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LotR Rewritten From a Mordor Perspective
Hugh Pickens writes writes "It's been said that history is written by the winners but Laura Miller writes in Salon about a counterexample as she reviews a new version of Lord of the Rings. The Last Ring-bearer was published to acclaim in Russia by Kirill Yeskov, a paleontologist whose job is reconstructing long-extinct organisms and their way of life. Yeskov performs essentially the same feat in his book. The Last Ring-bearer is set during and after the end of the War of the Ring and told from the perspective of the losers. In Yeskov's retelling, available in translation as a free download, the wizard Gandalf is a war-monger intent on crushing the scientific and technological initiative of Mordor and its southern allies because science 'destroys the harmony of the world and dries up the souls of men' and Aragorn is depicted by Yeskov as a ruthless Machiavellian schemer who is ultimately the puppet of his wife, the elf Arwen. Sauron's citadel Barad-dur is, by contrast, described as 'that amazing city of alchemists and poets, mechanics and astronomers, philosophers and physicians, the heart of the only civilization in Middle-earth to bet on rational knowledge and bravely pitch its barely adolescent technology against ancient magic.'"
>>>the "good" guys being stainless, righteous, wonderful and adorable beings and the "bad" guys as loathsome bastards with no morals or regard for anyone but themselves
This happens in history too.
The WW2 allies were hardly virtuous, what with fire-bombing of innocent civilians, blowing-up of dams that destroyed villagers, imprisonment of those who were anti-war (in violation of free speech rights), and throwing minority Americans into death camps for the crime of having german/japanese grandparents. In fact a lot of the Nazi propaganda was simply copied from the Allies' example during WW1.
Oh no.
I'm about to be modded 'troll' for speaking the truth to power, and people don't want to hear the truth. (shrug)
Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
Benefit : you get this new work for free.
I'm not sure how more free-loaders benefits society.