3 ms·
> It's like saying Star Wars is racist because the Siths represent the dark side. I would say that, if I were inclined to spare Star Wars serious critical thou
by akanet 12y ago
> It's like saying Star Wars is racist because the Siths represent the dark side.
I would say that, if I were inclined to spare Star Wars serious critical thought.
I understand that blackness is a Western cultural symbol. I also understand that Tolkein did not invent dragons.
That doesn't mean he isn't responsible for the content of his work. When you make an entire sentient race (species?) of people in a work both ugly from a human perspective AND evil, what are you saying? Certainly you are saying some things that have roots in a lot of Western mythology, but you are also probably being at least just a wee bit racist.
- simonh 12y agoThat's far from accurate. As I have pointed out previously elsewhere (but will expand on here), light meaning illumination and dark meaning darkness are universal proxies for good and evil or life and death around the world, including many and quite possibly all African mythologies. It's there in Voodoo in spades, and in Hinduism. It's got nothing to do with skin colour. I'm not aware of Tolkien says anything about other races of human being either more or less likely to be corrupted and pleanty of 'white guys' get corrupted into evil. Orcs aren't human, nor are elves and their metaphysical natures are different from those of humans. By casting Orcs the way he does Tolkien isn't saying anything about the corruptability or otherwise of humanity or any race of it. He's just borrowing elements of otherness and alienness from real world myths about fairytale creatures some of which are inimical to humans and conventional morality.