Month: June 2017

feanoriel:

lucifers-cuvette:

mapsburgh:

misbehavingmaiar:

Listen: I know I pick on Tolkien a lot around here. For a guy who loves Middle Earth as much as I do, I sure to spend a lot of time silently arguing with its creator. And you might ask, very reasonably, why? There are other fantasy pastures to graze in with ideologies more similar to my own, where maybe I wouldn’t feel so compelled to dig holes in the lawn. 

For me (and I’ve said as much before), questioning the biases in Tolkien’s work isn’t about deconstruction, but reconstruction; it’s a creative process that does so much more than just relieve the frustration I feel towards the text. It’s like… finding out that underneath the final version of the Mona Lisa, there’s a painting of her with eyebrows, and a real smile. Every time I ask What If, or Why, or How, or Who, I get to experience a brand new story; it repaints the whole legendarium with a different brush and a fresh set of colors. 

It is absolutely a generative, collaborative process that feels completely different than reading a story where I agree with the underpinnings as well as the primary text. I don’t, for instance, feel the need to deconstruct Discworld; I just read it, experience delight, let it take me wherever it’s going and say “ah! that was good!”, and then I get off the ride feeling happy. At no point do I hold the book in front of my face and unhinge my jaw to scream into it! There’s very little screaming! Almost know jaw-unhinging! You’d think that would be a more relaxing way to experience media! And it is!

But the stuff that sticks in my craw about Tolkien’s work and doesn’t let me sleep at night because damn it, that’s not how that WORKS, is the same stuff that leaves a window open for me to join that collaborative process. (And it does sometimes feel like I’m breaking and entering, because I am absolutely certain the Professor would object to the ways I choose to redecorate his house– but also, hey dude? Some of this stuff was hella racist and needs to be put out with the garbage anyway, so.)  

It’s only when I feel enchanted, and unsatisfied as a passive reader, that I’m compelled to engage as an artist and a writer, as a critical architect, or even just as an escapist who enjoys imagining familiar, epic moments from different angles. 

…That part is just Fanworks 101, I realize. But specifically, I love questioning THIS text because Tolkien’s framework is so uniquely rich that it can support this many retellings and re-envisionings. I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t absolutely love the world and the characters and the professor’s enthusiasm for lore and language. I want to have these stories told to me again and again with different endings, and added depth, and a diverse cast, or else I’d have pitched my High Fantasy tent in Pratchett or Le Guin’s or Cherryh’s yard and never looked back. 

I guess what I’m saying is, when you see me furiously typing screeds about colonialism and competent antagonists and elven propaganda while shoving the book into my flaming maw and bellowing, know that it’s because it is my favorite book, and that is how I express gratitude. 

This exactly.

How could you say that Tolkien is racist? This is a **your** idea. You know that The Hobbit wasn’t published in Germany until the end of WWII? Because he replied SO ( http://writers-write-creative-blog.posthaven.com/j-r-r-tolkiens-response-to-the-nazis-61408 ) at the editor who asked him if he had Aryan ancestors. He was sincerely disgusted by the Nazism and the Fascism and assume that he is racist is an HUGE INSULT and a big signal of ignorance, pliz.

And I don’t want to comment about the “colonialism”. If you thought that the Noldor “colonists” you must said to me the point in the Silmarillion were they enslaved the Sindar and took their lands … oh, now, it’s a little different. ALL the lands that the Noldor took are UNINHABITED. It was THINGOL (ops) who didn’t want the Noldor in the Doriath, and forbided them to use their tongue … But the Noldor are the “bad guys” because they are “colonists”. I have to say that the Silmarillion isn’t actually settled in America, or that you cannot apply the American standards to it. PLIZ

Also, if you have to criticize the author, do it with a cause and not without knowing nothing, pliz

Where on earth did you get the impression that I was talking about the Noldor?

The entire conversation at this point has been about the representation of Men in Middle Earth, largely in the Second and Third Ages. 

I didn’t ONCE mention the Noldor, didn’t once point to them and say “*gasp*! Colonists!”, and never once did I say they were the bad guys. They were not included in this discussion at all, in fact. Not in this post, nor in the posts leading up to it. 

I was talking about the human beings with direct real-life cognates, and larger East-West conflicts that absolutely had an effect on the British Empire and were a part of Tolkien’s life and upbringing. 

I’m not even going to address the idea that criticizing Tolkien’s well-documented inclusion of racist tropes within the LotR trilogy (the birthplace of modern High Fantasy which has gone on to include those tropes) is without a cause, or the idea that Nazi Germany has the final word on what is and is not racist. But please, tell me, a jewish person, more about my ignorance on this topic. 

Take your own advice, and have the courtesy know at least the Topic of another person’s conversation before you jump in the middle of it. Or do a word-search to find even a single instance of the topic you thought I was talking about.