I Don't Believe There's an Atom of Meaning In It

[angua9]

I've always been a plot person, valuing books and movies far more for tight, clever plots than for things like beauty of language, interesting characters, or evocative settings. And I've always been downright suspicious of theme - it seemed to me when I first learned about them that pretty much every major work of fiction is about "good and evil"

Comments

[sandyclaws68]

I'm only familiar with a few of the ones you've listed, but I have to say except for one I'm definitely in agreement with you. Although I would take the Harry Potter theme one step further and say it's more about love "vanquishing" death (inasmuch as something inevitable can be vanquished) than just about a battle/struggle between the two.

The LOTR one is what I kind of disagree with it. And take my opinion with a grain of salt since I am not a total Tolkein geek/fan. :D

Yes, at it's simplest and most basic the theme of LOTR is good vs. evil, but I think it goes deeper than that because of the very powerful presence of domination. To me that is what the Ring itself represents; absolute, complete, and souless domination. So I guess you could say it's about freedom vs. domination, or the souls of men/hobbits/elves/dwarves vs. the soulessness of Sauron/orcs/Uruk Hai/etc. I think the idea of soulessness is particularly powerful given what Tolkein endured during WW1 (a souless endeavor if ever there was one in human history).

Am I making any sense here?

Edit: Aaaaaaaand now having read the other responses I see that peachespig has already made the same point that I was aiming for, and down it much more eloquently. :D

[angua9]

I argued with peachespig about this above.

Am I making any sense here?

Of course!