The Scourge of The Dark Side...Tolkien and Modernism

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Lal

It might be helpful to know what we mean by 'modernist'.

Exactly. And the same thing should be asked about 'humanism' as well... and about their relationship

There has been discussion about literary modernism in here but mostly I'd say that with modernism people have meant the socio-cultural ethos of the twentieth century (beginning late 19th) western liberal democracies. The first surely presupposes the latter but they are not the same thing.

Also the word humanism is quite confusing here as some people seem to just toy about with a strawman they have created - and the word itself has a history of six hundred years (from the renaissance umanista) - and the humanisms of the literati back then, the chrstian humanism, secular humanism, etc. do differ a lot.

Originally Posted by tumhalad2

Lastly I really don't know about the merits of humanism and modernism; I certainly think, nonetheless, that the world is a far more complex place than such philosophies allow for.

Here there has to be a kind of misunderstanding? Thinking of different worldviews or philosophies I couldn't imagine modernists to take the world as an uncomplex place - quite the opposite. Mythlogical worlds, religious worlds, conservative worlds (at least those of the style: "oh how everything was nice and neat back then") tend to carry the simple explanations. It's not a new idea that fex. fantasy may be so popular these days when it offers simple solutions and escape from this modern complex world in which we people have learned the modern way of thinking with no easy certainties and questions lurking all around.

I myself am quite much a secular humanist. So I don't believe in God - at least in any god some humans could name or know something about. Sure there can be even a god somewhere (whatever she/he/it is) - there is a lot things in the universe we people don't understand, like the being of the existence itself, or the concept of infinity.

But that doesn't stop me loving the works of Tolkien. Even if I can relate the prof's place in the chain of ideas within our cultural history it doesn't deny me slipping into his world as piece of masterly fiction or to admire his creativity and learning. And surely there's the little romantic in me as in most of us "modern westerners" who loves to dwell in all those medieval-smelling ideals, heroisms, virtues and vices, the plain living and culture... you name it.

But when I'm in this world of real people the humanist in me demands that I do fex. honour every human being as having a equal moral worth as a human being to begin with - with no über- or untermenschen, or higher and lower cultures according to which individual people would be judged etc... In this world there are no genetical master-races of the Dunedain even if some people have tried to advance that kind of ideas, or master-cultures like the elves - or unworthy Dunledings... These are very unmodern ideas - and unhumanist ideas.

There may be more virtuous or nicer individuals as there seems to be fouler or colder people. There may also be unhealthy trends in any one culture (like the overindividualism in the western culture or the rising fundamentalism in both islamic and western cultures) or good trends. But cultures as such are not bad or good - and people only become good or bad by what they do. But in the beginning they're all equal. Every newborn is sinless.

That's modernist humanism I'm proud to advocate.