Just watched "Lord of the Rings" and "the Two Towers".....does anyone

[Gin]

here see any comparisons with what's going on today in our government and around the world?

[Jack_Dawson]

1. Yes

Bush is Saruman.

I liked Two Towers 'xept for the tree stuff. That was layme.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

2. No. It's fantasy, and Tolkien himself didn't like parallels being drawn.

[KensPen]

4. I thought.....

he wrote it inspired by the ills of the industrial revolution and the ills it brought.

[rock]

6. Yes, but if the shoe fits

It's beside the point what the cobbler intended.

[Loonman]

3. Not an allegory

As much as people would like it to be.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

5. Wingnuts have tried to compare it

to the US struggle against the Axis of Evil. Which is BS IMHO.

[Cannikin]

7. Rush likes to use it against liberals....

He says it shows everyone should support the military as they did against the evil 'soran', he calls it....He obviously hasnt seen it or he'd see the environmentalist 'wacko' aspect, the little man rising to defeat a strong enemy, showing emotion and compasion, embracing nature, trees revolting against those who would cut them down, a woman defeating an enemy that no man could defeat....things that Rush hates.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

14. OK, it's not allegory, but Rush would make a great Grima Wormtongue n/t

[Kathy in Cambridge]

16. Or Ashcroft

:-)

[RainDog]

8. Just took my son and a friend to see the new LoTR

yesterday.

...and I suppose I'm just...lame, but I really, really think this story is boring on so many levels, and also so very, very old and overdone.

but I'm not really a big fan of King Arthur and all that, either.


SPOILER-ish

the parts I really liked were the daughter of the king who didn't do what she was told... I'll say it that way for those not familiar with the story.

...the nutty king and his son story,

and getting to look at Viggo Mortensen for hours and hours.

but Tyler's character is annoying beyond annoyance to me. I guess I'm just "fantasy impaired."

also, the story goes on for soooo long...

we watched The Two Towers the day before we went to see this latest one, and I fell asleep...

again, to each his or her own.

[onehandle]

9. Don't read the last two Harry Potter books...

Evil administrations. Faux News. Racists. It's all there.

Hugely apparent in the Babylon 5 TV show as well.

[R3dD0g]

10. Tolkien

hated allegory. He railed against people (like me when I originally read the books) who saw parallels between the Nazis and Sauron.

He did however seem to be criticizing the industrialization of the world. And he was a great admirer of the pastoral lifestyle of the English countryside.

The Fellowship extended DVD set has a pretty good discussion of Tolkien's beliefs and how they do and do not apply to real life. I heartily recommend the extended DVD sets of both the Fellowship and Towers. And when available, the Return.

[cliss]

11. Yes,

Bush is Sauron

L. Paul Bremer (Bush's cousin) is Saruman.

All the contractors in Iraq are Uruk-Hais.

[Robb]

12. ...And I am the big dragon thingy.

Koo koo ka choob. ;)

[Frangible]

13. Tolkein hated allegory

So the least I can do for the man is to respect that and treat it just as what it is, a good work of fiction.

[leftofthedial]

15. it is good versus evil

and the evil wants to remake the world into something awful

and the evil seems to have all the power.

So there is similarity. I don't think one can draw parallels between specific characters, nations, or events though.

[VelmaD]

17. Tolkien's own take on it...

was that he thoroughly despised allegory. However, he was hoping the story had applicability. That it would contain universal themes that the reader could then apply to their own times.