Concerning "Lord of
the Rings":
If you doubt Galadriel,
Queen of Elves, then it reflects only your own evil, so says Aragorn.
How quickly did we pass
this one over when we first read it... this homage to keeping someone immune to
critical scrutiny, this making of her into Kim Jong-on?
- - - - -
Saruman has always been
jealous of Gandalf.
Really? Saruman is the head
of the council, the innovator, the only one in Middle-earth who doesn't not
want the old ways to always dwarf the efforts of the new, and he's the one
who's jealous? Gandalf IS favoured by Galadriel, and always has been, and
though this surely means a lot to Gandalf, it may not actually mean much to
Saruman if he's passed on from finding much pleasure in being so obedient of
old rules principally because it makes you mom's favourite, towards finding
pleasure in accomplishing his own goals. When Gandalf lists all the ways in
which Saruman has not ACTUALLY accomplished all that he seems to have, how it's
all in truth a copy of someone else, doesn't he seem here a bit someone who is
speaking in jealousy of another's accomplishments? Isn't this behaviour we
would expect of someone suffering from envy?
- - - - -
"Faithful heart may
have forward tongue." So says Eomar to Theoden.
How deeply is this lesson
manifested in the text? Who has a more forward tongue than Wormtongue, Sauron's
Messenger, and Saruman, and who are they but those who must cease their
slippery, snakish dialogues by nothing better than a quick fist to the face?
What is this but an attempt to make it seem like you've owned every possible
criticism of you -- like that you generally make it impossible to criticize
people because the very act of criticism defines you as the one critical
attention must actually be put to -- i.e., Aragorn's crime.
- - - - -
Gandalf has Merry and
Pippin along on his trail as sidesaddle.
Saruman the wanderer has
Wormtongue on his trail as sidesaddle.
What is this matching but
to communicate that should Merry and Pippin go further along on their tendency
to be disobedient, they're due not to be those who can still learn their
lessons via suffering "burned hands" but those who can be kicked
viciously about by a grumpy, intimidating master, they'll still find themselves
needing to cling to? Wormtongue, his fate -- miserable, endlessly picked on,
humiliated -- is the abject lesson everyone else intuits from, that keeps them
from rebelling against ancient authorities and striking out on their own.
- - - - -
Bilbo lives a great life,
but is to some extent pressured the whole way by relatives and kinsmen who
think there is something unnatural about his wealth and immunity to aging. His
ample gift-giving helps -- especially that of his troll-treasure, which he
gives away entirely for it not really being his but stuff belonging to other
travellers --but he's holding onto things -- the text even admits -- much
longer than he should, without earning RIGHTEOUS retribution.
Frodo gets none of this.
He's barely got his inheritance before he forsakes it to Bilbo's most pressing
relative, Lobelia. He goes out adventuring and gets stabbed by a wraith, buried
in with undead ghouls, is grabbed at lustily by a great warrior who looms over
him, is molested by Orcs, and withers into a faint shell that must be carried
around by his servant. Afterwards, he can barely celebrate victory with his
comrades for being so drained, and is lost quickly enough to Middle-earth
entire. He has, in short, this adopted son of Bilbo, exactly none of the good
fun Bilbo had, even though there are times where he comes across in quite
excellent stature -- i.e., the way he engages with Galadriel, Gollum, and
Faramir.
This is what but the
sacrifice of young for elders' accruing guilt-inspiring wealth and prosperity?
The text hardly proves true in really lamenting when a son dies before
father... it encourages it so much it seems the whole point of the book:
because Bilbo had actual fun with a dragon and got buckets of treasure to boot,
Frodo has to know only the fire.
- - - - -
Galadriel and Gandalf
become by the end absolutely outside others' rightful questioning. But isn't
there something a bit guilty about Galadriel's being identified -- almost
caught out -- as still being in possession of a ring of power herself? The text
plays out a bit as if someone had caught site of it and allowed itself to
register THAT, but otherwise strove to seem as loyal to her as possible so to
not be caught out in this register of suspicion: hence, the subsequent plot
development of Gimli declaring life-long fidelity to her. By Return of the King
we're long passed doubting Gandalf -- he's right about everything. But
somewhere ensconced in this reign of absolute fidelity to him, he himself
registers that Merry's aid in the defeat of the Nazgul King proved that he was
right to have resisted Elrond and insisted Merry and Pippin be the final
members of the Fellowship, something he had actually been doubting. Somehow the
text has served to make "doubt" something he himself could own up to
but which we've long been dissuaded from. It's made us the very opposite of
those who'd ever speak forward tongue against him, but only those who can be
shown up and shamed, put back in place -- if need be -- for being so ready to
agree we couldn't offer requisite unflattering feedback even if such was
absolutely called for.
- - - - -
The text is everywhere
forwarning against taking the easy way.
If you take an easy way, is
it because you'll be caught out more quickly or because that way you won't be
able to display bravado in face of fears, accumulate as many scars that show
how much you'd born upon yourself? Bilbo still lived at a time where the best
way to be was to come out of adventures and seem happy as can be: absolutely
ready to lounge and enjoy oneself. Sam, Merry and Pippin at a time when the
best way to return is where there's always a glint of steel to be found in your
eyes, and that you never quite forget amidst all the golden days returned that
Orcs once tortured you and that evil will never be quite quit from the world.
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