Quote:
Originally Posted by Aiwendil
I suppose that's true. However, I think there may be more to it than that. I know that Tolkien wasn't writing allegory; but if I detected, shall we say, right-wing 'applicability' in LotR I would certainly dislike it (and the same goes for any other ideology I dislike).
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Same here!
I always wonder when I hear these criticisms - have these critics not thought about who were the first big fans of Tolkien's work? The hippies? The counter culture? There's a very good reason they took to Lord of the Rings and it does not all have to do with copious amounts of mushrooms and pipeweed...
It always makes me laugh when both left and right pick up on the Scouring of the Shire as some kind of overt criticism of socialism, as if you look at it, Saruman is quite the opposite. And what seems to be the idealised Hobbit society? Some form of anarchism, clearly - with little state, plenty of sharing, lots of criticism of greedy people like the Sackville-Bagginses...The most 'political' in terms of left/right that Tolkien gets is to pull down, at every turn, forms of totalitarianism, from the fascistic/stalinist styles of Sauron and Morgoth to the greedy, exploitative Corporate machine of Saruman. He does have lots of Kings, but Tolkien never shies away from ripping apart any King who treats his subjects badly - these Kings may have 'divine rights' but they are very modern too in that they also have 'divine responsibilities'
I think some like to go after this surface reading that Tolkien was some antiquarian oddity what with his Kings, Wizards, Los and Beholds and whatnot. But look beneath the surface and his work is stuffed to the gills with modern ideas.
He's not an enemy of rationalism and science, but he is indeed an enemy of misapplied technology. It's no mistake that some readers have seen applicability between the Ring and nuclear weapons, and Tolkien pulls no punches that while it's fine to make Rings of Power with good intentions, with bad ones they simply become fearsome, and evil, weapons. Tolkien always makes the case for the common man too, or else why would it be Hobbits, Sam in particular, who save this world? He makes the case for giving the criminal some compassion in the shape of Gollum. He shows us how racism is ridiculous by showing us the friendship which grows between Legolas and Gimli. He shows us why we need to become tree-huggers by giving us the Ents. Blah, blah, blah....
I think only as time goes on will most people outside the fan community come to realise Tolkien's message. The world is changing now from left/right divides to other kinds of divide - seemingly that of liberty/control. For example - very odd in the UK now that our 'right' party the Tories are looking to ban seemingly everything that's bad for the environment (bye bye Plasma TV) - that used to something of the like put out by the extreme left in the 80s.
I suppose too this shows just how modern Tolkien really was.
Of course, it could just be that yet another fantasy/sci-fi writer is feeling restricted by the looming presence of Tolkien and wants/needs to pull things down a bit!