Tolkien, Technology, and... War - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Lyta_Underhill · 05-11-2004, 05:39 PM

Also the idea of waste, such as the needless building of a bigger mill (at the expense of much of the natural landscape) in the Shire, when there was no need. This small event in the larger scheme took autonomy from the small and gave power to the outsider over the people themselves, thus echoing the rise of industry and the faceless conglomerates. There was also much senseless waste of human life in the Great War of attrition, when the generals' strategies were often, "throw as many men as possible at them and hope they run out before we do." The Germans attacks on Verdun were designed specifically to draw the hordes of French defenders to their doom in the defense of a national treasure. The Germans knew that the French would endure unthinkable human loss before they would give up Verdun. Senseless waves of young men dying in an impossible assault on Gallipoli before they realized how impossible it was...there was more human life lost through sheer waste in World War One than in any subsequent war, as far as my limited knowledge goes. I haven't read the "war-machines" version of the Fall of Gondolin, but I have read accounts of the Somme, and I imagine they would not be so different as one might think.

Cheers!
Lyta

05-11-2004, 05:39 PM	#4
Lyta_Underhill Haunted Halfling Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: an uncounted length of steps--floating between air molecules Posts: 841	Also the idea of waste, such as the needless building of a bigger mill (at the expense of much of the natural landscape) in the Shire, when there was no need. This small event in the larger scheme took autonomy from the small and gave power to the outsider over the people themselves, thus echoing the rise of industry and the faceless conglomerates. There was also much senseless waste of human life in the Great War of attrition, when the generals' strategies were often, "throw as many men as possible at them and hope they run out before we do." The Germans attacks on Verdun were designed specifically to draw the hordes of French defenders to their doom in the defense of a national treasure. The Germans knew that the French would endure unthinkable human loss before they would give up Verdun. Senseless waves of young men dying in an impossible assault on Gallipoli before they realized how impossible it was...there was more human life lost through sheer waste in World War One than in any subsequent war, as far as my limited knowledge goes. I haven't read the "war-machines" version of the Fall of Gondolin, but I have read accounts of the Somme, and I imagine they would not be so different as one might think. Cheers! Lyta __________________ “…she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea.” Last edited by Lyta_Underhill; 05-11-2004 at 05:41 PM. Reason: my treacherous fingers...typos