NP Tolkien Picks Up A Few More Bits Of Cultural Baggage

[Paul Mackin]

On Sun, 2003-01-05 at 11:42, Otto wrote: 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
>
> >
> > ... I wish Rushdie, a noted controversialist, had been more precise about
> > what those "echoes" he perceives actually are. Even with the coincidence
> of
> > the title, most critics and reviewers, and the vast majority of people
> > seeing the movie, aren't making the connection between it and the
> projected
> > war on Iraq, or the book and World War Two. Which, respectively,
> > respectfully, and in my opinion, is a good thing, and quite reasonable
> too.
> >
> 
> 
> "a noted controversialist" - is this meant positive or negative (in
> Rushdie's case)? As a postmodernist he's bound to deconstruct systems
> relying on binary oppositions.


I can't speak for Rob but to me the term suggests Rushdie issues strong
statements that many readers are likely to take issue with--the
statement about "the last just war" being WW II, for example. The most
interesting thing to me in the piece is R's conclusion that the outcome
of the proposed Iraq war may be a paradoxical one. Both the pro-war and
anti-war factions make it out to be a struggle between good and
evil--pick your side, an evil Saddam or an evil Bush--when actually the
important issue is oil (according to R anyway). The war is therefore in
an important sense an intrinsically flawed war.  Nevertheless the actual
outcome of the war may be "a better Iraq." 

P.