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Originally Posted by Aiwendil
Sure, an older Wittgenstein who had rather lost his philosophical way.
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Or who had indeed found it after his premature naivete...
But yes, as Rune said:
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This post like Wittgenstein belongs in a philosophical discution, don't you think?
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So I'll leave it be.
But the point I tried to make alongside Bethberry was that we seem to speak about lots of somewhat different things here as we discuss "the most tragic part", but that it does not mean we are "mixing things up". Quite on the contrary it seems most natural to me.
If I try to say what was the most tragic part in the books or if I try to say what is the thing that moved me most deeply or which thing gave me that beautiful anguishing feeling of sadness... I'm not able to see who or what could make decisions concerning the definition of these things if not us language users in our communication trying to understand one another.
The tragicness of Turin's life and death are of a different sort than the anguish we're experiencing from reading about the inevitable waning of the elven race. So can we use the same word tragic to cover both instances? Why not? But it requires that we open up the things we mean by tragicness and share our points thus enriching the conceptual world we live in and share with each other...
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Back to the topic. Child added Frodo's departure to the most tragic moments. I do agree with her here somewhat. Frodo's departure does not concern only Sam and the other hobbits, but us readers as well. There is a strong feeling of this world being left to go on with its own (thus combining to the theme of the waning elves) after being guided by powers more enlightened than human minds. But I can see all this also as a challenge and liberation too. From that moment on it's up to us humans what we do and how we do it. So there is the hope and there is the fear. Learning to walk on our own feet... do we stumble or not? But is it tragic then if it carries a hope within it?