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Willow · 12-22-2002, 04:48 PM

The December 2 copy of TIME magazine (the one with TTT on the cover) had a companion article to the LOTR article on why America craves fantasy. In it, the author writes:
"...but the Fellowship is still as much a boys' club as Augusta National. And whiter too. Don't let all the heartwarming Elf-Dwarf bonding between Legolas and Gimli fool you. The only people with dark skin in Middle-earth are the Orcs."
In ancient mythology, light/white is usually portrayed as good. This is an element of amny religions, also. Maybe it goes back to a fear of the night or something. Anyway, it's been ingrained in our minds to accept white as pure and good. I'm not referring to skin color, I mean general images: ie, wedding dresses are typically white to represent virginity. So Tolkien's imagery was a common theme in life. AND, he portrayed Saruman as evil while he was still white. In fact, of Gandalf the Grey and Saruman the White, Gandalf was undoubtedly the "gooder". (Yes, you could argue that Gandalf becomes Gandalf the White, but my point is Tolkien did not use white/light selectively to portray good. Wasn't the livery of Gondor black?)
I read an essay on this topic once. It said something about how traditionally in European mythology, which were the inspiration for Tolkien's works, evil armies came from the south and east. (The Huns, the Mongols) It's a basic fact of geography that if the earth is round (and judging from the fact that Middle-earth had night and day, it must have been), then the places closer to the Equator will receive more sunlight. This means the inhabitants skin color will probably be darker. I think Tolkien might have been reflecting the evil armies from the south theme in his work, and to call that racist would be kind of skewed.
Whew! I guess my point is, Tolkien seems to have used white sometimes to reflect good, but not all the time, so you couldn't call that racist.
P.S. Another point. In LOTR, Mordor was portrayed as the wellspring of all evil. It was also a volcanic land. Volcanic rock (I think) is frequently black, and so is volcanic ash. Also it was said to be dark there. So if you equate Mordor=darkness, and Mordor=evil, you might have the old theme darkness=evil. So it follows that the armies of Mordor would have black shields and stuff.
P.P.S. Couldn't you just as easily call Tolkien a misogynist as racist? There are only 9 (I think) females in the LOTR not counting the appendices: Lobelia, Rose, Elanor, Eowyn, Arwen, Galadriel, Ioreth, Goldberry, Shelob.
But what's the point? He wasn't trying to make his work PC.

12-22-2002, 04:48 PM	#37
Willow Pile O'Bones Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 16	The December 2 copy of TIME magazine (the one with TTT on the cover) had a companion article to the LOTR article on why America craves fantasy. In it, the author writes: "...but the Fellowship is still as much a boys' club as Augusta National. And whiter too. Don't let all the heartwarming Elf-Dwarf bonding between Legolas and Gimli fool you. The only people with dark skin in Middle-earth are the Orcs." In ancient mythology, light/white is usually portrayed as good. This is an element of amny religions, also. Maybe it goes back to a fear of the night or something. Anyway, it's been ingrained in our minds to accept white as pure and good. I'm not referring to skin color, I mean general images: ie, wedding dresses are typically white to represent virginity. So Tolkien's imagery was a common theme in life. AND, he portrayed Saruman as evil while he was still white. In fact, of Gandalf the Grey and Saruman the White, Gandalf was undoubtedly the "gooder". (Yes, you could argue that Gandalf becomes Gandalf the White, but my point is Tolkien did not use white/light selectively to portray good. Wasn't the livery of Gondor black?) I read an essay on this topic once. It said something about how traditionally in European mythology, which were the inspiration for Tolkien's works, evil armies came from the south and east. (The Huns, the Mongols) It's a basic fact of geography that if the earth is round (and judging from the fact that Middle-earth had night and day, it must have been), then the places closer to the Equator will receive more sunlight. This means the inhabitants skin color will probably be darker. I think Tolkien might have been reflecting the evil armies from the south theme in his work, and to call that racist would be kind of skewed. Whew! I guess my point is, Tolkien seems to have used white sometimes to reflect good, but not all the time, so you couldn't call that racist. P.S. Another point. In LOTR, Mordor was portrayed as the wellspring of all evil. It was also a volcanic land. Volcanic rock (I think) is frequently black, and so is volcanic ash. Also it was said to be dark there. So if you equate Mordor=darkness, and Mordor=evil, you might have the old theme darkness=evil. So it follows that the armies of Mordor would have black shields and stuff. P.P.S. Couldn't you just as easily call Tolkien a misogynist as racist? There are only 9 (I think) females in the LOTR not counting the appendices: Lobelia, Rose, Elanor, Eowyn, Arwen, Galadriel, Ioreth, Goldberry, Shelob. But what's the point? He wasn't trying to make his work PC. __________________ Peruser of old threads.