I have a shiny tape-covered book!
Aug. 18th, 2010 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elabyI've decided that it's high time for my periodic re-read of Lord of the Rings. Next year, good lord, it'll be 20 years of Elaby + LotR = OTP. TWENTY YEARS. This may not seem like a lot in the grand scheme of things, but that's the vast majority of my life! Logically, I know how old I am, but I still have trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that I've done anything for 20 straight years, let alone been a fan of something that my love for which has never significantly waned.
The other night,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caitirin fixed my copy of Fellowship of the Ring for me. It's probably more than twice as old as I am: I think (and correct me if I'm wrong here, coastal_spirit) my grandmother owned it, read it, gave it to my mother when she was a teenager, and my mother read it to me when I was 8 or 9 and then bequeathed it into my keeping. The cover is still 2/3 intact, the back somewhat less so, the pages are yellowed and rounded and waterstained and smell marvelous. It clearly shows the signs of my inept attempts to repair it with, oh god, masking tape. We removed both covers, reconstructed them with clear book tape, Rachel attached little strips of new paper to the pages that had fallen out at the beginning and reattached them, and we bound the whole thing back together with more book tape. It looks much the same as it used to (to my relief), only now I don't feel like I have to carry it in a ziplock bag in order to keep it from disintegrating. <3 my librarian wife!
I've gotten as far as the Flight to the Ford. This reading has been interesting, because I feel at the same time more enamored than ever with Tolkien's storytelling voice and also very much aware of the problems the story has from a social equality viewpoint. The hobbits and people of Bree refer to the Nazgul as "black men," and whether or not this is supposed to be a reflection of their skin color or the color of their garb, it still reads as insensitive and offensive since most people use it in a pejorative sense and not just as a description. Not only that, every time a character is supposed to be tagged as suspicious, they're described as "swarthy" or "dark" or "squint-eyed" or "slant-eyed". These are all very casual, offhand, ingrained references, as if it's the most natural thing in the world to assume readers will connect those adjectives with badness.
There are class issues as well as racial ones. The way the narration, not to mention the other characters, treat Sam at this stage is kind of disturbing. I never noticed before how obviously higher class Frodo, Merry, and Pippin are supposed to be. Sam may have practically grown up at Bag End because he liked listening to Bilbo's stories, but at least this early he's never treated like an equal. When the four hobbits are together, other characters will address them as "Mr. Baggins and Mr. Took and Mr. Brandybuck and all". Nobody bothers to learn his name. The other half of the time, people don't even acknowledge that he's there. "Stupid" and "dumb" are words used often to describe his actions and expressions. He's constantly compared in the narration to a dog, jumping up eagerly as if to go for a walk and curling up at night by Frodo's feet. Unlike the racial issues, the class problems where Sam is concerned are sort of poked at and tweaked and undermined; Sam, after all, ends up probably the strongest character in the entire story. Even at this stage, he's often the one with the most sense, even if he isn't wise and worldly, and he says things that are deep enough to surprise the other characters.
As people far more intelligent than I have said, all this doesn't mean you're not allowed to like these books. You can love something and still recognize that it's problematic. I'd just never realized the extent of it for myself before; I've read other people's comments on the problems and believed they were present, but this is the first time I've picked them out myself and been put off by them.
Switching gears, it's utterly clear to me, reading this part of the story again, why FotR has always been my favorite of the three. The narrative voice in this book is so vivid and charming and nostalgic. It's no wonder people "asked for more information about hobbits," as Tolkien says in his foreword. Their lives are the most real to us. They're not noble and lofty and concerned with matters of kingship, like most of the Men in the story, or almost completely removed from this plane of reality like the Elves are. They're not minor gods (hello, Gandalf). They just want not to be bothered and to have a nice supper. They talk like real people! Later in the trilogy, the language gets all elevated. Characters are going "I regret the rashness of my actions, but I could not prevent them, for in the darkness my fear was great." A hobbit, on the other hand, would say "Sorry I acted like that, lads, but it was dark in there and I was near scared out of my boots." Even Aragorn talks more like a regular person this early on, although that fits with Strider's persona. He even used Bree-speech when he first appeared, which I noticed and thought was just the early conversationality of the storytelling, but then Frodo points it out as evidence that Aragorn isn't what he seems. And few and far between are the places where a line sounds out of place or awkward. The whole thing just lilts.
Tolkien's descriptions of the scenery are one thing that made a big impression on me this time. They're gorgeous - if ever anyone needs a good example of how to describe the lay of the land in specific and exciting ways, this is it. I knew exactly what the countryside of the Shire looks like when I was reading, and it adds so much to the atmosphere. Reading this part is like watching a movie with amazing cinematography.
I was so excited when Aragorn showed up XD I love him so much, especially at the beginning. He's kind of caustic, which I had forgotten; it's interwoven with kindness, though, and this lonely sort of "I wish people would stop hating me just because I look like I've been rolling in a prickerbush for a month!" And he's not all-knowing, which is so important to me in a character. He makes good decisions, but he's never quite sure that his decisions really are all that good, even this early. It gets worse later, poor guy. This helps jack up the tension, too, because while he's given all this authority and you get the immediate impression that he's the most capable person they could hope to find, at the same time he's kind of at a loss as to how best to proceed, and it really communicates the direness of their situation.
The other night,
caitirin fixed my copy of Fellowship of the Ring for me. It's probably more than twice as old as I am: I think (and correct me if I'm wrong here, coastal_spirit) my grandmother owned it, read it, gave it to my mother when she was a teenager, and my mother read it to me when I was 8 or 9 and then bequeathed it into my keeping. The cover is still 2/3 intact, the back somewhat less so, the pages are yellowed and rounded and waterstained and smell marvelous. It clearly shows the signs of my inept attempts to repair it with, oh god, masking tape. We removed both covers, reconstructed them with clear book tape, Rachel attached little strips of new paper to the pages that had fallen out at the beginning and reattached them, and we bound the whole thing back together with more book tape. It looks much the same as it used to (to my relief), only now I don't feel like I have to carry it in a ziplock bag in order to keep it from disintegrating. <3 my librarian wife!I've gotten as far as the Flight to the Ford. This reading has been interesting, because I feel at the same time more enamored than ever with Tolkien's storytelling voice and also very much aware of the problems the story has from a social equality viewpoint. The hobbits and people of Bree refer to the Nazgul as "black men," and whether or not this is supposed to be a reflection of their skin color or the color of their garb, it still reads as insensitive and offensive since most people use it in a pejorative sense and not just as a description. Not only that, every time a character is supposed to be tagged as suspicious, they're described as "swarthy" or "dark" or "squint-eyed" or "slant-eyed". These are all very casual, offhand, ingrained references, as if it's the most natural thing in the world to assume readers will connect those adjectives with badness.
There are class issues as well as racial ones. The way the narration, not to mention the other characters, treat Sam at this stage is kind of disturbing. I never noticed before how obviously higher class Frodo, Merry, and Pippin are supposed to be. Sam may have practically grown up at Bag End because he liked listening to Bilbo's stories, but at least this early he's never treated like an equal. When the four hobbits are together, other characters will address them as "Mr. Baggins and Mr. Took and Mr. Brandybuck and all". Nobody bothers to learn his name. The other half of the time, people don't even acknowledge that he's there. "Stupid" and "dumb" are words used often to describe his actions and expressions. He's constantly compared in the narration to a dog, jumping up eagerly as if to go for a walk and curling up at night by Frodo's feet. Unlike the racial issues, the class problems where Sam is concerned are sort of poked at and tweaked and undermined; Sam, after all, ends up probably the strongest character in the entire story. Even at this stage, he's often the one with the most sense, even if he isn't wise and worldly, and he says things that are deep enough to surprise the other characters.
As people far more intelligent than I have said, all this doesn't mean you're not allowed to like these books. You can love something and still recognize that it's problematic. I'd just never realized the extent of it for myself before; I've read other people's comments on the problems and believed they were present, but this is the first time I've picked them out myself and been put off by them.
Switching gears, it's utterly clear to me, reading this part of the story again, why FotR has always been my favorite of the three. The narrative voice in this book is so vivid and charming and nostalgic. It's no wonder people "asked for more information about hobbits," as Tolkien says in his foreword. Their lives are the most real to us. They're not noble and lofty and concerned with matters of kingship, like most of the Men in the story, or almost completely removed from this plane of reality like the Elves are. They're not minor gods (hello, Gandalf). They just want not to be bothered and to have a nice supper. They talk like real people! Later in the trilogy, the language gets all elevated. Characters are going "I regret the rashness of my actions, but I could not prevent them, for in the darkness my fear was great." A hobbit, on the other hand, would say "Sorry I acted like that, lads, but it was dark in there and I was near scared out of my boots." Even Aragorn talks more like a regular person this early on, although that fits with Strider's persona. He even used Bree-speech when he first appeared, which I noticed and thought was just the early conversationality of the storytelling, but then Frodo points it out as evidence that Aragorn isn't what he seems. And few and far between are the places where a line sounds out of place or awkward. The whole thing just lilts.
Tolkien's descriptions of the scenery are one thing that made a big impression on me this time. They're gorgeous - if ever anyone needs a good example of how to describe the lay of the land in specific and exciting ways, this is it. I knew exactly what the countryside of the Shire looks like when I was reading, and it adds so much to the atmosphere. Reading this part is like watching a movie with amazing cinematography.
I was so excited when Aragorn showed up XD I love him so much, especially at the beginning. He's kind of caustic, which I had forgotten; it's interwoven with kindness, though, and this lonely sort of "I wish people would stop hating me just because I look like I've been rolling in a prickerbush for a month!" And he's not all-knowing, which is so important to me in a character. He makes good decisions, but he's never quite sure that his decisions really are all that good, even this early. It gets worse later, poor guy. This helps jack up the tension, too, because while he's given all this authority and you get the immediate impression that he's the most capable person they could hope to find, at the same time he's kind of at a loss as to how best to proceed, and it really communicates the direness of their situation.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-19 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-19 12:57 pm (UTC)I also think it's really impressive how your critical read and thinky thinks are going.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 01:14 am (UTC)I like thinking!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-19 12:59 pm (UTC)I got a lot of excellent material for many (too many, probably!) papers way back in College Land from many of the issues you're discussing here. In Sam's case, especially, I think the undermining was done on purpose to contrast his role in the overall story.
The racial inequality and prejudice, I really feel, is a reflection of the times in which Tolkien was writing and his war experiences as well as his need to put a face on the enemy. That's not to say it's right, but I think it hits our Politically Correct ears differently than it would have someone in the 50s or 60s. I won't go on...because I'm sure you get it!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-19 04:48 pm (UTC)It's like Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequels. That ridiculous steppin' fetchit act would be completely beyond the pale were it a real person, but George Lucas got away with it because he was an alien. Just like he got away with the hook-nose haggling Jew, and the woman-stealing red Indians.
I could go on. I probably shouldn't, right? I'll just end up ranting about the racism and misogyny in Narnia. I really should get out more.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 01:29 am (UTC)This was something I was trying to articulate in my post and couldn't figure out how to word it! The fact that the "suspicious" characters are given theses characteristics so casually and so... taken for granted, if that's the right phrase... it seems much more firmly entrenched.
I've only read two of the Narnia books, and only when I was younger... and I can't remember much at all about them. I wouldn't be much use in that conversation anyway!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 01:16 am (UTC)I think you're right about the way it would've sounded when it was written. Which, as you said, doesn't make it right, it's just something to consider about the way many people thought during that time period.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-21 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-21 01:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-21 10:37 pm (UTC)To correct you just a bit, the books were always mine. I got them as a young teenager, along with The Hobbit, because everyone else was reading them. I never read any farther than The Hobbit at that point, for some reason, probably because I really wasn't into fantasy at the time. Why Grammy decided to read them, I'll never know, since fantasy really wasn't her thing either, but she used to read them while she ate lunch, and had a hard time putting them down because they were so "weirdly fascinating". ;} I never read them until I read them to you.
Sometimes I feel woefully naive. I know that when I read those books to you I never equated "black men", or "slant-eyed", or "squint-eyed" with anyone of a particular race - my mind just didn't run in that direction - but I can clearly see what you mean. I did notice the class difference, but I thought it was a reflection of the British society at the time. It's a good example of how pervasive this stuff is, and why it's good for us to be learning how to be more aware of privilege.
As people far more intelligent than I have said, all this doesn't mean you're not allowed to like these books. You can love something and still recognize that it's problematic.
Yes, this. I still love Gone With the Wind, and it's HUGELY problematic, on many levels. In fact, in re-reading it as an adult, I was quite horrified, so I can fully appreciate your feelings.
I was so excited when Aragorn showed up XD I love him so much, especially at the beginning.
So do I! I've always had a soft spot for Strider. :}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-23 11:29 pm (UTC)I know that when I read those books to you I never equated "black men", or "slant-eyed", or "squint-eyed" with anyone of a particular race - my mind just didn't run in that direction - but I can clearly see what you mean.
I think what's scariest about it is that Tolkien may not even have thought to himself "I'll make my evil people look like Asian or black people!" but instead picked those physical characteristics because he thought they would communicate "shifty and untrustworthy and suspicious" to his readers. Gaaah.
In fact, in re-reading it as an adult, I was quite horrified, so I can fully appreciate your feelings.
I'm still enjoying reading it, thankfully, even though I can see it has problems. I've sadly gotten past the first half of Fellowship, which is where things start getting bleak ^^;; And continue that way for the next two and a half books!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 02:22 pm (UTC)This is undoubtedly the case. Ingrained, unconscious prejudice may not be as outwardly scary as outward, violent prejudice, but it's more insidious, and in many cases, harder to dispel because one isn't aware of it.
I'm still enjoying reading it, thankfully, even though I can see it has problems.
I think recognizing and acknowledging the problems are half the battle. You don't have to feel guilty about enjoying things (or at least I think so) as long as you can view them with your eyes open, and not view many of their problematic issues with dismissal or excuses. It's kind of called, "Focusing on the positive", I guess.