Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Lal
Of course, this line of thought risks cutting all scope for discussion dead, but it shouldn't. Maybe we should, instead of trying to find some useful purpose to Tolkien's work, just sit back and discuss the sheer poetry of it all?
|
Although I'm sympathetic to the idea,
Lal, I think you sort of answered your own question. I think we all agree that LotR is a beautiful piece of art, but discussing what everyone agrees on ain't that intriguing, is it? Like, isn't the Birthday Party a wonderful episode? - Oh yeah, and don't you just love Bilbo's speech? - Definitely! it's great how T manages to create that special atmosphere etc etc. Such a thread wouldn't get many replies, me thinks...
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Nogrod
I mean "take away the mystery"? I do hear that oftentimes at school. But what does that actually mean? Why are the "mysteries" of nature poorer than those produced by our poor imagination (I mean the "unicorns" or " anthropomorphic Gods", really, how low can you get)? I mean science has explained a lot of things that had a "mystical" explanation earlier but aren't their explanations even more mysterious? The idea that matter is actually composed of tiny particles and are merely constructed of nothing? How do you understand that even if it's taught to you at school? There's no mystery in there? Or that those tiny particles actually can be either waves or energy? What about the dark matter? Black holes sucking everything into them? Or the microscopic life-forms discovered that are more dreadful than any aliens Hollywood has produced, life-forms discovered from 10 kilometers+ under the sea thriving without sunlight, in acid... Would any human imagination thought of these unless the world threw them on our inquisitive eyes and minds?
|
I never understood that "takes away the mystery" nonsense either. Yes, modern science has explained many things that used to be clouded in myth and superstition, and we now know infinitely much more about ourselves and the world around it that we used to just a few hundred years ago. Then people believed in elves and dragons and trolls, which made for good bed time stories, but now we know there is in fact no "magic", there are no fairies dancing on misty meadows a midsummer's night, and when the thunder rolls, Thor isn't riding his great chariot in the sky. We know this, unless we do like the Ostrich and bury our heads in the sand (not that Ostriches actually do that either, that's another alluring but quite ridiculous myth). No, take the myths for what they are, but don't shy away from the truth.
Physicists have mathematically reconstructed and explained the creation of the universe down to the first tiny fractions of a pico-second (not saying they are right) and more and more is learned about our mind and consciousness. Still, the true orgin and meaning behind our existence here remains as much or more of a mystery, as
Nogrod says. While physicists may argue convincingly for the Big Bang-theory, they still have no convincing answer just as to how something could come out of nothing, and how nothing can be everything. Chances are they never will either, but isn't the quest for knowledge and progress the very essence of humanity? I at least can't help to want to
know. If the evidence don't add up, I will question it. But each to his own.
That said, I'm not a fan of academic literary analysis, unless the work in question is primarily an idea-book, which LotR certainly isn't. Not that it's lacking ideas, mind you.