Deus ex Machina - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

tangerine · 02-28-2003, 10:05 PM

In classical times, deus ex machina was considered the equivalent of giving the audience the finger by some playwrights, insulting their intelligence by making everything better by introducing the so-called 'god in the machine'.
Tolkien did this once or twice in the hobbit, but that's almost excusable, being a children's book. Bombadil strikes me as a borderline DEM, being always there at the right time, and yet their meetings seem almost coincidental. Otherwise, most occurances can be fairly well explained in one way or another.

02-28-2003, 10:05 PM	#35
tangerine Haunting Spirit Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 100	In classical times, deus ex machina was considered the equivalent of giving the audience the finger by some playwrights, insulting their intelligence by making everything better by introducing the so-called 'god in the machine'. Tolkien did this once or twice in the hobbit, but that's almost excusable, being a children's book. Bombadil strikes me as a borderline DEM, being always there at the right time, and yet their meetings seem almost coincidental. Otherwise, most occurances can be fairly well explained in one way or another.