Friday October 16, 2009, 10:34 pm
What starts as an idyllic view of beauty and peace is quickly shattered; the Victorian view of eternal progress is shattered here. The human race has evolved into two species: the peaceful Eloi who live on the surface, and the brutish Morlock, who lurk underground. Wells’ Darwinian ideas are undercut by the effete, childlike Eloi who are supposed to represent the heightened sensibility and progress of the 1890s Victorians, and the simian, vicious Morlock, so clearly reverted creatures, devolved rather than evolved.

Wells' vision of the future had much to do with his own lowly past. His mother had been a servant to a manorial family; the servants’ quarters were connected to the mansion via subterranean paths, and the servants moved about in that subterranean world. These tunnels must have made an impression on Wells, for the Morlocks – dwellers in the dark spaces - are the ultimate result of the separation of the underdog working class. As an adult, Wells moved among the Eloi elite, but he was never allowed to forget his Morlock past.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Does this ring a bell?...The rich get richer and the poor become slaves to the rich...Are 'we' not slaves NOW?

Friday October 16, 2009, 11:30 pm
So, does that mean Morlocks are repulsive republicans who are locked into their Neanderthal past, or steeped in traditional regressive culture that forbids any progression beyond corporate slavery due to the metal dependence on a pleasure bubble lifestyle? You know materialist macho junkies chanting god, gays, and save our gunz. It is really a fear of castration that was found to be the NRA's motive for championing the cause of getting one's gun off, but rape and anti-abortion wing nutz got confused and like the Morlocks became distressed with their Victorian ethics and frigid sexuality and declared all pregnancies are god's gift to our over populated world and those heathens that threaten to practice controlling their reproductive lives are cursed to hell's damnation or listing to Sarah Palin sing for hours on end...

Is that what you mean by iddylic view of beauty and peace quickly shattered?

o_O....

Saturday October 17, 2009, 4:02 am
Great blog - enjoyed it very much. Thanks, David !

Saturday October 17, 2009, 6:08 am
How could you not enjoy the blog Pamylle, when it was written by someone who reminds me of me? And I love you :)

JOST A MON

The idle ramblings of a Jack of some trades, Master of none...

About Me: I have modestly given myself the name of the greatest of the Eldar: Fëanor, the maker of the Silmarils and the creator of the Tengwar. Meanwhile, am bald and greying. Used to sport a straggly moustache, much to the wife's chagrin when she sees my old photos. My awkward phase, as she calls it, lasted 25 years. Remain bespectacled and known for maaroing p.j.'s (de sis will recognise this as 'poor jokes'). Have lived in 8 countries for extended periods and forgotten every language I learned.

Saturday October 17, 2009, 6:59 am
Who are you calling a Morlock, David?

Seriously, this was a grand article! This is all new for me as I was not aware of the meaning and background on Wells' works. Wells was a genius with a highly creative imagination that narrowed down our essence to conscious vs. unconscious...heaven vs. hell...of our own making.

Casey ~ Your morbid take on 'War of the Worlds' is right on and well said. Unless we change our script quickly, Wells' story will outlive us as we self-destruct.

Life imitates art...art imitates life...until they are seamless.

Saturday October 17, 2009, 7:24 am
"Wells was a genius with a highly creative imagination"...

A genius with a highly perceptive grasp on reality Marion?...Wells, Orwell and Kafka have done it all before...There is NO tomorrow, there is no tomorrow here today? (Proof?)...

The Morlocks v the Eloi?...It is happening here today and if no one speaks out it will continue until all the 'slaves' are burnt out or destroyed...

There is NO tomorrow, there is no tomorrow here today?

Saturday October 17, 2009, 7:40 am
"A genius with a highly perceptive grasp on reality Marion?"

Yes, as I said...

"...that narrowed down our essence to conscious vs. unconscious...heaven vs. hell...of our own making."

Saturday October 17, 2009, 7:02 pm
I think that a more likely scenario is like in that movie "Idiocracy" :P

Or like in Cyberpunk stories, where computers and genetic engineering are even more important and part of our daily lives (e.g. where people have artificial body parts and plug their heads into the net often), and where corporations rule the world like futuristic medieval baronies, more blatantly than they do today, but with plenty of propaganda to make us think "that it is good that corporations rule over us".

Saturday October 17, 2009, 7:31 pm
PS, although H.G. Wells claimed to be a socialist, his depiction of the working classes as evolving into cannibalistic monsters (the "Morlocks"), in his story "The Time Machine", is not socialist thinking. Wells's idea of the working class in that story is the typical view that middle class people in the Victorian era had of us working class people - and very similar to the nazi-style "back to rural English utopia" propaganda of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, in which the non-white people (riding on "Oliphants" and vearing veils) were "evil" and in alliance with "Sauron" (the Devil), and the conservative middle class view of the working class "mob", clamouring for their rights, is thinly disguised as the subhuman "orcs".

Socialist thinking is very different from those ideas. In socialism, we VALUE the working class (most socialists are working class, anyway :P ). If we criticise anyone, it is the oppressorsm, the exploiters - the bourgeoisie, the shareholders (especially the major shareholders, who own most capital), the capitalist class. We stand in solidarity with all oppressed people, and we campaign for working class rights and equality amongst all people. We campaign for a democracy, in which all people democratically manage our economy for the benefit of all of us (instead of a few megarich people mismanaging the economy that through their control of corporations, for their own selfish benefit, to everyone else's detriment).

We don't need to look to fantasy stories to find dystopia. The dystopia is RIGHT HERE AND NOW: the first world plundering U.S.$500 billion net wealth from the Third World each year; 3 billion people struggling to survive on less than U.S.$2.50 per day; over 1 billion people without access to safe, clean drinking water; 11 million children dying each year from preventable poverty (because other people, especially in the first world, plunder the wealth that poor people produce).... Plus wars, imprisonment without trial (e.g. enemy fighters impriosned in U.S. military bases), CIA kidnapping and torturing people ("Rendition"), first world countries (e.g. the USA) supporting military coups against democratically-elected governments, and first world countries (e.g. the USA) supporting oppressive Third World regimes to impose multinational corporate exploitation of the people....

Sunday October 18, 2009, 1:56 am
David, superb blog which I thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks for posting!

Simon, interesting characterization of Lord of the Rings and the meaning behind orcs, Sauron, etc. Are you basing your comment on the movies or the books? I ask because I can understand the comparisons if you are thinking of the movie, which although very well made, was a complete butchering of the books.

Sunday October 18, 2009, 3:55 am
Hi Paul, I am thinking of both the Lord of the Rings books and the movies. But I wasn't the first person to come up with this idea. I read it very well expressed by Michael Moorcock, in his 1978/1989 essay, "Epic Pooh":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Pooh
http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.php?id=953

Hi essay "Starship Stormtroopers" is a similar breakdown of sci-fi books:

http://web.archive.org/web/20021224193414/http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/moorcock.html

I recommend Michael Moorcock's own writings. :) Actually, I have never read them - I only saw the covers of his Elric books back when I was in highschool, and I was turned off them by the blonde elfish dude on the covers... but I have since read about them on the internet, and I am keen to read them - I have asked my library to get some, but, going by their lack of response to my many leftwing, progressive and anti-imperialist book suggestions, and their generous spending on apolitical and rightwing conservative pro-imperialist books, the librarians seem to be rightwing conservative pro-imperialist types. :(

I also recommend the stories written by Ursula K LeGuin, Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman - who Michael Moorcock also recommends - he and I think alike on fantasy, sci-fi and politics. :)

Sunday October 18, 2009, 3:58 am
Oops, it is untrue whe I say that I have never read Michael Moorecock's own writings. I read those 2 articles he wrote ("Epic Pooh" and "Starship Stormtroopers"), plus an interview he did with the feminist Andrea Dworkin.... What I meant was that I haven't read any of Michael Moorcock's NOVELS ;) - yet ;)

Sunday October 18, 2009, 4:11 am
The Peter Jackson films of Lord of the Rings actually make the orcs look like non-white people... especially the Uruk-Hai, who seem to be based on the Maoris (Indigenous people) of Peter Jackson's native New Zealand. If you know something about Maoris you will know what I mean. I like the Maori people, but the Uruk-Hai in Jackson's Lord of the Rings films seem to be evil, beastly caricatures of Maoris (with characteristic solid build, dark skin, traditional long hair, warrior culture, etc.), without any of the positive features of real Maori people.

Peter Jackson also made non-white people seem like beastly, evil subhumans in that sexist ode to uber-machismo, "King Kong"....

Apparently Jackson's more recent film "District 9" addresses racism directly (hmm... well, he was the producer)... I wonder if he actually challenges racism instead of subliminally promoting it again, in District 9.... I haven't seen it yet, but I will checkit out....

Sunday October 18, 2009, 4:26 am
Simon, we love some of the same writers and I highy agree on Moorcock. I've read and enjoyed LeGuin and Pratchett and finally got around to Pullman, who I somehow missed reading until recently. Politically, we are looking at the same things and interpreting them differently. Of course, that would be called normal and being human!

I look at the work of any author from two perspectives. The first is the intent of the author, what did they mean when they wrote it. Obviously, they controlled their work, briefly making the assumption that the publisher and editor didn't influence the author... The second is what the writing actually says to the reader of the book. It's like talking to your significant other, the intent of something said is not always what the recipient picks up on! (Not that I've ever been misinterpreted:-)

Sauron and Saruman create the Orcs from soil, which is based in mythology. Their color, at least in the book, is based on the soil that was used to create them. The lack of "white" orcs is probably because it didn't occur to Tolkien to have Sauron or Saruman make orcs using beach sand. Given the time period, it is also likely that race could have been a factor, that I really don't know but it wouldn't surprise me.

I do not see the orcs as the working class in a capitalist society, whatever Tolkien's intent. Orcs have no free will and are created by their Master to do his bidding. They create nothing and destroy whatever is in their path. All that they collect is given to their Master and distributed back to them as he sees fit. They live to serve and are destroyed if they serve poorly. Sounds like Totalitarianism to me? Encyclopedia Brittanica defines it as, "form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of the individual’s life to the authority of the government".

I have read that Tolkien modeled the orcs and Sauron on the industry that was taking over the countryside at that time in English history. That part of the movie was fairly close to the book. Tolkien would probably be considered an environmentalist if he was alive today. I don't know that he was using the orcs as an example of any political system, but in looking at what fits in today's world, I'm not sure I see them as any component of a free society.

Sorry to hear your librarians are any particular political mindset. Books of all philosophies should be accessible in the public library system. At the local Starbucks, they recently started a lending library. This past Sunday, a lady came in for coffee and proclaimed the books evil. She took them all out to her car and left. Unfortunately it was about an hour before I got there, as I would have filmed her for YouTube and gotten an idea of whether it was philosophy, religion, or a lack of meds that motivated her. In any event, the books she claimed were evil were by Anne Rice, Terry Goodkind, and, funny enough, me.

If you are looking for some other authors that are in the same genre as those that we are discussing, I enjoyed Robert E. Howard, Charles Beaumont (great short stories, he was a primary writer for the Twilight Zone), Katherine Kurtz, and for fun I'd throw in a few recent picks like Jim Butcher and Simon Green.

Keep in touch, we may not be identical politically but you read some great authors and I enjoy a diverse group of friends. And yes, although I don't fit any particular classification of beliefs, my left leaning friends would say that I am a free market, libertarian, capitalist pig! My right wing friends say that I am a misguided, obstinate, tree hugging, defender of individual freedom who thinks that the smaller the government, the better. The right wingers also get irritated when I refer to God in the feminine ("she") and hate that I think that it's ok that somewhere, somebody is having fun...

Hmm, now that I've written that last paragraph, maybe I'm not a free market, libertarian, tree hugging, capitalist pig. Maybe I'm just irritating?

I enjoy your posts, thanks for the book recommendations.

Peace, Paul

Sunday October 18, 2009, 6:23 am
Simon,

Your mention of Dworkin reminded me of The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelasny, great books. And Jack Chalker, who wrote too many books, wrote a great series of five books in Midnight at the Well of Souls. It's about a race of immortal, omniscient, omnipotent beings with a suicide problem due to boredom. They have the option of termporarily giving up their immortality and power by being transformed and sent to the Well World. To make it fun, they don't know what they will be. Chalker has a blast writing as a being who doesn't know he's a multilegged caterpillar, or centaur, or a being that lives its life in flames.

We agree on the evils of Apartheid and racism. Like Hagrid, in J K Rowling's books, explains to Hermione (whose parents are one wizard and one non-magical) that there are no pure bloods because over time everyone has an ancestor from another race, I wonder how many of us can track our ancestry ALL the way back? We are all human and individuals, regardless of any perceived differences.

Best, Paul

Sunday October 18, 2009, 5:24 pm
wow ! that's a good one,gives you lots to ponder ! thanks David

Sunday October 18, 2009, 5:34 pm
Where are we from? Where are we going? and........what are we eating? I've given up my way of life & started eating "soylent green". Not sure how good this will be for human evolution, but keeps me wondering about becoming a British sci-fi writer!

(Kat)

Sunday October 18, 2009, 9:20 pm
Thannnxxx David... you are a genuis in bringing this interesting article...

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 12:58 am
Hi again Paul :)
did you read the Michael Moorcock essays? If so, what do you think of what he said in them?

Hmmm... I enjoyed reading Tolkein's "the Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings", but I still believe that his books were conservative and rightwing - with lots of fascist-style discussion of race, and the amount of certain special "blood" as a virtue, praising whiteys and monarchy and knights and noble men with blonde hair riding horses as "good", while portraying the evil enemies as being footsoldiers (not knights or nobles) and working like the industrial working class, plus clearly non-European "Southrons" and "Haradrim" easterners with their "Oliphants" and veils as being evil, too. If you actually address these kinds of evidence, then you may have a case. If not, then the evidence shows that Tolkein was being pro-upper class, anti-working class, and in favour of the idea of white racial superiority.

Similar things can be said of Robert E. Howard's writing (especially the fascist ideas of racial superiority and might makes right), though, in contrast with Tolkein, at least he was less moralistic, and he showed some barbarians and some non-white people (e.g. Africans) as not being "evil".

I like the writings of Howard and Tolkein DESPITE their nonsense ideas of politics (including "blood" and "race"). Even "Triumph of the Will" was a stirring piece of art... but if we are to ensure that people, especially children, get an accurate understahding of the world, we must approach those artists' works critically, and give people more realistic and healthy alternatives, such as the writings of Moorcock, Pullman and LeGuin, plus the films of Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, Ken Loach, Kubrick, Michael Moore, Naomi Klein and John Pilger, and films like "the Forbidden Dance", "Mangal Pandey", "Enough", "Girlfight", "Freedom Writers", "Redemption", "the Karate Kid", Soderburgh's "Che", Vic Arenda's "Libertarias" ("Juegos de Guerra"), Attenborough's "Gandhi", and even "the Golden Compass" and "the Smurfs", "Monkey Magic" and "Captain Planet".

Oh, are you an author of books, yourself, Paul? :O

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 6:33 am
I have only read Moorcock's fiction, I'll be happy to read his essays. Are they collected in a book and, if so, what's the title?

I did not pick up on the conservative, right-wing, and fascist-style that you reference anywhere in the books that Tolkien wrote. I thought he indirectly addressed racial issues with the coming together of dwarves and elves who, historically, hated each other. The nine Nazgul, or nightriders, of Sauron were all identical in appearance but the nine who followed Gandalf were composed of four hobbits, an elf, a dwarf, and three men. I'll pull out my copy of the books but I believe the blondes on horse back, the Rohirrim, were not necessarily blondes in the book. They were all of the same race. I do know that the Southrons were portrayed in the book as mercenaries, not aligned but hired by Sauron. Given the time in history when Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings, what writer was colorblind? Rascism exists in every country of the world, even now, but more people recognize it and oppose it than a century ago.

Tolkiens portrayal of monarchy was anything but good, I think if you add up the Kings on the good side, most were deeply flawed. Happy to address the evidence you mentioned from the books, not the movie.

Jackson's movies were extremely well made, however the main story lines, particularly that of Aragorn, were butchered. Jackson's orcs and southrons did have racial overtones, but I don't believe that is accurate to the books.

As to Robert E. Howard's fascist ideas of racial superiority, I have no idea what book he wrote that illustrates that point. You need to give me a little more on where you got that in his writings. I didn't pick up on that tone at all.

I think you can find all sorts of potential examples of anything in any book or movie you see, whether it is intended by the author or not. We like many of the same authors, but come from very different viewpoints. Where you reference Naomi Klein, I would be more inclined to recommend Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Ludwig von Mises, and other free market, free thinking, economists. I object to any philosophy which uses governments to control their own people. That's my objection to socialism, communism, marxism, totalitarianism, fascism, etc.

To give children an accurate understanding is an interesting point. Accurate from whose point of view? I prefer a free society where kids have access to all of the above and the freedom to form their own conclusions. If my kids watched Michael Moore or read Naomi Klein, I would agree that it would be important that they be given accurate information about the agenda of both of them. Neither Moore or Klien are fiction writers and both have easy to identify, demonstrable agenda's. But as you might imagine, I wouldn't need to give my kids my opinion of either, they know how to think for themselves. I would encourage them to read and watch all of the books and movies you referenced. I would add quite a few from a different perspective.

As to my book, I only thought it was funny, well actually pathetic and disgusting, that the woman who pronounced the books in the lending bin as evil, and took them to destroy, included mine in the group. How would a non-fiction book written to help investors understand and address their fears be evil? How would a book that defines in easy to understand terms the way that the investment system in the US works be considered evil? The other books had vampires and mythological creatures and the only other non-fiction book in the bin that day was about therapy. None of them would be considered evil, but it amused me that mine was included. I think she was having a day without meds, but that just a guess. I doubt she knew much about any book in that bin.

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 9:11 pm
Hi Paul. You wrote:

"I have only read Moorcock's fiction, I'll be happy to read his essays. Are they collected in a book and, if so, what's the title?"

All I know is that those 2 essays by Michael Moorcock are free to read on the internet, at the websites I gave above :)

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 9:20 pm
Hi again Paul :)

You wrote: "Given the time in history when Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings, what writer was colorblind? Rascism exists in every country of the world, even now, but more people recognize it and oppose it than a century ago."

Oh, racial equality? Well, you know, 2500 years before Tolkein, there was the Buddha. 2000 years before Tolkein there was Spartacus, and Jesus. 200 years before Tolkein wrote, there was Thomas Paine, and 100 years before Tolkein wrote, there was Shelley, then there were countless socialists, anarchists, feminists. etc., writing before and after the Russian revolution, about ethnic equality and human rights, etc., such as Karl Marx, Engels, Emma Goldmann, John Reed, etc....

But even that is irrelevant to whether or not Tolkein's writings were prejudiced against non-white people and working class people.

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 3:13 am
There have always been, thankfully, enlightened ones! Their ideas are one of the reasons that mankind has come to include not just men of all races but, just as importantly, women.

Tolkien, in my opniion, was ahead of his time. Eowyn is one of Tolkiens hero's in The Lord of the Rings.

Sorry, forgot you gave Moorcock's essay website, will look at it tonight.

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 5:32 am
: )

Thursday October 22, 2009, 12:04 am
Hi Paul,
thankyou for the points you made about Tolkein's bringing together the dawrves, elves, western humans, etc.... However, they were all white, yeah? : P

The black riders were... BLACK. :P As was the black speech.....

"Men of the West!" Versus the "[subhumans] of the East"???

Noble "blond-haired" horse riders of the west versus men with veils, scimitars and "oliphants" (elephants) of the south and east???

Wormtongue the Jewish stereotype who betrays the king of the [aryan] Rohirrim???

Hmmm... maybe you think that it is progressive to promote monarchies (e.g. Rohan and Gondor) and servitude (e.g. Sam is Frodo's servant),and ideas of genetics determining behaviour (e.g. the "good" elves and the "evil" orcs).... But they are reactionary ideas, Paul, not progressive. They are racist and authoritarian ideas, not egalitarian ones....

We have gone beyond such ideas, e.g. in Europe more progressive ideas already existed in the democracy of ancient Athens to some extent, and also in the tribal democracies amongst the Celts and other ancient "Barbarians", and although monarchies increased their power during feudal times, progressive politics increased when the Europeans developed encountered the democratic First Nations of Abya Yala (the Americas), e.g. the Haudenoshaunee (the "Iroquoi"), increased trade, and industrialised their economies, which spurred the 18th century Enlightenment, the French Revolution (Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite), etc..

Hmmm... here's an article from the UK Guardian to explain more about the racism in the Lord of the Rings:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/dec/02/jrrtolkien.lordoftherings

and here is another similar article:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/arts-Film/article_1653.jsp

Hmmm... according to Tom Nairn, "Tolkien was a Tory [rightwinger, conservative] who detested French cuisine and politics, and believed in Crown and Class." -

http://www.opendemocracy.net/arts-Film/article_453.jsp

Well, I will go now,and maybe post another day.... : )

Thursday October 22, 2009, 3:23 am
Simon, thoroughly enjoying the discussion and your points are also valid. I'll take a look at the websites you referenced and get back to you.

I didn't know anybody disliked French cuisine!

Thursday October 22, 2009, 3:33 am
On a quick note, the second web article from opendemocracy in describing the movie states,

"When Aragorn the reluctant king is forced to make difficult choices he is exhorted to follow the destiny of his bloodline. " The Aragorn of the books is not reluctant and acts out of love for Arwen, not his bloodline. That was my main problem with Jackson's interpretation. I also agree with what the article says about Jackson's portrayal have racism within it. It was blatant, and the first scene with the Orcs in the movie was disturbing on many levels. That said, I do not believe the books are as rascist as the movie, nor do I believe the primary messages of the book are racist.