Science Fiction writer David Brin has exposed the dark values of Tolkien’s world by coaxing us to imagine the point of view of the evil wizard Sauron and his troops. "Sauron’s army was the one that included every species and race on Middle Earth, including all the despised colours of humanity, and all the lower classes," he explains. "Might they have imagined they were the good guys, with a justifiable greivance worth fighting for, rebelling against an ancient, rigid, pyramid-shaped, feudal hierarchy toppled by invader-alien elves and their Numenorian-colonialist human lackeys? Sauron, champion of the Middle Earthling!"Really, I give up!
Also today is a good day for guest posts as Joseph Harker writes about racism over at Mark Wadsworth's blog.
3 comments:
Thanks for the link. I don't know the first thing about LOTR, but can I take it that the short excerpt it in fact peppered with factual errors? Or is he really a nerd?
To be honest I'm not enough of an expert either.
Ross, Mark,
I've read LOTR and The Silmarillion inside out.
Rest assured, Hari is, was, and remains, a loon on stilts.
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