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Originally Posted by SpM
Is it too early, I wonder, to bring up the addicitive nature of the Ring?
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Or the 'addictive' personalities of those who come into contact with it?
You're right to pick me up on my points
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I do not, however, think that his approach is inappropriate only in the context of a spiritual struggle (although that is certainly the context in which it arises here). And I do not think that rationality alone is the problem.
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I was rushed & formulating my thoughts as I wrote. My own feeling is that the battle is an inner one & the Ring is what brings it to the surface & forces it to be fought. The Ring may be a physical object in M-e but it exists also psychologically & symbolically in our world too. Having said that the 'Ring' - the 'Machine', the desire to dominate othr wills, to control & corerce, to re-make the world in your own image - also existed in other forms & also on a psychological level in M-e too.
Does this make sense? The Ring was simply the
ultimate manifestation of something that always did (& always will) exist. The battle is, first, a moral, ethical &
spiritual one. In this chapter Frodo argues against his 'inner' Boromir, Boromir against his 'inner' Frodo. In both of them the Eye battles the Voice, yet they each exist 'between' those two forces, able to choose which one they will ally themselves with. The Ring simply awakens this inner conflict which we all constantly fight (as
SpM points out).
The real difference between this world & M-e is that in this world the Ring doesn't exist as a physical object, & that's the really disturbing thing for me.