At 12:10 PM 6/13/2003 -0700, darkelf wrote:

>> Even so, it was a reality of Tolkein's life and times. Chances are he
>> wasn't able to imagine a world without class divisions. Even if he had
>> been, he didn't set out to write science fiction, he set out to write
>> myths and legends, of which class divisions were a substantial
>> under-structure.
>
>Oh, I agree with you, and I've read/seen bunches of work done on it in the
>Tolkien literary journals.  But I've also run into some people online who are
>*rabid* if you ascribe anything to Tolkien's work (not even the man) that's
>'negative' - class-, race-, sex-ism.  

Gee, ain't it too bad?  Those things existed, and do exist.  And
generations ago -- not that many, either -- they were accepted modes of
thought.  I get so aggravated at the politically correct fools who insist
on judging the past by the standards of today.  Yes, we do that, insofar as
to think "Well, that was unenlightened thinking, and we certainly should do
better, knowing what we do."  However, one cannot impose upon the past the
standards of the present to the extent of dismissing everything past as
irrelevant or terrible if it doesn't live up to whatever standards these
people want to live by today.  The past has made us what we are today, and
remembering the past and examining it and seeing what was done wrong in the
past is the lodestar that guides us to a better present and future.

How are we ever going to have ways of thinking about the past and making
our own path for the future if we don't read about characters who may have
these views?  How can one counteract "negative" views if one doesn't know
what they are and doesn't have a clue as to the history behind them, WHY
these people thought and acted as they did?

Well, I'm rambling -- it's 5 a.m. or thereabouts, and I've been sick for
two days and had no more than two hours' sleep at a stretch and not much
sleep in total.  

>darkelf, who thinks those things are interesting

Veloci--who does, too, and thinks  we all need to know and understand
them--raptor


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