Conversation

Notices

1. Nate Cull (natecull@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 25-May-2017 22:35:42 UTC Nate Cull

   .. so Saruman would be Germany, England's staunch ally through the Victorian age and fellow leader of 'civilisation', who suddenly and shockingly (to English minds) switched to rival in the years before WWI. The Brandywine is the English Channel, Bree is France.

   There is no Pacific Ocean or Indian Empire or Americas or colonialism, despite these being the source of Actual England 1914's banking wealth, because LotR is Fantasy Conservative England's fantasy world and money just.. grows, I guess.

   • Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠) repeated this.
   • Nate Cull (natecull@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 25-May-2017 22:21:37 UTC Nate Cull

     It takes a remarkable intensity of ignorance of thematic, linguistic, geographic, cultural and historical clues to be able to read Lord of the Rings and not realise that Orcs are Turks and the whole thing is about a mythical heroic England preserving a sanitized Roman past against an inherently evil/weak/powermad Continent.

     But English speaking fantasy readers have been well trained from birth to ignore structural features in our literature, so we generally do manage to pull this trick off.

     Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠) repeated this.
   • Nate Cull (natecull@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 25-May-2017 22:37:55 UTC Nate Cull

     in reply to

     In reality, since England pioneered the Industrial Revolution Tolkien so despised, *Sauron was a hobbit*.

     Which might make rather a more interesting story.

     Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠) repeated this.