where are they walking now? A ramble.
on
Lord of the Geeks
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· Score: 1
I thought the article was pretty much on point. I had always felt that the best facet of the cycle was its immersive backstory, whereas the actual plot always felt a bit dull to me. Maybe i was spoiled during childhood by the pace of things like Star Wars, which is basically Tolkein on cocaine with spaceships. (sung to the tune of Lucy in the sky...)
Another thing: of COURSE lotr can be read as metaphor... anything can be -- it just might be a mistake to divine a specific metaphor and start believing the author put it there on purpose.
But the idea of the ring as nuke, as industry and tech(versus hippiedom), etc. etc., makes sense if taken as generally as possible. The notion is strong enough to repeat in some vague form in many of lotr's progency (imagine if you somehow combined the death star, the plans to the death star, and the force, and you'd be just about there)
Basically it boils down to POWER in some form or another, and the notion that absolute power corrupts absolutely, yadda yadda. The fact that someday Tolkein and the Orwell-Huxley-THX vision of the future would eventually merge is evident in the very dystopian notion of the ring.
So bully for tolkein, i guess, although i'd really like to see sci-fi get out of its Tolkein-induced rut, give up on anthropomorphic aliens and FTL travel and start actually imagining our real future in space, outer- and cyber-. AD: what's so unpleasant about being drunk?
a decent healthcare system, low crime, less guns, a sound and robust social safety-net, political leaders with IQs above 110, thousands of years of arts and culture, incredible food, decriminalized ganja. Did I miss anything?
Sure you pay more in taxes. You know what? I could also buy natty light cheap, but I like real beer better. But that's me.
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I thought the article was pretty much on point. I had always felt that the best facet of the cycle was its immersive backstory, whereas the actual plot always felt a bit dull to me. Maybe i was spoiled during childhood by the pace of things like Star Wars, which is basically Tolkein on cocaine with spaceships. (sung to the tune of Lucy in the sky...) Another thing: of COURSE lotr can be read as metaphor... anything can be -- it just might be a mistake to divine a specific metaphor and start believing the author put it there on purpose. But the idea of the ring as nuke, as industry and tech(versus hippiedom), etc. etc., makes sense if taken as generally as possible. The notion is strong enough to repeat in some vague form in many of lotr's progency (imagine if you somehow combined the death star, the plans to the death star, and the force, and you'd be just about there) Basically it boils down to POWER in some form or another, and the notion that absolute power corrupts absolutely, yadda yadda. The fact that someday Tolkein and the Orwell-Huxley-THX vision of the future would eventually merge is evident in the very dystopian notion of the ring. So bully for tolkein, i guess, although i'd really like to see sci-fi get out of its Tolkein-induced rut, give up on anthropomorphic aliens and FTL travel and start actually imagining our real future in space, outer- and cyber-.
AD: what's so unpleasant about being drunk?
a decent healthcare system, low crime, less guns, a sound and robust social safety-net, political leaders with IQs above 110, thousands of years of arts and culture, incredible food, decriminalized ganja. Did I miss anything?
Sure you pay more in taxes. You know what? I could also buy natty light cheap, but I like real beer better. But that's me.