NP? "the formerly colonised coming back to haunt us"

[CyrusGeo at netscape.net]

Dave Monroe <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com> wrote:

>Well, JRRT may not consciously have intended for TLOTR
>to be "about" WWII, i.e., as an allegory or whatever
>thereof, but it was, is, e'er will be "about" WWII in
>that it was undoubtedly written in the shadow thereof,
>however (politically-)unconscious Tolkien and/or his
>trilogy might have been of, well, a World War ...

Agreed. But Dr. Shapiro seems to be "accusing" Tolkien of writing such an allegory deliberately.

>Insofar as anything is "universal and timeless" (and
>when it comes to cultural production, nothing is ...),
>TLOTR was, is, and e'er shall be particular and timely
>as well, historical, historicized, "catchy" in no
>small part by virtue of its resonance with (at least
>the mythologization of) recent (at the time of
>publication) historical events, in which it is in turn
>ineluctably "caught" ...

Again, agreed. Though I was talking about the themes, not the book.

>And one might further ask, what similar resonances
>make it "catchy" now?  The "universal," "timeless" war
>("war") betwixt ("betwixt"?) "good" and "evil"?  Will
>be seeing The Two Towers tomorrow, so ...

Yes, the everlasting conflict between good and evil is such a universal and timeless theme, present in all human cultures throughout the ages. But why am I saying that? You know it.

>But the Tolkien "phenomenon" didn't quite take off as
>such until the 1960s, following an unauthorized Ace
>ed. of TLOTR and the trilogy subsequently being taken
>up by the, esp., American, counterculture, for which
>it undoubtedly had certain resonances as well ...

Of course, as it still has today for many people. I agree, Dave. But "racist"...?

Cyrus

__________________________________________________________________
The NEW Netscape 7.0 browser is now available. Upgrade now! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp 

Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/