d.brin wrote: > I agree, the LOTR movie was wonderfully well done and very faithful to > the book. Even though I groaned at the obviously heavy-handed imagery > when Saruman tears down the trees. His betrayal is faithful to > Tolkien's view : > > GOOD= pastoral nature, protected by faithful gameskeepers who bow and > scrape to the hereditary scions of ancient families and their loyal > priests. > BAD= egalitarian industry, production, factories, modernism, uppity > lower class revolutionaries. > > I despise this reflex abasement to the romantic worldview, extolling > the kings and wizards who oppressed our ancestors for 6,000 years. But > I do recognize its artistic resonance. In LOTR it's honest. In Star > Wars it is insidious and sneaky and illogical and vile.
I recently listened to the the Rob Inglis narration of the story after not having read the books for many years. I had read the books so many times in my youth that I could practically recite some of my favorite parts word for word, but there were parts that made me uncomfortable - stuff about corrupted bloodlines etc. I still love the story, but definitely not as unconditionally as before. I see that the Two Towers seems to have a rather large departure from the book - involving Elrond and Arwen. I guess they felt it necessary to expand on the romantic connection. I love the book the way it is so it might be difficult to swallow such a deviation. That being said, I would have loved to see them make the Riders of Rohan non-white. It would have been a huge change visually, and I'm sure it would have caused great dissension among purists, but I think the inclusiveness thus portrayed in what is really only a cosmetic change (unless you are bothered by an off-white Eowyn hitting on Aragorn) would have improved the story. Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
