March 24, 2003

Good Point, Chambers
Brett C.

At the risk of this sounding like a mutual admiration society, let me thank Chambers for the intelligent response he gave in his aticle on the Dangers of Simplification, and I take on board your comments about the need to be extremely careful classifying any leader as either absolute good or evil. That ws why I thought Denethor is such an intersting individual, because unlike Gandalf and Sauron he is a human wrestling with human weaknesses in a situation of crisis. Unfortunately Denethor allows himself to be blinded to the larger picture becuase, as Chamber said, he allows himself to simplify the situation to survival of Gondor being paramount at any cost. I agree there is little to be gained by comparing the current conflicts anywhere in our word to the War of the Ring. The best we can hope for is to be inspired by the actions of the character in the story, either in their truimphs of their failings. I think the fact that Tolkien wrote a story that so readily lends itself to such thoughts is just another reason why it is a true classic, and will remain timeless.