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Palintir's weren't evil spying tech. They were originally Zoom for coordinating the far flung domains of the Numenoreans. Only when the Minas Morgul palintir fe
by hnmullany 6y ago
Palintir's weren't evil spying tech. They were originally Zoom for coordinating the far flung domains of the Numenoreans. Only when the Minas Morgul palintir fell into the hands of Sauron did they become instruments of his corruption.
- high_5 6y agoIronically, all these Chinese based SaaS seem to go quite along the lines of the LoTR story (Zoom, Tik-Tok).
- xkcd-sucks 6y ago> Only when the Minas Morgul palintir fell into the hands of Sauron did they become instruments of his corruption Only when Trump got on Twitter...
- vkou 6y agoKeep in mind that the Numenorians were a cautionary tale of human pride, hubris and abuse of magical trinkets [1], that eventually led them to declare war on the gods, and try to invade Valinor. They then got Atlantis'd. There's a few recurring themes in Tolkien's work - one of them is that marvelous inventions, created by clever people for good purposes, can either be turned to do evil - or the struggle to possess them will turn good people to do evil. [1] In contrast to the rest of the Silmarillion, which was a cautionary tale of elven pride, hubris, and abuse/attachment to magical trinkets.
- hcrisp 6y agoThat is a very astute observation! I seem to remember Tolkien himself explaining that The Silmarillion was from an elvish view, the middle tale of The Hobbit was a virtually human view, and The Lord of the Rings blends them. I think he meant in tone and style, but the subject material aligns with your view as well. To my mind, the Numenorean legends in Unfinished Tales seem closer to The Silmarillion than either of his other two main published works.