[Amarinth]

KingCarlton -- ok, ok, no need to elaborate, i get you now after rereading your post. if you mean that it sounds strange to you that a fiction supposed to be enjoyed as a piece of literature has had such a profound political impact to me, in the same way that it has seen child e.g. through some personal crisis, then i understand it to be within the context of our separate experiences.

i assume (i hope correctly) that you live in a first world country, and like many posts here at bd from people of the same provenance yours speak from the perspective of a more or less ordered and working society. i've had the greatest pleasure of reading all your and other excellent posts, and i am all the better for it because i feel there are people here such as you whom people like me can learn a great deal from.

which is exactly my point. there are many external sources such as this one can learn from - social interaction, research, heck movies, and of course, reading. for people like me in a society such as we have in our country, we are compelled to learn from the outside not only for self-advancement and pleasure, but sometimes, for survival as a race. why not depend on ourselves, look internally (that we do too), you may ask, but you see, we here are all part of the same compromised system. so we sometimes have to look outside of ourselves for direction, for slef-criticism, for hope.

the power of literature as a tool for catalyzing change is a concrete one, moreso in our country. when our country was under colonial rule in the last century, a powerful liberation movement was stimulated by the incendiary novels of one man writing of the cruelty and oppressiveness of the colonial regime. this man, who became our national hero, was inspired to this near-suicidal profession after reading stowe's "uncle tom's cabin". strange, i give you that!

now what has that got to do with my post and yours? [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] literature is a powerful tool, and seldom do i find myself in the position where i have to defend some conviction i have derived in it. i reiterate that in lotr (not fantasy per se, but these novels) i personally found an ideal of hope in frodo resonant with someone i looked up to politically when i was in college. has this helped me through a lot? yes: finding my own grain of truth in "a hobbit's chance" has annointed me with hope despite the bleak future constantly forecast for my country.

to be truthful, i was a little conscious after your post that i came off a little too spaced out, cooky, mixing "reality" with "fantasy". if did, not only with you but with the others, then let me be the better person and be gratified for your more balanced and light-hearted appreciation of it. for having the better society in which you can scarce "get off" (spookily as me) on fantasy and fiction in general, i am glad for you.

peace!