tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post7524573926842350217..comments2024-03-18T19:05:39.072-07:00Comments on Morphosis: The Great Fable In Praise of Book Burning: Tolkien's Lord of the RingsAdam Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-82985704077113587182019-03-12T10:49:58.718-07:002019-03-12T10:49:58.718-07:00panduan cara bermain tarung ayam s128panduan cara bermain<a href="www.nf4008.org" rel="nofollow"> tarung ayam</a> s128<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16415256613108662549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-64998263477614690002018-12-27T09:36:53.145-08:002018-12-27T09:36:53.145-08:00mau yang asik ? adu ayammau yang asik ? <a href="www.sabung-ayam.net" rel="nofollow"> adu ayam </a>susuultra023https://www.blogger.com/profile/09960993451657976318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-33366851826749237702018-02-12T01:41:35.364-08:002018-02-12T01:41:35.364-08:00Ayok Merapat kepada Kami hanya Di @BOLAVITA Www.De...Ayok Merapat kepada Kami hanya Di @BOLAVITA Www.Dewasabungayam.com<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12453343551641520721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-4240347672640160222014-10-15T10:29:36.106-07:002014-10-15T10:29:36.106-07:00The ring itself must be forged. Without fire, met...The ring itself must be forged. Without fire, metals are good only for jewelry (and money). But a forged text suggests there are unforged texts. (Also, a preference for unforged texts suggests a good world. Gregory Maguire, writing about an evil world, but from an impulse that seems similar to Tolkien's, has magical forging of new language as an apparent good.)<br /><br />OTOH, it's very difficult (especially at the distance I'm at from last reading it) not to think of the elves as having books. Were there books in their past? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-77692194768818352772014-10-06T09:23:41.247-07:002014-10-06T09:23:41.247-07:00Abigail: yes, of course you're right: if we wa...Abigail: yes, of course you're right: if we want to take Tolkien's worldbuilding at face value (as it were), then the fact that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_of_Westmarch" rel="nofollow">The Red Book of Westmarch</a> exists must mean that the Hobbits possess a literate book-making culture to some extent. But this opens a larger can on worms: how it is that the essentially eighteenth-century Shire, with its tea-kettles and umbrellas and pop-guns (not to mention its waitscoats and tobacco pipes) can coexist in a world where the dominant powers are medieval (Gondor) or Old English (Rohan). This doesn't admit of an explanation on grounds of socio-political consistency, I think. And the larger point I'd make is that Tolkien's heart is with the older, pre-literate cultures. <br /><br />You're right about the Quran, of course. A colleague of mine at RHUL taught a course that included selections from the Quran (as well as other holy texts), and the dept met with representatives of Muslim students to determine what would happen with the exam papers that included sections of (English translations of) the holy book. We agree we wouldn't simply shred them as we do all other used exam papers, but would keep them in a file in a store room. Which as far as I'm aware is where there still are.Adam Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-60232991685078595312014-10-06T05:29:41.260-07:002014-10-06T05:29:41.260-07:00I'm not sure that books are as absent from the...I'm not sure that books are as absent from the Shire as you suggest. At least, they are implied. The Gaffer is dubious about Bilbo teaching Sam "his letters," but to what purpose would he have done that except to read books (and Sam is very fond of stories, though it's unclear whether these were passed to him through books or orally). Bilbo and Frodo, meanwhile, are very knowledgeable about the history of their world in a way that, to me, suggests literacy and the availability of books about that history. Documents, meanwhile, play a part in Gandalf's hunting down of the Ring. You're not wrong that books are absent from <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>, but to me this feels like an absence due to not being mentioned, as opposed to the absence of nonexistence (which is not to say that that failure to mention isn't significant in just the way that you suggest).<br /><br />Since you mention the destruction of the Koran, it's worth noting that in both Islam and Judaism, it is forbidden to destroy holy texts, even if they've become damaged or worn out. Instead, they are buried - in a special place near the synagogue, in Jewish tradition. After the Holocaust, there were many efforts to "rescue" the looted or abandoned Torah scrolls of destroyed Jewish communities - the implication being that the books had escaped the fire, even if the people didn't.Abigail Nussbaumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08562462228380637583noreply@blogger.com