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The reason that there is no discussion of the economics of the Shire in LOTR is because it’s not relevant to the story and the land and the people are all ficti
by efitz 2y ago
The reason that there is no discussion of the economics of the Shire in LOTR is because it’s not relevant to the story and the land and the people are all fictional. It doesn’t have to work.
Tolkien was setting up a dichotomy between the idyllic, paradise-like shire where everyone lives in harmony with nature and has lots of leisure time and no one wants of necessities and everyone gets along , etc, is to set up a counterpoint vs industrialization and ugliness and capitalism etc. it’s just a big old trope. Just like sets in a play, it’s two-dimensional. It’s also a backdrop setting up an “innocence lost” storyline for the protagonists.
The bottom line is that it’s a utopia and utopias only exist in stories; real people are fallible and have many motivations, some of which are not noble, and so such a place can’t exist.
- WalterBright 2y agoIt's not that much different from the Star Trek Utopian world run by a benevolent dictator and his selfless incorruptible staff.
- 082349872349872 2y agoThere's always the mirror universe...
- pavel_lishin 2y agoBut it's also a playground, and once we close the book we can still explore the world built. Sure, the set is two dimensional, but we can try to figure out how it might work.
- veddox 2y agoIf you think the Lord of the Rings is one big trope, you really haven't given it enough consideration. Yes, Tolkien has very clear moral and social ideals, but using this as grounds to portray LotR as "two-dimensional" absolutely does not do it justice. There's so much more nuance to it! The Shire is idyllic, but no paradise. Its inhabitants are lovable, but petty and smallminded, they squabble and feud and betray each other. Good and evil exist, but aside from Gandalf and Sauron, all "good" characters have faults and mixed motivations and all "evil" characters are at least potentially redeemable. The stories of Middle Earth are shaped by Tolkien's (conservative, Christian) worldview, but he definitely did not write a utopia.
- efitz 2y agoI never said LOTR is one big trope. I said the Shire storyline re: Saruman was a trope. I happen to love LOTR anyway and have read it many times; I just am not blind to the themes in it.