This was going to be titled “My Love/Hate Relationship with Tolkien”, but that kind of didn’t sound right. Plus, I’ve only read the LotR trilogy and a bit of The Lost Tales (?), so it would be kind of one-sided, I guess. I dunno, specificity is good.
Yeah, so, I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan. I love the books, I love the movies (to tell you the truth, The Two Towers movie introduced me to the books. I started with the prequel, The Hobbit). I couldn’t call myself a fanatic, since it seems as if that is associated with buying/owning hoards of merchandise and spilling rivers of quotes and facts like breathing air. Plus, my peak of fangirlness was years ago in freshman year of high school, anyways (along with my Orlando Bloom fangirl meltdown … YES, I hearted Legolas! No shame in that!)
The peak and decline was (and is) attributed to my life being consumed in college, the complexities of life, I guess (hehe, haven’t read the books for a while, just saw a bit of The Two Towers yesterday on TNT–boy, was I overly excited), and my recent education of my miseducation of race. Uh-huh.
You may be saying to yourself, “What does LotR have to do with race? I mean, it’s fantasy, you numb-skull! Not everything has to be about race!” But my little grasshopper, you may be surprised: a lot of things in this world are influenced by race/race-relations–but that’s a discussion for Someday.
Anywhoo, it is hard for me to face the facts, since a part of me loves my LotR very so. The other part, however, cringes. I mean, c’mon, the fair, pure, wise, magnificent Elves (all are pale-white and most are blond) are the pinnacle of the Middle-Earth races. The darker Southron people are oh so evil and chilling with the villain, Dark Lord Sauron (in the movie, they look stereotypically Middle Eastern–that didn’t sit right with me). And according to the claims of some, Middle-Earth’s continent may be based on Europe and Asia.
Um, so …. the orcs. My friends and I used to joke around that the orcs were black, and we’d be orcs in Middle-Earth or something like that. Some say that the orcs are analogous to Mongols.
So, all of this information would suggest that my dear-friend Tolkien was a … xenophobe racist. My I Heart LotR Side says, “That’s ridiculous!” but my LotR Eye-Rolling Side says, “The facts, my dear! Judging from the Eurocentric time period and location in which he lived, that would be most likely. Need a hug, hun?”
And it makes me wonder if all the carbon-copying that fantasy writers have done over the years correlates with the level of “race-failure” in their work? NAH, I do think that’s a fart of ignorance on their terms.
Don’t get me wrong–I still think that Legolas is full of awesome-sauce and squeal when LoTR is on the tube. I will also be seeing The Hobbit movie when it comes out.
LotR was, and still is, one of the catalysts that inspired me to write fantasy. For that, I am grateful.
~ All that aside, I’m working on an incomplete flash-fiction piece that I rediscovered in last summer’s notes, newly-titled Winds in their Hands, Fire beneath their Feet (yes, I did get to board Inspiration-Express last night. I really wanted to work on Sentinel of Mirrors , but I fear my over-enthusiasm for worldbuilding has gotten the best of me. I will prevail!)
EDIT 5/18/11: Upon further research, I discovered that the Haradrim are the “oh so evil, chilling with the villain” stereotypical Middle Eastern characters. It’s been a while since I’ve read the trilogy (2005), so I’m not exactly sure if they are classified as Southron, or if Southron people are entirely different. This, too, may be a future post.
lalala of rowan nhaima rhys 