Marvin wrote:
I think a more interesting analysis of Tolkien (since his anti-industrialism has been done to death) would be to explore the consequences of his "pro-tech" side. I think he has one, but the "tech" is dressed up as craft.
[snip]
Tolkien never struck me as being anti-tech at all, just anti-One consequence of Tolkien's nostalgia for old ways (that never existed, since he had to invent them) at the expense of the new is that he draws a comparison between clumsy tech and graceful tech.
industrialization. As you say, he seems to praise tech that
is done within an agrarian setting, such as among the elves,
he just doesn't appear to like that tech being used to cause
deforestation and smoke being belched into the sky.
I think Tolkien's real point here is that tech should serve
the inhabitants of the natural world, as opposed to tech
being served by the natural world. By this definition, the
Ring can be seen as industrialized (or industrializing) tech,
in that it controls rather than empowering.
If you look at it from that perspective, then LotR starts to
look almost Libertarian. The Ring, and Sauron and Saruman,
try to bend others to their will, and the free people of the
world (elves, hobbits, orcs, some humans) band together to
protect their freedom to choose how they wish to live,
without being dominated by outside powers like Sauron et.al.
Reggie Bautista
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