ME's advantages

[Rimbaud]

I think there would be a real awakening for a contemporary real world chap or chappess experiencing ME. The lack of things we take for granted would be shocking to most: hygiene, medicine, running water etc.

In particular, the standard of hygiene and medical care et al would be the elements with which I could not cope. Assuming that Tolkien's medieval-Europe-a-like world is consistent, we have to imagine a world without anaesthetics or what we woudl consider rudimentary medical practices. The difficulty in finding and maintaining a source of clean water would also be difficult.

Someone above mentions the benefits of living in a world of honour and decency. You have to look at both sides of the coin. Life in much of ME, particularly outside of Elven/Hobbit communities would be a world of rough justice and survival of the fittest. A sickly person? Short sighted? Strange looking? These societies would be much less tolerant of diversity and physical weaknesses would be hugely difficult to cope with, to an even greater extent than is true in the real world.

Want to be a writer? A painter? In fact, want to be able to read? You couldn't take these things for granted at all. It might seem a world of freedom compared with today, but that is a lazy misconception. It would be a hard and probably brief struggle. Raising a family for instance would be incredibly hard work (not that it is easy today, necessarily). Think how many children would be lost at childbirth and in infancy.

Don't think the world you live in is as bad as all that, for most people. Particularly us blessed folks with the time and the riches to spend time on a computer, talking with the world about books we love.

Finé