Atalantë by Dwimordene
Title: Atalantë
Author: Dwimordene
Summary: Always read between the lines.
Characters: Aldarion, the Guild of Venturers, OCs, political economy
Disclaimer: Fiction. Not JRRT/PJ/related to either. Broke. Please don’t sue. Notes to come later, most likely. Now with 60% more notes than actual text (by page count)!
( The Downfallen... )
Author: Dwimordene
Summary: Always read between the lines.
Characters: Aldarion, the Guild of Venturers, OCs, political economy
Disclaimer: Fiction. Not JRRT/PJ/related to either. Broke. Please don’t sue. Notes to come later, most likely. Now with 60% more notes than actual text (by page count)!
( The Downfallen... )
I have to confess to a "but". I'm not entirely comfortable with the way Sauron has dwindled into a mere excuse and in fact been relegated to the Notes. In terms of Middle-earth, Sauron is, after all, real. Veantur didn't know about him at all, Aldarion and Gil-galad didn't even know his name yet--but he was in fact beginning to move, as Gil-galad suspected. I understand why you don't want him in there but...
Reply
Exactly. That was what struck me: the Numenoreans oppressed a lot of people by raping their lands for natural resources without Sauron serving as a motivating factor. My other, meta-. point, which perhaps speaks to your more fundamental "But you're eliding Sauron for a motivated reason" point, was simply that we never talk about class in this fandom. We never talk about the forces that tend to develop and maintain international empires and no one makes an issue of this omission. It's like M-e has no political economy, M-e needs no political economy ( ... )
Reply
I have seen a number of hints thrown out about class and economy in writings about the First Age, but I don't think that they ever amount to a full political economy. Certainly nothing in my stories does, even remotely so.
But your own story was about political economy even before you revised it, wasn't it?
I'd be interested to see what you say about Gil-galad and about Sauron, if you decide to continue this line of thinking about the Second Age.
Reply
That sounds right to me - it matches what I've seen as well. We're not in an environment that encourages us to learn how to depict class conflict as anything but the result of personal moral flaws of a couple of actors.
But your own story was about political economy even before you revised it, wasn't it?
Oh yes, it was always about that. I just didn't have time to put all the notes in, and then revisiting texts for the notes led to further revisions, but I wanted this to be about political economy and class conflict from the beginning.
I'd be interested to see what you say about Gil-galad and about Sauron, if you decide to continue this line of thinking about the Second Age
Working on it. We'll see if I can get a complete draft today...
Reply
In the Second Age, you have more to work with, it seems to me.
Reply
Ha, that's awesome!
but I'm by no means clear on how Doriath could have been economically viable either!
Pre-capitalist economies are often also class-based, but they do function differently. Doriath, I don't know very well, but I'd guess the majority of the Sindar were farmers, or else that hunting in the forest was the major source of food, with a smaller agricultural base.
Thanks for mentioning MissingIslands' fic, I'll have to go look for that.
Reply
She's Aerlinn on SWG.
http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/archive/home/viewstory.php?sid=1689
Reply
Leave a comment