AAAHHHH!! A subject *ON* topic? Is this allowed? ;-)
Dan Minette wrote
>In TLOTR, certain people have more power than others, but with the
>power comes tremendous responsibility. The truly wise, such as
>Gandalf, showed full respect to the little people. Even a Hobbit
>could rise to greatness when called upon.
Agreed. It seemed that DB missed the point entirely in his argument about
the elitism of LotR. The "small people" were the ones that had the strength
to defeat Sauron, not the great ones.
Regarding his argument that there was a vaster group of races under Sauron's
banner, the whole point of the Fellowship of the Ring was that there had to
be all the races opposed to the tyrant's rule involved in the mission to
defeat him. It wasn't by accident that dwarves, elves, humans, and hobbits
werer all represented.
FWIW, looking at his Uplift universe, I think that DB realizes that despite
his belief that ordinary people make a difference, there still has to be
leader. Even a democratic, egalitarian society like Earthclan, one that
gives its junior clients as many equal rights as Galactic society will
allow, needs to have someone in charge. The old aphorism about chiefs and
indians still holds true. So he needed to have someone in charge, whether
it was Tom and Gillian, Athaclena, or etc.
>I think it rather ironic that DB would engage in such a radical
>deconstruction of LOTR, since his opinion of deconstruction did not
>seem to be all that worthwhile. I think the use of luck in Brin's
>books, finding Herbie is blind chance, for example...unless he has >some
hidden purpose that still hasn't come out, is not as good a
>plot ploy as people being called on in time of need
To be fair, I'd suggest that he does it as a further example of one not
having to be called to greatness in order to achieve it. That is, in the
Uplift books, the protagonists have to rise to the occassion via their
circumstances rather a predetermined fate.
And ironically, Bilbo's discovery of The One Ring was completely incidental
to the mission he was on. So it isn't like there's no element of chance in
LotR.
>>We know that DB's books tend to show an optimistic view of the
>>human/sentient potential for positive-sum cooperation & competition
>>over the long haul.
That is in line with his overall admiration of the Star Trek universe, where
mankind has advanced beyond its petty arguments and reached the stars.
>>In the Uplift books, contstant POV changes reinforce the idea that
>>no one protagonist shoulders the burden alone (with the possible
>>exception of Jacob Demwa in Sundiver).
Sundiver was more of a murder mystery with the Uplift universe as its
background than the high space opera books that came after.
>>Individual decisions may have a huge impact, but no individual is
>>permitted to dominate the story overall. Tom Orley, possibly the
>>closest thing we've seen to the superhuman hero, even gets left
>>behind in a manner that makes me wonder if DB is making a
>>statement...something like, "Compared to the species, we're all
>>expendable."
There's no question about it. That's one of the central tenets of Galactic
Society in the Uplift universe. A member of a Client species is expected to
sacrifice its life for the life of a Patron. In return, the Patron must
defend its Client entire species.
>That's a message that I'm not comfortable with. While I strongly
>believe in responsibility to the community, and social needs, I
>believe the collectivism expressed in the last sentence is
>overdone. In the 20th century, that sort of argument has resulted
>in some very nasty political systems. I think it is one of the
>strong failings of Marxism...that it only considers the historical
>trends of the collective and ignores what happens to individuals.
In DB's books, like in the ST universe, the idea is that man has "matured"
to a point where collectivism works. Whether or not man's nature can
fundamentally change in that manner, well, that's another story entirely.
Jim
"What can change the nature of a man?" - The Nameless One
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