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>Tolkien, thus, gave explosives (“blasting fire”) to his bad guys, to goblins and orcs who represent the emerging forces of industrialization Tolkien hated all
by Gloomily3819 3y ago
>Tolkien, thus, gave explosives (“blasting fire”) to his bad guys, to goblins and orcs who represent the emerging forces of industrialization
Tolkien hated allegorical writing. It's doubtful goblins and orcs are supposed to represent industrialization.
- mavhc 3y ago"Of course my story is not an allegory of Atomic power, but of Power." The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien #186
- resolutebat 3y agoNevertheless, the allegory works well enough that there's a great book about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer
- aldarion 3y agoHe didn't. He was in fact quite clear that Lord of the Rings was inspired in large part by his experiences in the First World War: Dead Marshes especially, but also Sauron and Saruman and their forces of industrialization.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoIt has been some years since I read LotR, but wasn’t there one very widespread edition that contained a foreword by Tolkien where he very clearly denied any allegory behind the story, and was obviously fed up by people claiming such?
- red_admiral 3y agoTolkien was against reading his works as allegory for any specific historical event, especially if that event related to the Second World War (Sauron is not an allegory for Hitler, for example). But he did mention in his letters that his writing was obviously influenced by his combat experience in the First World War.
- zokier 3y agoInspired and allegorial are two very different things. Tolkien was very explicit that LOTR was not allegory.
- astrange 3y agoRight, Scouring of the Shire represents industrialization. (Not in an allegorical way; it's literally what happens.)