The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Will people still like LotR in 3000 years???

Iarwain · 07-07-2003, 08:34 PM

Hm. Presuming that humanity will exist on earth in 3 millenia, we still have to ask what turns civilization will take between now and then. Optimists might say that earth will be a garden utopia ecquipped with a perfect system of justice, while pesimists could say that we will be reduced back to primative villages and means of subsistence because of raging global conflicts. Of course, this all seems very unrealistic right now: radical views of possibilities that will surely never become reality. Human shortsightedness gives us far-fetched suppositions. The ideal (for the book itself) will be that it will be considered as mythology, and that newspeak translations will be sold in bookstores, or kept in the libraries of village elders. This is all quite ridiculous, though. I really doubt that it will be remembered at all in 5003, or if it is, it will be as well known as Caedmon's poem.

The truth is that Tolkien did not further society, nor did he make any technological developments. He was good in his field, but his field is relatively unconsidered by the modern public. In fact, I recently gave an improvisational speech on philology, and I'm sure that the majority of my audience did not even know what the subject was until I began to discuss it. No one will remember Tolkien in the far reaches of the future, just as surely as the fact that the future will not remember most of us. Perhaps he will continue for a few generations, but all things must end, and I'm sure that Middle-Earth is no exception to the rule.

Iarwain

[ July 08, 2003: Message edited by: Iarwain ]

07-07-2003, 08:34 PM	#42
Iarwain Pugnaciously Primordial Paradox Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Birnham Wood Posts: 800	Hm. Presuming that humanity will exist on earth in 3 millenia, we still have to ask what turns civilization will take between now and then. Optimists might say that earth will be a garden utopia ecquipped with a perfect system of justice, while pesimists could say that we will be reduced back to primative villages and means of subsistence because of raging global conflicts. Of course, this all seems very unrealistic right now: radical views of possibilities that will surely never become reality. Human shortsightedness gives us far-fetched suppositions. The ideal (for the book itself) will be that it will be considered as mythology, and that newspeak translations will be sold in bookstores, or kept in the libraries of village elders. This is all quite ridiculous, though. I really doubt that it will be remembered at all in 5003, or if it is, it will be as well known as Caedmon's poem. The truth is that Tolkien did not further society, nor did he make any technological developments. He was good in his field, but his field is relatively unconsidered by the modern public. In fact, I recently gave an improvisational speech on philology, and I'm sure that the majority of my audience did not even know what the subject was until I began to discuss it. No one will remember Tolkien in the far reaches of the future, just as surely as the fact that the future will not remember most of us. Perhaps he will continue for a few generations, but all things must end, and I'm sure that Middle-Earth is no exception to the rule. Iarwain [ July 08, 2003: Message edited by: Iarwain ] __________________ "And what are oaths but words we say to God?"