bonifartius 𒂼𒄄 @bonifartius@social.cleverlibre.org

i have a halfbaked suspicion that the reason the libs are so eager to appropriate Tolkien is that he, perhaps more so than any writer in modern history, just masterfully captured everything that was beautiful and inspiring and numinous about European cultures and faith. he was an unapologetic romantic in an era of aggressive enlightenment. there is a sustained campaign (unintentionally abetted by many idiot right-wingers, at least in the US) to create an image of nationalist ideas as a thing of ugliness, of dark, cruel, close-minded belligerence. but if you don't carefully guide how people interpret tolkien, they might well come away with an image that could undermine neoliberal multiculturalist ideals.

an image of beleaguered but noble peoples setting aside ancient grievances and banding together to drive out a dark and malevolent force that was encroaching on their land from afar, driving out a spiritual evil with sacrifice, faith, innate divine gifts, and brotherly love. never do the heroes fuck around trying to understand the orcs, no sympathy is wasted on them; their evil nature is understood by all and they are felled without a second thought whenever the opportunity arises. assimilate an orc? convert him to the light of Eru? the very idea is laughable. invasions are not welcomed with open arms, but repelled by heroes and warriors at great cost. (back in the noughties i always remember seeing substantial consternation from liberals over how all the most beautiful women seemed to be in the opposing camp. this really stung feminists in particular.)

and images are powerful, especially for less intelligent or overly emotional people. we eurasians have a drive to be on the side of beauty and heroism and light; only sociopaths would see the twisted visage of an orc and feel joy at abetting his slaughter, rapine, and cruelty. you can only make us fight passionately for ugliness if you disguise it as beauty, or at least make out the other side to be uglier -- note the old chivalric trope of the inspiration the knight draws to vanquish evil from the lady he seeks to woo, or how even today little will motivate men to fight with all they have more so than the drive to protect their women and children back home. it is easy to scorn and assault nationalists when you can see them as the orcs, the Death Eaters, the Nazis -- less so when you see yourself as the orc assailing one of the Eldar.

we all mock fun of liberals for their constant, obsessive need to describe the world in terms of harry potter analogies, but it's a coping mechanism for them i think, a way of blotting out the foulness of their cause with images of underdog heroism that they were raised on; pop fiction is today's equivalent of mythology and faith. (note the severe trauma that ensued when rowling said she didn't think men belonged in women's bathrooms.)

at some level they're aware that tolkien paints a beautiful picture of the thing they hate the most. his stature is too high and he is too beloved, even now, to simply erase from the western canon, so he has to be defanged.