NP Tolkien Picks Up A Few More Bits Of Cultural Baggage

[jbor]

on 6/1/03 5:14 AM, Paul Mackin at paul.mackin at verizon.net wrote:

> 
> 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."

Yes, I think this throwaway statement of Rushdie's that WWII was "the last
just war" is another good example of the way he seems to court controversy
just for the sake of it. There's no explanation or substantiation, just like
the bald statement that the "echoes" of WWII are "everywhere" in _TLOTR_.

... and I disagree with Rushdie's interpretation of Tolkien's text. There
are many times where this forces of good v. forces of evil contest is much
more ambivalent than he makes out. In fact, much of _TLOTR_ is "'about'" the
corrupting influence of the "one Ring to rule them all" (i.e. absolute
Power). The point - what Rushdie calls "the moral" - is that Sauron's fiery
Ring would have turned even Gandalf or Aragorn (or Galadriel) as much as it
turned Isildur or Gollum or Bilbo. It is only humble, pure-of-heart Frodo
who can carry it with immunity. Rushdie doesn't do the text justice.

best

> 
> Arms and the men and hobbits
> 
> From Middle Earth to New York and Washington, the morality of war is at issue,
> says Salman Rushdie
> 
> Saturday January 4, 2003
> The Guardian 
> 
> [...]
> 
> The Dark Lord Sauron is the incarnation of evil, and his most potent (and very
> Wagnerian) weapon, the One or Ruling Ring, is made of and perfects that evil.
> All who come under Sauron's baleful influence become as thoroughly,
> homogeneously evil as their lord. The forces of good that stand against him -
> and this explains much of Tolkien's appeal - are, by contrast, extremely
> various: from Gandalf the wizard (the powerful good guy), Aragorn the ranger
> (the heroic good guy), Legolas the elf (the cool good guy), Gimli the grumpy
> dwarf (the uncool good guy), all the way down to the little people, the
> hobbits or halflings, who will in the end save the day.
> 
> [...]
> 
> http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,868100,00.html