NP "the formerly colonised coming back to haunt us"

[Dave Monroe]

Okay ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> on 21/12/02 4:19 AM, Dave Monroe at
> davidmmonroe at yahoo.com wrote:
> 
> But there is a production "end" as well, of course,
> which can be discussed, and which can legitimately
> influence how a text is "received" and
> interpreted by a reader or viewer. Personally, I
> don't think it pays to ignore deliberately either
> what the author has said about the text or the
> actual context/s of the text's production, 

No disagreement so far ...

> because when you do you run the risk of jumping to
> a wrong conclusion, such as thinking that Tolkien's
> trilogy was written "'about'", or in response to,
> the Second World War.

But, again (and again and again and again ...) nor
should one take the author's word as the last word. 
Nor should one ignore the context(s) of production
(which did here indeed include WWII, not to mention
the events leading up to it).

Nor should one ignore that I've never argued anything
that's seemingly being attributed to me above, but ...

but that's the risk that run constantly here, "wrong"
conlusions constantly jumped to ...

> And I'd say it's far more likely that the release of
> the second 'Lord of the Rings' movie instalment was
> designed to coincide with the Christmas holidays,
> rather than having any sort of "similar
> resonances" with current world events.

Nor should one confuse statements about reception with
those about production.  Well, duh, those movies have
been scheduled to come out on consecutive Christmases
for years now.  What's interesting is just how
successful they've been, well beyond Tolkien fandom. 
There certainly wasn't this kind of support for that
Ralph Bakshi adaptation, that's for sure.  Issues of,
er, "simple" cinematic quality aside, my question is,
in what various ways might they be being taken up by
their viewers?  Similarly for the novels.  It's
disingenuous for anyone, up to and inc. JRRT, to think
they could have been published post-WWII without
evoking the evnts thereof.  Reminds me ...

Saruman of course represents, er, Newtonianism, via,
e.g., Wm. Blake.  That refraction from S the White to
S the Many-Coloured.  Industrialism.  "Dark Satanic
mills."  And so forth.  One can see the ecological
attarction for hippiedom et al., stemming from JRRT's
English pastoralism (again, cf. Blake).  Peter Jackson
plays up the nascent biotech angle, but given our
recent discussion here, The Two Towers (the film)
brought to mind Mussolini, Italian fascism, futurism
as well, that celebration of machinery 'n' war ...
 
> It seems that ousting Saddam is going to be the
> bottom line. Let's hope that, however it comes,
> it's a bloodless coup.

And here's where we once again agree (nonviolently) ...

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