them is a measure of their corruption, does that mean they're not to blame? I don't think the Professor himself ever made up his mind about that. Quote:
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI |
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02-22-2009, 01:53 PM | #169 | ||
Cryptic Aura
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Recall Tolkien's thoughts in the Foreword to the Second Edition where he argues that the legendary war in his tale ressembles neither the progress nor the conclusion of the historical war. His hypothetical reading suggests that something like the atom bomb is akin to the Great Ring he envisions Saruman would make. It's a very pessimistic vision of his fellow allies.
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02-22-2009, 03:08 PM | #170 | |
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We do have a rather significant example of Tolkien's "heroes" feeling clear pity for the "enemy." In "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit":
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02-22-2009, 03:10 PM | #171 |
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Please do keep in mind that Shagrat and Gorbag are NOT 'real, true, grumbling soldiers:' they aren't talking about going home and opening a pub, their wish is to go loot, murder and rape on their own rather than for somebody else.
Tolkien's problem with the Orcs operates on a theological level, not a practical one. Frankly I get rather annoyed at the school of criticism, so dominant today, which demands (a) 'realism' and (b) moral ambiguity. The abstractive process Tolkien called 'Recovery" can with perfect validity take the form of distilling good and evil one from the other. I put 'realism' in quotes because the supposed 'realism' of academe often bears little resemblance to the actual world. It produces notions like the following: " if they are stupid & vicious as well we are forced to ask ourselves whether we could expect anything else, given that they are brought up without education, ambition, or hope for the future.." Well, here I'm on my home ground, criminal law. Yes, we can very well "expect anything else." I assure you, the majority of young men from the ghetto "are brought up without education, ambition, or hope for the future," and yet they do NOT become thugs. Actual empiricism, real-world evidence, here as so often elsewhere is the death of the flat universalisms so indicative of a priori thinking.
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02-22-2009, 03:47 PM | #172 | ||
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Sorry, the Orcs must be corrupted, ground down & twisted into the sub human monsters we see in the book....except, some of them do dream & hope - & it matters not at all for the purpose of this argument that they dream about loot, murder & rape - what matters is that they dream about 'freedom' from Sauron, breaking free from the restriction, the fear, the hopelessness which is all they have known. And for my argument here what matters is that that very desire, those very fears, make them out of place in Tolkien's fairystory world. Every other being, from every other race, obeys the rules of the world they inhabit. None of them, Men, Elves, Dwarves, Balrogs, as we encounter them would fit into the Primary World - they are all true to their fairy story origins, but these Orcs are not. They have strayed out of some 'realistic' novel & have no place in Faerie. Luckily, they are dispatched quickly & so can be forgotten. As Bb asks, why did Tolkien give such a 'modern' voice to the Orcs? Indeed, why did he make them such modern people? With such a modern attitude? Perhaps because Mordor is the ultimate 'modern' state & so produces 'modern' rebels. Yet, & here perhaps is the most interesting issue raised (to my mind, of course), there is no desire on Tolkien's part to have these rebels 'saved', for that first, tentative reaching for freedom from the crushing weight of Sauron's heel, to have a chance to develop into something beyond looting, rape & murder. They are 'evil' so they are damned. And that's another interesting thing about Tolkien's world & the philosophy which underlies it - many 'sinners' are offered the chance of forgiveness & redemption, but how many of them actually take it? And why not - think of them - Gollum, Denethor, Wormtongue, Saruman? Not a one of them repents. What is Tolkien actually saying there - that offering forgiveness & the chance for repentance is good for the one who makes the offer & shows his 'enlightened' state, but is ultimately pointless, because once a bad guy always a bad guy? And that brings us to the incident with the fallen Haradrim Quote:
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02-22-2009, 07:05 PM | #173 | |||||
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However, I think we have to distinguish here. The Orcs were morally and spiritually corrupted to a much larger degree than any of Sauron's human soldiers - which is why the scene quoted by Ibrin is not quite to the point in the context of the latest posts (even though it's very much to the point in the context of this thread in general, if there still is such a thing); and which is also the reason why we don't see much of good, decent, compassionate & forward thinking Orcs. Although they may show human traits in some situations, Orcs are not human and I don't think we can judge them in quite the same way as we would a human. Nevertheless, it's an interesting question what Orcs free of Sauron's tyranny (i.e. Fourth Age Orcs, such as survived Sauron's downfall) would do with their lives, if they were left alone for a couple of centuries. Not that I'm too optimistic... A few other thoughts: Quote:
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On the other hand (I find myself using this phrase quite often in this thread) - Quote:
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Anyway, davem, thanks for your obstinacy in forcing me to exercise my little grey cells. This thread is still fun.
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI |
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02-23-2009, 12:39 AM | #174 | |
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Now have to rush.. |
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02-23-2009, 10:11 AM | #175 | |
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02-23-2009, 11:22 AM | #176 | |||||||
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
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Orcs need hugs too!
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The LotR story takes place in a year. Show me someone who turns around completely in such a time, especially if they've had years (even thousands) in which to become such a person. For example, few addicts simply put down their junk and walk away and not feel any side effects or cravings or backslide or whatever, especially if they've been using for a long time. Theoden didn't shake off his issues quickly, and he even had Gandalf's help. Anyway... Quote:
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02-24-2009, 10:19 AM | #177 |
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An afterthought:
But did they ever actually rebel, or did they just talk and fantasize about it (the way a smoker may talk about quitting, because it would be reasonable/healthy/whatever, but without the will to actually try) ? The way I understand Tolkien's views, you have to make an effort if you want to be saved; dreaming is not enough. Again, it's the difference between paying lip-service to values and acting accordingly, see above.
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI |
02-24-2009, 10:49 AM | #178 |
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Orc poem
Ah the taste of human blood
it is like the sweet smell of dung like listening to keening mothers weeping for their sons oh the delight like swallowing a great gob of manflesh like knives on the tongue and another's gold in the hand ah the taste ah the taste |
02-24-2009, 12:23 PM | #179 | |
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It may well be true that offering forgiveness & the chance of repentance to those who have chosen evil "enhances the wellbeing of the person doing the offering (assuming it was offerred with a compassionate frame of mind and not with ulterior motives)" but how long is it going to be before the good guys realise that its ultimately a futile exercise because the bad guys won't take up the opportunity? Yet, one could argue that the knowledge that the bad guy won't repent actually makes offering the chance of repentance & forgiveness easier - if you know the monster won;t repent you know you won't have to deal with them, have them living among 'decent folk'. And wouldn't that have been the hardest thing - living with a reformed Gollum or Saruman after everything they'd done? Far harder than simply offering the chance of repentance in the first place. Much easier to offer a homeless ex-convict a room in your house if you know they'll reject it, but would you make the offer if you thought they might take you up on it? Tolken 'deals' with evil by having it conveniently choose damnation, thereby avoiding any need for all that messy 'Truth & Reconciliation' stuff. |
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02-24-2009, 12:44 PM | #180 | |||||
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03-07-2009, 03:41 AM | #181 |
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It might be interesting here to invoke Tom Shippey's essay, called Orcs, Wraiths, and Wrights-The Nature of Evil in Tolkien's Middle-earth
Though I dont have it with me, it deals with the very issue of the Shagrat and Gorbag episode. Shippey argues that indeed, the orcs are posessed of a moral compass, they are posessed of hopes, dreams and such, but only in a momentary sense It's been a while since I've read it, but his essay argues that Tolkien is being quite deliberate in his characterisation here. Shippey argues that the episode is designed to elicit an empathetic response, at least initially. Indeed this is the central point-once this response has occured, the orcs subsequently effect the destruction of each other, revealing their base, fundementally animalistic natures-despite their 'humanity' As I say I dont have the essay with me so I'm going off my (admittadly bad) memory.Shippey makes the point that the episode, rather than a mispaced modern insertion into an otherwise "morally simplistic" fable is designed to expose evil's absurd side-its fake, ultimately baseless morality. Im not sure I have explained this very well; I dont have much time at the moment, but that is the gist of it |
03-07-2009, 04:59 AM | #182 | |
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Its not an analysis I accept - take the incident with Ghan buri Ghan & the Rohirrim, where he reveals that the Horse Lords routinely hunt the Woses like animals for sport. The Rohirrim are doing exactly what Shippey is saying Tolkien is doing - claiming that although the Woses may seem like people, they actually aren't - its an illusion, one which 'smart' people would not fall for? What's interesting in this context is that we readers are so willing to accept Shippey's interpretation - & I can't help but feel that that's because it excuses our heroes' treatment of the enemy. If we were confronted with a 'human' enemy we would not feel as comfortable in our reading of the book. Hence, my own feeling that Tolkien actually did begin to present us with the 'human' side of the enemy, realised the devstating implications for his story of such a move, & drew back. |
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03-07-2009, 06:58 AM | #183 |
Haunting Spirit
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Here's some analysis of Shippey's essay:
http://www.hatrack.com/svu/tolkien_lewis/al's%20Tolkienpaper.html and the particularly relevant piece: Shippey also makes an interesting point when he analyzes the discussion between Shagrat and Gorbag when they find Frodo at Cirith Ungol he says, “What the episode with Shagrat and Gorbag reveals is that orcs are moral beings, with an underlying morality much the same as ours.” However, if that is true, it seems that an underlying morality has no effect at all on actual behavior. How, then is an essentially correct theory of good and evil corrupted? If one starts from a sound moral basis, how can things go so disastrously wrong? It should require no demonstration to show that this is one of the vital questions raised with particular force during the twentieth century, in which the most civilized people have often committed the worst atrocities. Tolkien deserves credit for noting the problem, and refusing to turn his back on it, as so many of his canonical literary contemporaries did. Shippey also mentions that Tolkien “Insists in several places that evil has no great power. It ‘mocks’ and does not make.’” AND: FROM: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.f...4f77b?lnk=raot They are cruel, they are greedy and they are selfish. They also take delight in the degradation and humiliation of others, and they derive pleasure from hurting and torturing others. > But we also see that they are capable of an inner social structure, But so are ants and other animals, so that fact alone doesn't really make much of a difference, I'd say. The important thing must be the nature of that social structure, and in the matter of the Orcs, their social structure seems to be strictly a hierarchical pecking order with the strongest in the top, cruelly dominating the rest. > and as Tolkien insists that they breed like all other beings on > Middle Earth, there must also be mothers, youngsters, etc. Last edited by tumhalad2; 03-07-2009 at 07:07 AM. |
03-07-2009, 07:42 AM | #184 |
Haunting Spirit
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Shippey's Essay
I have found the essay and I can here present some of the relevant informations:
[I] Orcs, Wraiths, Wrights: Tolkien's Images of Evil[/I "...Shagrat sees nothing wrong with Gorbat's use of "elvish" and Gorbat has no quarrel with Shagrat's sense of humour. The subtle irony makes a point that is repeated again and again in the orcish conversation we hear, and which in its wider implications is important for Tolkien to stress again and again...Briefly what the episode of Shagrat and Gorbag reveals is that orcs are moral beings, with an underlying reality much the same as ours. But if that is true, it seems that an underlying morality has no effect of actual behaviour. If one starts from a sound moral basis, how can things go disastrously wrong? It should require no demonstration that this is one of the vital questions raised with particular force during the twentieth century, in which the worst atrocities have often been committed by the most civilized people...Orcs in fact place a high theoretical value on mutual trust and loyalty. "Rebel" is another one of their pejorative words...Snaga says to Shagrat "I've fought for the Tower against those stinking Morgul-rats", which shows a kind of limited loyalty. Another favourite word among the orcs is "lads", a word that implies male bondage and good fellowship...It should be pointed out that Gorbag and Shagrat soon fall out, and their ideal of being "trusty" is ironic because Shagrat says "I don't trust all my lads, and none of yours, nor you neither, when you're mad for fun"...nevertheless Mauhar and his lads do turn up and make an attempted rescue. The orcs furthermore, -to say the best one can of them-understand the concept of parley...Saruman's orcs show great pride in their boast, many times repeated "We are the fighting Uruk-hai". Although all orcs appear to be man eaters, they do not appear to be cannibalistic, but reserve that catagorisation for orcs who eat other orcs... It would be tedious to point out all the ways in which these claims are systematically disproved or ironized...But the point remains, the orcs recognize the idea of goodness, appreciate humour, value loyalty, trust, group cohesion, and the ideal of a higher cause than themselves, and condemn failings from these ideas in others. So, if they know what is right, how does it happen that they persist in wrong? The question becomes more persistant in that the orcish behaviour is also perfectly clearly human behaviour... After all, if all evil creatures in the beginning were good...what justice is there in condemning them irrivocably to perdition? Could there not be some way of saving them? Tolkien never took up the challenge of finding some way of educating or "rehabilitating" the orcs, though he was aware of it [Shippey points to Morgoth's Ring] and though he did spend considerable time on the possibility of rehabilitating Gollum...Orcish behaviour, whether in orcs or in humans, has its root not in an inverted morality, which sees bad as good and vise versa, but as a kind of self centredness that sees indeed what is good-like standing by one's comerads and being loyal to one's mates-but is unable to set one's behavior on the right place in this accepted scale... To summarise: There is in Tolkien's presentation of orcs a quite deliberate realism. Orcish behavior is human behavior, and their inability to judge their actions by their own moral criteria is a problem all too sadly familiar." That's about as much as I could find that's relevant....interesting take on things |
03-08-2009, 01:14 PM | #185 |
Loremaster of Annúminas
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Shippey I do recall points up the hypocritical contrast between "just left him lying- typical Elvish trick", wityh the fate of old Ufthak, whom his 'lads' did just that to. What Shippey is on about is that the Orcs are evil precisely because they *do* at some level know better- but never act on that better impulse. If they had no moral sense to disregard they would be mere animals, and blameless.
I really dislike the notion that this 'rebellious streak' is some sort of impulse to freedom. It reminds me uncomfortably of those who regard Milton's Satan as some sort of proto-democratic Hero. And, after all, Melkor *is* Lucifer, taking the same role in the cosmological drama, the Prime Rebel: which Tolkien defines as the root of all evil. I would suggest that to Tolkien the essence of evil is *selfishness.* He goes so far as to claim Sauron in the First Age was less evil than his master because he at least served something other than himself, even if only from self-interested motives. Shagrat and Gorbag and Orcs generally are constantly fighting one another because selfishness is deeply ingrained in them. And, again, these two lovelies aren't 'rebelling' in any sense of repentance; they just want to plunder for their own benefit rather than the 'big bosses.' Nor, of course, is their 'friendship' any more than skin deep, as we see in the next chapter of the Frodo-narrative.
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03-11-2009, 03:31 PM | #186 |
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The way this thread has gone, it really begins at post 16.
But getting right back to davem's original question, and linking with all the stuff inbetween, it is very interesting just what fantasy writers choose to include and exclude. davem has spotted that Tolkien chose not to write about the true picture of war, but there are more things Tolkien chose not to include, and it interests me why he did that. The main thing I notice as absent is a true picture of monarchy. The stories of the British monarchs alone are enough to keep you going in juicy tales for a whole lifetime, and it seems we never had a King like Aragorn. Obviously Tolkien's main stories are from narrow time frames of Middle-earth's history so that limits the opportunities, but I often think this is something noticeably absent - the full picture of a real monarch. And all the politics surrounding that. The closest he comes is with Theoden, trapped in his madness, corrupted by the counsels of Grima. But I'd love to have seen more of this, really seen Grima at work. It almost seems too easy for Gandalf to bring him to his senses. A similar thing happens with the story of Numenor. There's so much that could have been fleshed out there.
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03-11-2009, 05:11 PM | #187 | ||
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And that is, that "reality" or historical "fact" exists prior to any creative act, which must become some sort of deviation from that originary existence or a confirmation of it. However, if we start with the idea that our perception of the world and experience originates in our mind--is our mind's response to our experiences-- then we do not have to deal with this idea of a Creative Fall but instead simply examine the world that is brought forth. Tolkien, much earlier than most of us, came face to face with contemplating the tentativeness of life and the certainty of his own death. In response, he seems to have devoted his creative life to exploring the quality of goodness and the preciousness of life. In his personal life, he obviously passed a certain amount of time in pursuing the pleasures of companionship (and drink) and the devotion of family (in many unsentimental ways) without compromising his worldly responsibilties. Unless of course one thinks that his Legendarium, in garnering academic ridicule, did compromise those responsibilities.
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03-12-2009, 06:33 AM | #188 | |
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I know I'm going back to what davem has been arguing, but I do think that we aren't able to fully comprehend their sacrifice unless we either know a little of them or the way they died.
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03-12-2009, 08:58 AM | #189 | |
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This quote from crime novelist David Peace is maybe worth considering. He says:
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"War is brutal, harrowing and devastating for everyone involved, and war fiction should be every bit as brutal, harrowing and devastating as the violence of the reality it seeks to document. Anything less at best sanitises war and its effects, at worst trivialises it. Anything more exploits other people's misery as purely vicarious entertainment. It is a very, very fine line."
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“Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects." Last edited by davem; 03-12-2009 at 09:04 AM. |
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03-12-2009, 10:35 AM | #190 | |
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Even Steven King, known to be just a little on the verbose side, can't capture *everything*, to everyone's satisfaction and adequate to everyone's experience. There are, perhaps, hundreds upon hundreds of allusions in LotR to things British that I as a 'Merican have no appreciation for (like how best to refer to all things British). Should Tolkien have wasted extra pages to explain why anyone would care to smoke a pipe, drink tea when not ill or not iced, stay at an inn or eat at a pub (an interesting experience when I was there), or -gasp- farm? P.S. Note to davem and Lalwendë: Had a dream the other night - must have been reading the Downs before falling off to sleep. Anyway, in a dream that was just a collection of odd thoughts, remember meeting your children, and saying hi, though that makes no sense at all.
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03-12-2009, 10:55 AM | #191 | ||
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03-12-2009, 11:13 AM | #192 | ||
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03-12-2009, 12:37 PM | #193 | ||
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
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03-12-2009, 01:56 PM | #194 | |
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 5,996
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I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. Last edited by Bęthberry; 03-12-2009 at 02:00 PM. Reason: I do not favour repetition. |
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03-12-2009, 02:13 PM | #195 |
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Heaven's basement
Posts: 2,466
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I'm very sorry; retention of such geographical knowledge will surely get me escorted to the border...and I'm not really that fond of the weather in Argentina.
alatar is off to have that last post removed from memory
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There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.
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03-12-2009, 02:35 PM | #196 |
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
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Don't worry - I'm now expecting a midnight knock on the door from Ms Harperson's thought police for my injudicious mention of 'England' ... (for the benefit of non-Englsh Downers I won't explain that one
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03-12-2009, 03:01 PM | #197 | |||
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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So then that begs a question - was he trying to teach us any kind of lesson at all?
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Gordon's alive!
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03-12-2009, 03:08 PM | #198 | |
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Heaven's basement
Posts: 2,466
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And isn't that what fantasy's all about? Escape from reality?
__________________
There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.
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03-12-2009, 03:12 PM | #199 | |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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Gordon's alive!
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03-12-2009, 03:19 PM | #200 | ||
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Heaven's basement
Posts: 2,466
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Maybe the books should be printed with disclaimers such as: Quote:
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There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.
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