tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8937414969460147900.post8333413349941811531..comments2024-03-06T07:06:38.928-08:00Comments on JSBlog - Journal of a Southern Bookreader: The Last RingbearerRay Girvanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05556764642402680159noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8937414969460147900.post-63053206414562247342011-02-16T11:57:11.849-08:002011-02-16T11:57:11.849-08:00Perhaps there is another side to the story of Evil...Perhaps there is another side to the story of Evil, but I find it hard not to side with Gandalf on the evils of industrialization as Tolkien portrays them, particularly after giving my class yesterday the casualty statistics for the Great War in which Tolkien lost so many of his friends. Does Markov really believe that the trenches (upon which Mordor is modeled) were a good thing? Or simply misunderstood?Fencing Bearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16825525662123382529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8937414969460147900.post-22908045456100380292011-03-21T08:20:01.166-07:002011-03-21T08:20:01.166-07:00Read the book and find out. You won't regret ...Read the book and find out. You won't regret it.<br><br>I hope Markov would also see his book as propaganda - history told by the losers in this case. There is something faintly disturbing about the point of view of the Mordor characters early on and especially on industrialisation. The interview with the Nazgul reads very much like the Grand Inquisitor episode from Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. Like this it also ends with a sense that there is something very wrong with the pragmatism being displayed by the Inquisitor/Nazgul.<br><br>This is a true book of ideas in the Russian tradition.grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17906541792485204991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8937414969460147900.post-11469316424113238952011-03-21T08:41:06.259-07:002011-03-21T08:41:06.259-07:00Thanks; I had another project to finish, but am in...Thanks; I had another project to finish, but am in mid-stream now. It's reminding me in some respects of Larry Niven's <i>When The Magic Goes Away</i>, that takes a story of the literal decline of magic as an allegory for the threshold of change from mythical world to hsitorical world.Ray Girvanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05556764642402680159noreply@blogger.com