<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Shade of Carn Dűm
Posts: 434</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: shortened
I wonder about the implications of this essay for the legendarium. No really, I'm not joking.
Tolkien's model of Guest and Host communication is remarkably similar to modern-day computer programming models (client-server). If distance is no object, I wonder that the elves didn't establish a sort of mental "internet" that would obviate the need for devices such as the Palantíri, which must have seemed exceedingly clumsy and inadequate in comparison to this mode of communication. It gives me a whole new perspective on Legolas joining the Fellowship, and on the general elvish disdain for other races. It must have been tough for Legolas to leave a community where such an intimate level of relationship was available to travel with a bunch of (comparatively) lower beings. But then again, if distance is no object, would Legolas ever really be "gone" from that community? I seem to recall that Legolas never really needed sleep and was always up by himself keeping watch while the others slept. Can't remember if that's accurate, but if it is, could he have been doing the equivalent of logging on to the Elvish Chat Room during his off hours to catch up with friends and relatives? Fascinating... My sáma is spinning! Are the elves in Valinor able to communicate this freely with their kinsmen in Middle-earth? What about Maedhros during his long torture while hung from the face of Thangorodrim? His ability to commune with his kinsmen must have been simultaneously a comfort and an excruciating torment -- so close and yet so far away.
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