[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

I believe sci-fi and fantasy share many of the same attributes, and one only has to watch a movie like Terry Gilliam's Brazil or read Herbert's byzantine recasting of the future in Dune where the lines of sci-fi, dystopia and fantasy are blurred or utterly erased. The same would hold true for an allegory like Orwell's Animal Farm, which could be looked upon as a modern dystopian version of the medieval Reynard the Fox. And sci-fi is merely future fantasy, isn't it? I mean, really, George Lucas borrowed Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces as a blueprint for Star Wars, and created a futuristic monomyth. Just replace the lightsabers with broadswords, Darth Vader with an evil wizard, and Jabba the Hut with an ogre, and voile': Luke Skywalker goes on "The Hero's Journey" with Obi-Wan Kenobi as the stereotypical wise mentor.

I think there's a continuum between the two extremes of science and mythology (for want of better descriptors) which encompasses all Speculative Fiction, some leaning more towards one end than the other, so it doesn't surprise me that Tolkien was interested also in those writers/works usually referred to as science fiction, such as Issac Asimov.

Tolkien's dystopia lies in the industrial destruction of the Shire by Sharkey that runs along the lines of Blake's Satanic Mills in England's green and pleasant land, or in the bleak desolation of Mordor with the brooding hordes of broken orcs ruminating among the rack and ruin. Or perhaps in the Saruman's Orthanc, which has become, for all intents and purposes, a Stalinist armament factory with its collective of subservient orcs (not that Tolkien used such allegory, mind).

Certainly the dystopian elements are present in Tolkien. But what you have really got me wondering about is whether he is acknowledged by dystopian writers as an influence, as those who write more directly in the fantasy vein acknowledge him. I can think of many, many discussion here and elsewhere which examine Tolkien's influence in fantasy, but off hand I can't think of any that examine the debt of the dystopians to him.

Shagrat really had no discernible accent, did he? It was more guttural grunts, with perhaps a bit of stock pirate undertones.

I think Tolkien was responsible for a few "Nars". But don't they, in the book, have almost a bit of the wiff of working class blokes with their ready condemnation of the powers that be and their calling Shelob her "Ladyship" ? I wouldn't push this speculation, as it's their atttitude that is highlighted, a dearth of elegance, civility, compassion and a heavy dose of self-centeredness and cruelty and I certainly don't mean to imply that Tolkien harboured class snobbery.

It might be fun to compare their speech with Tolkien's criticism of modern English to see if there is any linguistic similarity.