Let me try to summarize some of her points with the invective filtered out, then.
Legolas Send a noteboard - 29/01/2012 10:48:24 PM
I did not read that. I won't validate that person, whether she had accurate arguments or not. However, since I am a solid Tolkien fan, I do want to comment. I don't get the feeling that he is racist, though I can freely admit that there are (what feel like) racist elements in the book. I've thought about this for a long time - I stillll think it's more about the concepts of actual lightness (stars, primarily) and darkness (evil, black, glooms, smog, etc) than about any kind of skin color differences. Yes, the fellowship races are all white, but Tolkien is, and comes from a white place. That sounds silly and shallow, but it is true. It's important, because he wrote the characters with a specific pride of his culture. I'm not sure I understand why he should he have incorporated other races, with which he doesn't appear to have had the opportunity to be well acquainted?
I agree with your distinction between him being racist and there being racist elements in the book; the author of that article does not. Or perhaps she does, and wouldn't even be wasting her time on writing an article if she thought Tolkien was an actual racist in the evident sense of the word.
Tolkien does include other races, though. The non-white men get very little attention - they fight on the evil side, though, even if Sam makes his famous comment at one point about how they are just ordinary people like them. But all the orcs and goblins...
She also quotes a comment by Tolkien comparing his Dwarves to Jews, based on their being obsessed by gold and riches - which is indeed anti-semitism of a kind that would be normal in an author of a century earlier, but not so much post-WW2. Not that the Dwarves are depicted as bad guys (despite the blog author's attempt to suggest so by quoting the most negative passage about them, from early on in The Hobbit), but still.
I don't know that I can properly comment on the sexism angle, because I think the women are pretty well empowered, based on the attitudes men had decades ago. Eowyn is strong, knows her mind and knows she doesn't want to be stuck in the position she was born to. She doesn't do what she is supposed to, and she becomes a major hero. I don't see why he would have presented her that way if he thought she should shut up and go back to the kitchen. And Galadriel? I mean, really?
She doesn't find anything more to complain about concerning Galadriel than that she is "placed on a pedestal". About Eowyn, she's more convincing... the end of that storyline, after all, is that Eowyn does go back to doing what she's supposed to do, and looks back at her desire to break free as being a silly thing.
The racist elements in Tolkien's writing
29/01/2012 01:31:02 PM
- 2494 Views
She has some points, of course.
29/01/2012 02:25:32 PM
- 1274 Views
Quite a few points
29/01/2012 02:40:45 PM
- 1368 Views
I don't find the tone blunt; I find it leading, patronizing and often wrong or inferring too much.
30/01/2012 01:43:27 AM
- 1280 Views
Agreed - reading it, I struggled to find any redeeming qualities
30/01/2012 07:32:58 PM
- 1366 Views
Agreed, in general. The tremendous bad faith and sophistry turn me off, though.
29/01/2012 09:31:04 PM
- 1471 Views
Mostly agreed with the article, but thought she undermined herself with her own racism.
29/01/2012 02:50:11 PM
- 1341 Views
Just read your Twitter convo... nice try, but looks like wasted effort. *NM*
29/01/2012 10:37:08 PM
- 578 Views
Well, I'll be honest.
29/01/2012 10:34:46 PM
- 1216 Views
Let me try to summarize some of her points with the invective filtered out, then.
29/01/2012 10:48:24 PM
- 1411 Views
Thank you.
29/01/2012 11:10:13 PM
- 1441 Views
What the hell, might as well go and play devil's advocate, right?
30/01/2012 04:50:30 PM
- 1347 Views
I expected that.
30/01/2012 05:39:59 PM
- 1246 Views
Of course you did. I'm predictable that way.
30/01/2012 10:28:10 PM
- 1233 Views
Re: Of course you did. I'm predictable that way.
31/01/2012 12:39:46 AM
- 1134 Views
Re: Of course you did. I'm predictable that way.
31/01/2012 08:38:46 PM
- 1178 Views
I <3 you, but there are several very key things we are not going to agree on.
31/01/2012 10:02:22 PM
- 1598 Views
Hmm?
31/01/2012 10:10:22 PM
- 1166 Views
Yeah. I got to reading Encyclopedia of Arda just now, and it told me the same thing.
31/01/2012 10:35:54 PM
- 1091 Views
As a sort of group answer (I've been mostly absent from forums the past two days)
31/01/2012 10:45:55 PM
- 1431 Views
I don't mind if you tell me I'm out of line here, but
31/01/2012 11:55:04 PM
- 1272 Views
I'm rarely ever offended
01/02/2012 01:54:58 AM
- 1457 Views
She was referring specifically to the Twitter "conversation" I had with the blogger.
01/02/2012 09:05:28 AM
- 1240 Views
Yes.
01/02/2012 10:47:22 AM
- 1370 Views
It makes me wonder what she thinks is happening in Zimbabwe, for example.
01/02/2012 11:13:11 AM
- 1408 Views
I've been thinking about that.
01/02/2012 11:29:18 AM
- 1198 Views
That blog post was mostly good, but the exception is a rather large one.
01/02/2012 08:35:57 PM
- 1118 Views
What's a neckbeard? And why am I supposed to care? *NM*
30/01/2012 01:29:07 AM
- 650 Views
neckbeards are when the person (either intentionally or through misfortunate genetics)...
30/01/2012 03:21:09 AM
- 1177 Views
acrackedmoon is a racist, sexist bore. And I don't even like Tolkien. *NM*
30/01/2012 01:14:17 PM
- 1309 Views