NP Tolkien Picks Up A Few More Bits Of Cultural Baggage

[Dave Monroe]

Point was, not only does Tolkien himself deploy the
for at least a century by this time rhetoric of, word
"race," but also that, as a point of "the text," orcs
and elves, for example, aren't even separate species,
orcs having apparently been bred from, "in mockery
of," elves, and from "dark elves" (Moriquendi, Avari,
Sindarin (?), though here I don't recall any
difference in complexion being specified), I believe. 
Okay, as my mind continues to boggle that I'm even
having this, er, conversation ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> A "race of creatures" can refer, of course, to a
> species. In the context of "racism", or "racialism",
> the word "race" denotes different *human*
> ethnicities. It's just semantics and
> disingenuousness to try and conflate the two
> categories.

Whereas I'd say it's nigh unto willful ignorance to,
well, ignore just how charged terms like "race" and
"breeding" and "corrupted" and "mockery" and ... can,
were, are, will be, esp. when brought into proximity
with such binarities as fair/swarthy, light/dark,
good/evil, et al. ...

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