Re-reading Tolkien: Free to choose
Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy when it came out in the mid-fifties. First of all, we'd all be wearing sweater sets and poodle skirts and bras as heavily engineered as a cantilever bridge. (Yes, even the men: Tolkien fans are a funny lot.) But apart from the appalling burden of fifties
( Read more... )
Yes yes! I think this early view of Frodo's repeated, compulsive choosing casts an interesting light on what the journey through Mordor must have been like. By that time we don't have much access to Frodo's POV, and whatever is going on in his head he mostly keeps there. But I don't imagine that the conflict he experienced throughout FotR ever really stopped.
amazing amalgam of Heisenberg and Nietzsche in my head (ouch!), with the observer affecting the observed, and the abyss looking back at you.
OMG, they're breeding! A Heisenberg and Nietzsche amalgam would be scary -- like you can know either the position of the superman or how fast he's going, but not both. :D Seriously, though, yeah: I think these ideas about the perils of observation have been in the air for a very long time. Tolkien was drawing from a long Christian tradition that had a lot to say about contemplating evil, but so was Nietzsche (despite his protestations) and so I guess we shouldn't be surprised to see these two ships at least passing in the night. *puts metaphors in blender, presses "puree"*
Reply
Leave a comment