[Rimbaud]

The idea of statehood, a very new concept in the overall picture of the world, is a subject very close to my heart and as it is such, I shall return when I have thought the matter over fully. For now, here are my preliminary thoughts. Thanks Orald for the reference, I shall read through that section again, too.

As I say, statehood, or nationhood, is a very young idea. When one considers the tens of thousands of years that man developed solely as a hunter-gatherer, the then again tens of thousands of years as a micro-agriculturalist...it is only in the past few millennia that nationhood has really raised its head. Especially from a Western viewpoint, which really means, historically, a Western European viewpoint.

Tolkien played games with the settings and situations of Middle-Earth, beyond that of the standard fantasy writer. He did not constrain himself as many do (see Are there any Valid Criticisms) simply to a stereotype of medieval Europe, but created a world in a technological state that our world has never been in. Man, as one of several races of intelligence, as opposed to the only one, is expanding (and there are references to man's quick multiplication rate and the sadness that other races would be shunted aside that I may dig up later) but has not become dominant. The older races do not have the same expansionist drive. The Elves in fact, prefer a more stasis like approach to life, 'have it the same as it's always been'.

Our world developed differently, with the one over-arching species sub-fragmented into discernibly distinct races.

Indeed only in the 1800s, an eyeblink ago in real terms, there was no notion of statehood or territorial lines in Africa, until Europeans delineated such lines where there had previously been none. For the 1800s in Africa read 1600s and 1700s in the Americas.

Tolkien as a linguist and etymologist would have known all this and perhaps, I imagine, wistfully thought of a time when men were men (and I am using the words 'men' and 'man' to describe the human genus not the gender, as Tolkien does, and I mean no offence by it).

Additionally there is the simple principle that a common enemy unites. Although for instance, hobbits and men perhaps did not consider themselves 'enemies', it was certainly of mutual benefit to keep in homogenous society. Any racial interbreeding is something of an unusual aberration (Elrond Half-Elven) and nowhere is it suggested that it is widespread. By this paragraph I simply mean that within societies there are divisions but that to the outsider, that society will appear to be in closed ranks.

I shall doubtless edit this and add more later but feel free to pick this apart before I do...

It beats actually doing any work in this office that's for sure... [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[ April 17, 2002: Message edited by: Stephanos ]