I just finished reading the last part of The Lord of the Rings. I read
Hobbit and the first two parts several years ago, and was absolutely
fascinated. This time it was a little different. I still liked it a lot,
but I think the author had really ambivalent feelings towards women. When
I read the first three books, I was convinced that J.R.R. was gay,
because women were practically absent from his world whatsoever, even as
sex objects to be "rescued", which are mandatory for fairy-tales. The first
half of the final, fourth book seemed pretty misogynistic, but towards the
end, he seemed simply confused. There was this great powerful character,
Eowyn, and she did not even die in the end, but the guy she was in love
with, of course, married a half-elven beauty who hardly said a couple of
words throughout the story and spent most of it in a safe, protected place of
her father till "bad times" were over. The former was ready to die for the
man she loved, the latter would not even marry him unless he won the war and
became a king, and she's got the guy in the end.
The only unusual part was that the hero was blonde, and the bimbo was
dark-haired. Usually, it' the other way around.
What I really liked, was the elven idea of death. That when Elfs, or
distinguished members of other species, got sick of this world, thay
boarded grey ships and "sailed West" to some magical land. It was really
beautiful...
By the way, since we were talking about suicide lately ("Atrocity in
England" thread), does anyone remember _The River_? It's a short story by
a guy whose name slips my mind, I think his last name was Young, and he
also wrote _There Are Thirty Days In September_. In that story, a guy who
tries to poison himself with gas, ends up floating down the river on
something like a boat but flat and made of a bunch of tree trunks (I
forgot the English word for that), which was exactly how he had always
imagined death. And he meets a girl on that river, who was also trying to
die, so they travel together, talking about what made them do that.
Reaching the waterfalls that they an hear all the time would mean the end
of the journey, but right when they come close to it, they decide that
it's not what they really want, but it might be too late. It was a nice
story, I wonder if anyone else here has read it.
And what you all think about Tolkien?
Marina
"Femininity is code for femaleness plus whatever society
happens to be selling at the time."
Naomi Wolf
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