[Since I’m
teaching the Intro
to Sci Fi/Fantasy class this semester, for my annual
Valentine’s series I wanted to focus on fantasy authors & stories I’ve
loved. Leading up to a weekend post on an emerging community who deserve more
love!]
On three AmericanStudies
lessons from the Lord of the Rings
trilogy.
1)
Cross-Cultural Transformation: In recent years
Tolkien (like his peer
and friend C.S. Lewis) has been critiqued for his portrayals
of non-European societies and cultures, and rightfully so; Middle-earth’s
darker/southern men are frustratingly under-developed and one-dimensional in
comparison to his northern societies. But at the same time, the characters and
relationship that undergo one of the most significant changes in the course of
the story are Gimli and Legolas, a dwarf and elf who begin with the typical
antipathy those races feel toward one another and end the best of friends. And
characters like Boromir and his father Denethor, who focus solely on their own
city/nation (Gondor) and its needs, are proven time and again to be dangerously
narrow-minded and myopic. Cross-cultural
transformation for the win!
2)
Democracy, Ultimately: One of the questions that
came up again and again from my sons as we read through the series a few years
back was why Sam calls Frodo “Mr. Frodo”; the boys understood that Sam began
the series as Frodo’s employee (his gardener, specifically), but still couldn’t
get why, once they were on their journey together, he continued to address his
friend as his boss or superior. There’s no doubt that Sam
begins the series as a simple man who is in social status but also
perspective and identity below Frodo, and perhaps he remains there in some ways
throughout. Yet at the same time, I would argue that the series’
culmination—both in the final stages of Frodo and Sam’s epic journey and in the
multiple aftermaths that follow it—both depends on Sam’s actions and heroism
and comes
to focus on him as the embodiment of the Shire’s and Middle-earth’s future.
Tolkien might have begun his world-building with a sense of English prep school
elitism, that is, but he ended it with a genuine and inspiring vision of
democracy.
3)
Gollum and Empathy: In one of the series’ most
famous exchanges (and one of the moments that the film versions got exactly
right, even though they shifted its setting entirely), Frodo expresses
regret that Bilbo did not kill the creature Gollum when he had the chance, and
Gandalf disagrees, noting both that “it was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand” and
that this pity might decide the fate of all. Given Gollum’s prominent role in
the quest’s denouement, it’s easy to focus on the second point, but I would
argue that it is in fact the first which drives Tolkien’s development of his
most complex and interesting character. And I would go further, arguing that it
is not just pity but also and most importantly empathy that the series shows
toward the seemingly monstrous Gollum. Tolkien certainly depicts a world with
clear powers of good and evil, but also one in which many characters occupy a
grayer area between those two extremes, include layers of identity that defy
any one categorization and demand empathy if we are to understand them. That’s
a very valuable takeaway indeed.
Next loving
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Favorite fantasy authors or stories you’d share?
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