[Colin Glassey] David Brin . Com
I stumbled upon David Brin's personal web site. What a joy this is to read through. There is tons to read, it would take days to go through it all. Here is what sparked the discovery. Brin published two essays in Salon.com, one essay from 1999 critiques the new Star Wars film and the Star Wars ethos in general. The new essay takes on Tolkien's anti-modern attitudes. It is a wonderful essay, but anyone who read Glory Season by Brin would not be surprised by his attack.
I myself recognize the attack for I have felt it myself. On the one hand I love the Lord of the Rings but on the other hand I oppose the entire philosophical underpinnings of the book. I'm in favor of democracy, against elites. I'm in favor of progress, against unchanging rural life. I'm in favor pluralism, or Otherness as Brin puts it and against rule by a single race. So how can I love this book so much while being against some of the core elements of the book?
Brin himself tries to explain why the stories of heroic fantasy are so attractive. I'll let you read his essay to see his arguements but I will add my own comment: part of why I love Tolkien is that I recognize there are costs to the modern world. The Lord of the Ring expresses some of these costs, gives them form and substance. Any rational historian would rather live in todays world than any previous era based on the availablity of good medicine, rapid travel, and access to so much information. But I think we all regret the passing of previous ways of life. There are things other cultures had which we don't have: certainty about the future, time to think (if you were wealthy), a sense of solidity to the world, the facts that you learned weren't overthrown a decade later. Ah well. Those days are gone.
11:02:59 PM 
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