March 21, 2003

What Do I Know?
Brett C.

Thank you Chambers for your praise in our knowledge of Tolkien's works. Yes, it is nice to have access to a body of work that is definitive and without ambiguity or falsehood [though keeping track of all the minutiae [did I spell that right?] in the Histories of Middle Earth is time-consuming].

I had not thought it is wrong to question the events going in on the world around us, or to attempt ot relate them to a context we can understand. We need not completely hand over our power to those in government by saying that we have no knowledge or understanding of the facts and must completely trust their decisions.

As for what the Professor would think - well, just the fact that LOTR inspires people to ask questions about the world around them would I hoped be a source of satisfaction for him. Clearly he understood the realities of war in the real world when he wrote the foreword which I have already quoted. His opinion of the decisions made by us in the 20 the century [ie in any real conflict no side would hesitate to use the power of the Ring] is fairly obvious. A lot of the debate going on is a question of is this or that the right thing to do. I had wished to beleive, even with the heated nature of the discussion, that such talk could be a healthy excercise, but I am sorry if any participation of mine offended.

I apologize if my comments on the use of the Ring or any allusions to Denethor were inarticulate or poorly thought out. I shall continue attempting to write only thoughtful essays; I try to occasionally lapse into more analytical or comceptual areas, rather than mere revision of printed facts. Again, I apologize to everyone if my attempts are clumsy or badly considered.

Of course, we can always go back to discussing wings on Balrogs, if you would rather.