The Ring -- Council of The Grey

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Date Posted: 07:55:39 08/12/00 Sat
Author: Mariah
Subject: The Ring
In reply to: steve 's message, "Re: The Lord of the Rings" on 23:15:20 08/11/00 Fri

Well, strangely enough, Monet comes to mind.

People had always said how great Monet was as a painter. But, I never truly understood how wonderful his paintings were until I went to a show where you walked in to the hallway and far, far away down at the end of the hallway, lit with light was one of his paintings. From a great distance, it was the most magnificent painting of water you would ever have seen.

So, trying to understand Money by closely inspecting the dots that the painting was comprised of didn't work - whereas standing far back with extreme illumination made the painting fall together into it's true magnificence.

...

The problem with Tolkein is that he was the ultimate in separating good from evil, giving solidity to the separation through fear. He wasn't one to show that the separation is just a lie. Nor was he one to show that fear is the real problem. In his world, Sauron rose high in power as if he truly held power over you. The black riders were something that one must truly be frightened of, and the Balrog was a silent terrifying thing of crackling fire that held the power to destroy, for if it could destroy Gandalf (but in reality the destruction brought Gandalf the Gray into Gandalf the White as a much stronger spirit than he ever was before his 'death') then what was the end of its power?

However, I think that the most powerful positive message that came from the Lord of the Rings trilogy was that everybody was needed.

For those who have never read the books, Gollum was a creepy little creature who at one time had held the ring as his own (My Precious), and the ring had completely destroyed his mind for at one time the ring had given him meaning, and made him larger than just himself, for the ring made him invisible. The ring had been taken from him, and all he could think of after that was to get the ring back through every devious plan he could devise. He identified so completely that the ring was him that that's what his life had become.

They were tempted many times to reject Gollum, or even kill Gollum, but in the end the ring would never have been destroyed if it weren't for Gollum.

Without Gollum, the Hobbits would never have succeeded.

...

But, in general, Tolkien separated good from evil in all his works, raising the thought of separation, raising the belief in evil, raising the thought that there is a need to kill the thing which is evil. It was never well laid out that fear is the real culprit. Nor, was it well laid out that love is the power which calms the fear and makes for the final success of the heart.

And, the great enormity of his books, coupled with the potential for perceived symbolism, encouraged people to get just as lost in those books as people have been encouraged to get lost in the Holy Bible. Words as symbolism must never be used as a replacement for the real world.

> ...if you read the story of the lord of the rings, the
> hobbit, and the su=immilarion...it has amazing
> litteral ties to many things that are symbolic we hold
> dear, I tried to get David to read it a year or so
> ago, but I could not...
>
> one ring
> three rings
> seven rings(for seven dwarves most intrestingly enough)
> nine rings

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Replies:

Re: The Ring -- steve, 14:48:01 08/12/00 Sat