J.R.R. Tolkien
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Original post
Posted by Sekhmet, 02.08.2006 - 14:22
There's so much to discuss about him...
First, his books of course!! Considered as the father of the fantasy genre, he created a whole new mythic world, a connected body of tales, fictional histories, invented languages, and other literary essays about an imagined world called Arda, and Middle-earth, identified as an 'alternative' remote past of our own world. His work includes the famous Lord of the Rings trilogy, bit also the Silmarillion, the Hobbit, the Book of Lost Tales,... (for a detailed bibliography ask Wiki ). Let's discuss his writings
Then the adaptation by Peter Jackson. I personnaly loved the movies due to actors and special effects, but I think the story was messed up to adjust to every kind of public and I disliked it. In particular the big part played by Arwen and her romance with Aragorn was seriously getting on my nerves...
There are also serious discussions about Tolkien... Like this argument I had with a friend about Tolkien being a racist or not. I was bringing up that point: An undercurrent of the Lord of the Rings seemed to focus on racial purity. The elves were supposed to have the purest blood, followed by the Numenorians, followed by common men, and then down to Orcs. Remember the scandal when Aragorn married Arwen? She was seen as tainting her bloodlines by marrying a "mere" man. Remember the scandal when Faramir married Eowyn? He was said to be diluting the precious Numenorian blood lines. There were also frequent mentions to the "thinning" of the Numenorian blood lines.
Does this obsession with "my race is purer than yours" show that Tolkien was a racist who believed in racial superiority?
Well, the question was worth asking IMO (obviously since I asked it ), but I think he wasn't... Because despite the differences between "races", the relationships between Arwen and Aragorn (love between an elf and a man), or Legolas and Gimli (friendship between an elf and a dwarf, races so different), or Gandalf and the hobbits proves that he doesn't believe in racial purity. Feel free to discuss it too
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