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David Brin On LOTR

Posted by Hemos on from the looking-towards-the-future dept.

hprotagonist0 writes "Salon has posted an article by sci-fi author, scientist, and essayist David Brin (The two Uplift trilogies, The Transparent Society) with his thoughts about LotR. A technophillic optimist, he warns against waxing too Romantic about feudal, good vs. evil fantasy. Instead, he says, we should look ahead to the future. Thought-provoking."

2 of 547 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Excellent article... by guacamolefoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Brin goes over how JRR Tolkien was a snobby, romantic anglo-saxon elitist, writing about WII. OK... Now tell me something I don't know!

    Tolkien himself rejected this notion many times during his lifetime. The story was not a cipher for WWII or the atom bomb. It was just a story. If Brin did something more than simply topical reading/viewing, he would know this. The perpetuation of this myth is just out and out intellectual laziness.

    Remember, "Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

    GF

    --
    Lots of petrified grits
  2. Ugh, god damnit by autopr0n · · Score: 5, Informative

    Tolkien himself rejected this notion many times during his lifetime. The story was not a cipher for WWII or the atom bomb. It was just a story. If Brin did something more than simply topical reading/viewing, he would know this.

    Brin DIDN'T say that LOTR was an alagory for WWII. That's just something the poster threw in. Brin just said that Tolken was writing the books at a time when the 'failure' of the scientific enlightenment was aperant.

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    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.