alienist comments on Rationality Quotes January 2015 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Gondolinian 01 January 2015 02:23AM

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Comment author: elharo 02 January 2015 12:36:50PM *  -2 points [-]

Maybe. However many scholars and other authors (Isaac Asimov comes to mind) have criticized this tendency in Tolkien. There's an extent to which Middle Earth post-War and the Shire in particular are wish fulfillment. This is what Tolkien wants the world to be. For one recent take see The Anti Tolkien in the latest issue of the New Yorker which gives Michael Moorcock his say:

Moorcock thinks Tolkien’s vast catalogue of names, places, magic rings, and dwarven kings is, as he told Hari Kunzru in a 2011 piece for The Guardian, “a pernicious confirmation of the values of a morally bankrupt middle class.”

Comment author: alienist 03 January 2015 02:05:26AM 10 points [-]

“a pernicious confirmation of the values of a morally bankrupt middle class.”

Or rather a middle class with values that Moorcock doesn't like. (Probably because they don't let him get high on claimed moral superiority.)