Mrs. Maggott
12-17-2002, 12:33 PM
I chose this site to present the following op ed piece because it will become very busy in the next few weeks and I hoped to have as many forum members see it as possible. Also, the author is basing much of his column on Tolkien in general and TTT the film in particular.
Let's Not Forget Where the Ringworld Ends,
by James P. Pinkerton (12/17/02)
Let me write a nation's songs, so goes the saying, and I care not for its laws. That is, culture trumps politics.
And so, on the eve of the second installment of the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, one might learn more about the future direction of America by watching that film than by watching the fate of Al Gore or Trent Lott.
The first "Lord" movie - a tale of good vs. evil coincidentally released just after 9/11 - crystallized the modd of the country. We were grimly resolved to settle accounts with the evildowers. The film was a huge hit in the United States, selling more than $300 million worth of theatre tickets and another 20 million VHS and DVD units.
And now comes "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers." From the eerie edginess of the title to the mystical militarism of the story line, the movie is three hours of encouragement to the combat-bound. At the beginning of the climactic battle scene, a good king declares, in resonant cadences, "If this is to be our end, then I would hope to make an end that is to be worthy of remembrance." To which a heroic warrior responds, "Your men will follow you to whatever end."
Indeed to enter into the Ringworld and its realm of elves and orcs, is to be reintroduced to what "Rings" creator J. R. R. Tolkien called "that noble northern spirit" - that is, Nordic lore. Yup, we're blasting back to the past, to paganism, to the blood-and-fire bombast of Richard Wagner operas, to a rejection of Judeo-Christianity in favor of a different vision, a vision of violent gods with names such as Wotan and Thor.
The historically minded will remember that the Nazis loved all this mythology. The whole of the Third Reich was awash in runes, lightening bolts and valkyries riding. Yet Hitler discredited these sagas when he went off to his own Gotterdammerung in 1945.
But now the Norsemen, minus the swastikas, are making a cultural comeback. The "sword and sorcery" genre - seen in games and movies such as "Dungeons and Dragons," "Conan the Barbarian" and "Harry Potter" - dominates much of the youthful imagination. For years, the Marine Corps sponsered a commercial featuring a warrior fighting a fire-spouting monster, then becoming a uniformed Marine. The spot was 50-percent medieval advanture, 50-percent video game - and 100-percent cool.
And why not? Who wants to live in ordinary boring times? Who, especially the young, wants to miss the call of trumpets, the heroism and hoopla of what in World War I was called "The Big Parade"? What youthful heart fails to beat faster after hearing Henry V's oration - "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" - on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, in 1415, as imagined by Shakespeare? Never mind that the real Agincourt was just another bloody battle between dynasties that solved nothing. The Bard's words have such poetic potency that they become the title of a best-seller and then an HBO miniseries lionizing American soldiers in World War II.
But amid all the energy and adrenaline, amid all the presidential war speeches and cable-news war specials, the question still remains: Does a celebration of martial magic and mysticism provide the basis for rational policies aimed at preserving peace as opposed to perpetuating war? Can we have a culturen that imbibes the drama of Vikings and Valhalla and a politics that embraces such dull virtues as security and multilateralism?
Right now, of course, most Americans don't care. They are cheering the rise of armed and armored values and thrilling to the collective soul-feeling that comes from uniting behind firemen martyrs and Hellfire missiles.
And now, as a booster, the next "Rings." The forces of the evildoing Saruman get clobbered in the film, just as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have been wasted a trillion times in video games. It's all fun for the moment, but countries must think soberly for the longer haul. National leaders are supposed to do more than give belligerent speeches; they should have learned lessons from history, full as it is with cautionary tales of overreach, however righteous. And all Americans might recall that the basic irrationalism exalted in "Rings" once led other peoples into the abyss.
The above column is written by James P. Pinkerton and appears in our local newspaper, Newsday. Mr. Pinkerton's e-mail address is pinkerto@ix.netcom.com but I would urge my fellow forum members if you do decide to contact Mr. Pinkerton to do so armed only with facts and in a way that J. R. R. T. would have approved. Simply "getting mad" is only going to validate in his own mind that Tolkien's works either attract belligerent and/or mindless people or that they inspire that kind of attitude in his admirers.
Nonetheless, I thought that this is something all forum members should read and be aware that whether it is Tolkien or Mr. Jackson's version thereof, the politically correct are going to respond much as has Mr. Pinkerton in his column.
Let's Not Forget Where the Ringworld Ends,
by James P. Pinkerton (12/17/02)
Let me write a nation's songs, so goes the saying, and I care not for its laws. That is, culture trumps politics.
And so, on the eve of the second installment of the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, one might learn more about the future direction of America by watching that film than by watching the fate of Al Gore or Trent Lott.
The first "Lord" movie - a tale of good vs. evil coincidentally released just after 9/11 - crystallized the modd of the country. We were grimly resolved to settle accounts with the evildowers. The film was a huge hit in the United States, selling more than $300 million worth of theatre tickets and another 20 million VHS and DVD units.
And now comes "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers." From the eerie edginess of the title to the mystical militarism of the story line, the movie is three hours of encouragement to the combat-bound. At the beginning of the climactic battle scene, a good king declares, in resonant cadences, "If this is to be our end, then I would hope to make an end that is to be worthy of remembrance." To which a heroic warrior responds, "Your men will follow you to whatever end."
Indeed to enter into the Ringworld and its realm of elves and orcs, is to be reintroduced to what "Rings" creator J. R. R. Tolkien called "that noble northern spirit" - that is, Nordic lore. Yup, we're blasting back to the past, to paganism, to the blood-and-fire bombast of Richard Wagner operas, to a rejection of Judeo-Christianity in favor of a different vision, a vision of violent gods with names such as Wotan and Thor.
The historically minded will remember that the Nazis loved all this mythology. The whole of the Third Reich was awash in runes, lightening bolts and valkyries riding. Yet Hitler discredited these sagas when he went off to his own Gotterdammerung in 1945.
But now the Norsemen, minus the swastikas, are making a cultural comeback. The "sword and sorcery" genre - seen in games and movies such as "Dungeons and Dragons," "Conan the Barbarian" and "Harry Potter" - dominates much of the youthful imagination. For years, the Marine Corps sponsered a commercial featuring a warrior fighting a fire-spouting monster, then becoming a uniformed Marine. The spot was 50-percent medieval advanture, 50-percent video game - and 100-percent cool.
And why not? Who wants to live in ordinary boring times? Who, especially the young, wants to miss the call of trumpets, the heroism and hoopla of what in World War I was called "The Big Parade"? What youthful heart fails to beat faster after hearing Henry V's oration - "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" - on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, in 1415, as imagined by Shakespeare? Never mind that the real Agincourt was just another bloody battle between dynasties that solved nothing. The Bard's words have such poetic potency that they become the title of a best-seller and then an HBO miniseries lionizing American soldiers in World War II.
But amid all the energy and adrenaline, amid all the presidential war speeches and cable-news war specials, the question still remains: Does a celebration of martial magic and mysticism provide the basis for rational policies aimed at preserving peace as opposed to perpetuating war? Can we have a culturen that imbibes the drama of Vikings and Valhalla and a politics that embraces such dull virtues as security and multilateralism?
Right now, of course, most Americans don't care. They are cheering the rise of armed and armored values and thrilling to the collective soul-feeling that comes from uniting behind firemen martyrs and Hellfire missiles.
And now, as a booster, the next "Rings." The forces of the evildoing Saruman get clobbered in the film, just as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have been wasted a trillion times in video games. It's all fun for the moment, but countries must think soberly for the longer haul. National leaders are supposed to do more than give belligerent speeches; they should have learned lessons from history, full as it is with cautionary tales of overreach, however righteous. And all Americans might recall that the basic irrationalism exalted in "Rings" once led other peoples into the abyss.
The above column is written by James P. Pinkerton and appears in our local newspaper, Newsday. Mr. Pinkerton's e-mail address is pinkerto@ix.netcom.com but I would urge my fellow forum members if you do decide to contact Mr. Pinkerton to do so armed only with facts and in a way that J. R. R. T. would have approved. Simply "getting mad" is only going to validate in his own mind that Tolkien's works either attract belligerent and/or mindless people or that they inspire that kind of attitude in his admirers.
Nonetheless, I thought that this is something all forum members should read and be aware that whether it is Tolkien or Mr. Jackson's version thereof, the politically correct are going to respond much as has Mr. Pinkerton in his column.