Author Topic: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)  (Read 9647 times)

Offline Ghreyfain

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #50 on: January 09, 2005, 02:42:16 PM »
Sort of like 1984, only less depressing.  Not that it's not depressing, by any stretch of the imagination.  Both are by George Orwell.
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Offline Eral

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #51 on: January 10, 2005, 02:24:35 AM »
What's Animal Farm, precious?
It's an allegory about Stalin's rise to dictatorship in Russia. "Less depressing" is a very relative term.  :D
« Last Edit: January 10, 2005, 02:52:39 AM by Eral »
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Offline Sillara Tamar

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #52 on: January 10, 2005, 05:18:46 AM »
I must confess to having absolutely *no* sympathy with the protagonist (or his pathetic girlfriend) in 1984, but Boxer's death always makes me cry.   :'( 

Still, though, I love Animal Farm, LotR and the Silmarillion are far superior, I think.  But then, the Silmarillion is my favorite book of all time.  Not even Jane Austen can dislodge the master!  ;D

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Offline Ashara

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #53 on: January 10, 2005, 09:12:13 AM »
Orwell? An Englishman writing Russians? Is it as pathetic as Americain Anna Karenina? Gee, people try Dostoyevskiy's "Demons" for the real thing from a person who knew what and who he was talking about.
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Offline seanas

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #54 on: January 10, 2005, 10:38:46 AM »
Orwell's not an Englishman writing Russians, he's an Englishman writing Communists (or more precisely, a disillusioned fellow-traveller writing Communists).

the sympathetic defence of Animal Farm is that, writing in 1945 (ie pre Krushchev's famous speech at the 20th Congress in 1956), he is attempting to enlighten his fellow travellers that the Revolution has been betrayed. the less sympathetic defence is that, like most of the anti-Communist socialists of the 1930s, he had transformed into a virulent reactionary by the end of WWII and was willing to endorse any amount of classism/ property relations/ capitalism if it meant fighting off communist insurgencies/ labour mobilisations.
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Offline Ashara

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #55 on: January 10, 2005, 11:38:33 AM »
I read 1984 and found it an exceptionally silly book. I think Zamyatin did something of the kind in his "We".
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There is nothing better than imagining other worlds [...] to forget the painful one we live in. At least so I thought then. I hadn't yet realized that, imagining other worlds, you end up changing this one.
-Umberto Eco, Baudolino

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Offline Eral

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #56 on: January 10, 2005, 04:52:26 PM »
Ashara, if Orwell is too depressing for us faint-hearts, imagine the effect of Dostoyevski. PPG JonesTown.
(Is there an American Anna Karenina? What, a Disney version?  :o)

Seanas, I have never heard that second interpretation of Orwell. Reactionary? Endorsing classism?  :o


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Offline Zyraen

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #57 on: January 10, 2005, 10:22:49 PM »
Just wondering, so anyone interested in making this some kind of mini-Mod thing or something? It could be something small to meeting a few elves stranded in the Planar Sphere, or something much bigger.
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Offline Ashara

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #58 on: January 11, 2005, 08:50:30 AM »
IMO, it's either all, or nothing. I don't think that adding a cross-world NPC would do justice to both Tolkien and Silmarillion. It will be a bit like 'who would win the battle: Irenicus or Feanor?' type of thing. Tolkien's characters are designed to live in Tolkien's world, with their motivations, laws and mentality. So, yes, the TC initially suggested is the way to go imo, but it is a long-long road (no pun intended) and requires many a skill.
Hang in there. I'll try to make you glad you did.
—George R.R. Martin

There is nothing better than imagining other worlds [...] to forget the painful one we live in. At least so I thought then. I hadn't yet realized that, imagining other worlds, you end up changing this one.
-Umberto Eco, Baudolino

Three mods you shall make - one too bad and one to dread and one to love.

Offline jester

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #59 on: January 19, 2005, 09:05:47 AM »
The worlds don't match.

It is a well known fact that girls always cry for horses and not for their Indian riders. :D

I think Animal Farm works quite well to illustrate how a totalitarian regime works. Every kid understands what its about. 1984 on the other hand as among many brilliant points one theme which I always liked best. Continous war against something outside keeps dissent under control.
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Offline Hendryk

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Re: Viva La Silmarillion (Spoilers for LotR!)
« Reply #60 on: January 19, 2005, 09:33:14 AM »
My favorite theme from 1984 is how reducing the number of words in the language, and controlling their meanings, can prelude the possibility of dissenting thought.  A close second is 'double think' for dealing with cases where reality and the requirements of idealogy clearly conflict.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2005, 09:53:00 AM by Hendryk »