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| The Ubiquity Of Evil: Evil is resident everywhere, even in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Shire. It doesn’t just live in dark towers faraway, and its servants don’t necessarily make themselves easy to identify by riding black stallions and clothing themselves in black robes. Once embarked upon, however, evil calls to evil. “A little mischief in a mean way” is how it begins, but that is not how it ends. |
TWO IMPORTANT PARTS of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings were left out of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning film trilogy. With his features already running seriously over-length, Jackson decided to cut the Hobbits’ adventures with Tom Bombadil altogether, and to leave out what is arguably the most important chapter in whole book – “The Scouring of the Shire”.
The first omission, while regrettable, is understandable. Tom Bombadil is an extraordinary character, half holy fool, half uncanny woodland deity. (Although, later in the book, Tolkien hints at Bombadil being something much more powerful than a mere spirit of wood and water.) There is no denying, however, that the Hobbits’ journey through Bombadil’s forest domain is in every sense of the word a diversion, and Jackson rightly saw that Tolkien’s narrative could survive its excision. Even so, foregoing the opportunity of bringing Bombadil to life must have been a hard decision for Jackson to make.
Omitting “The Scouring of the Shire”, however, is much harder to forgive. What greets the Hobbits when they return to the Shire is critical to a proper understanding of Tolkien’s tale. Evil is resident everywhere. That is Tolkien’s point. It doesn’t just live in dark towers faraway, and its servants don’t necessarily make themselves easy to identify by riding black stallions and clothing themselves in black robes. It is just as likely that the downward spiral into evil begins with the greed of a local miller, or the acquisitive mania of a local landowner. Once embarked upon, however, evil calls to evil. “A little mischief in a mean way” is how it begins, but that is not how it ends.
In Tolkien’s fantasy, the battle-hardened Hobbits are not permitted to return to hearth and home as if they had never been away – as Jackson has them return in his movie. No, they have to fight for the Shire as desperately as all the other free peoples of Middle Earth fought for their own hearths and homes. Security and freedom are treasures to be won, not taken for granted.
Nor does Tolkien shy away from the fact that the struggle to secure – or to reclaim – security and freedom is everybody’s business. Heroes they may be, but Frodo and Sam, Pippin and Merry, could not have “scoured” (an old English word meaning to clean by friction) the Shire on their own, for that the whole community had to be called into action:
Awake! Awake! Fear, Fire, Foes! Awake!
Fire, Foes! Awake!
Jackson erred in omitting “The Scouring of the Shire”, not least because his version of the tale suggested that there are indeed places from which enterprising people can venture forth in search of adventure, and then return to their haven-home in all its bucolic and unchanging bliss. Did he mean to present New Zealand as such a place? Was the rest of the world intended to construe New Zealand as the Shire? And New Zealanders for the next best things to the happy-go-lucky Hobbits? Shame on Peter Jackson if they were.
If this country ever was the Shire, and those who remember Austin Mitchell’s Half-Gallon, Quarter-Acre, Pavlova Paradise might argue that it came pretty damn close, then its fate closely resembles the fate of Tolkien’s original. Here, too, we had the grasping businessmen and the greedy farmers. Here, too, ugliness was reared up where beauty had once stood, unsullied. Here, too, the collaborators scoffed at those who mourned such fruitless destruction, warning them proudly that: “We’ve work to do in the Shire now.”
Perhaps, if Jackson had reminded us of what Rogernomics and Ruthanasia had done to “The Shire”, and shown us how our besmirched birthright could be made to shine through the friction of defiance and revolt, then maybe, just maybe, he could have ended up making more than a movie.
But a Shire unscoured, a Shire bereft of heroes, a Shire denied even the stimulation of evil perpetrated on a grand scale, must fade into a “negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking” Shire. A pitiful and quiescent Shire, afraid of its own shadow, may indeed stand accused of having lost the thread of Tolkien’s plot. And, only a leader unafraid to sound the horn-call of Buckland can hope to get back the mojo of a Shire so cruelly diminished.
Awake! Awake! Fear, Fire, Foes! Awake!
Fire, Foes! Awake!
This essay was originally published in The Otago Daily Times and The Greymouth Star of Friday, 23 June 2023.
22 comments:
To be fair, the Tom Bombadil section contains what must be with only a slight exaggeration some of the worst writing in the English language. Luckily, by the time I got round to reading Lord of the Rings at the instigation of an old girlfriend, I had read hundreds if not thousands of Science Fiction and fantasy books. So I was perhaps in more of a position to judge than many. Saw the films, haven't touched the book since maybe 1974.
Personally I think Bruce Jessen was the perfect foil for Austin Mitchell. He showed us something of the true nature of the New Zealand psyche – how we were, rather than how we thought we were.
I read lotr twice and thoroughly enjoyed it the second time even more as the first time I read it as a teenager at school I finished reading before the final chapter on the hobbits battle with saruman.
The NZ version of Lord of the Rings would be Helen Clark and members of the Labour Party come to the Shire; they set up an Ork migration program (the Shire to them was backward and "deadly dull and booring").
It all turns to custard for the Hobbits as Orks buy up the best real estate and Hobbits have to live in Ork cubes stacked one on the other.
Sharkey watches over everyone in the interests of "social cohesion".
Only opinions approved by Sharkey are acceptable. Any digressions are met by Ninjas with masks and black clothing (they work for Sharkey).
One of the charms of LOR was a rekindling of ancestral memory; that of living locally while everything out there was mysterious and unknown. Some people complained that the peoples on the Oliphants were Asiatic, however as Isaiah Berlin argues we define ourselves by our difference; if all cultures were dissolved into a single whole the result would not be a single culture but the death of culture and that would be "deadly dull and booring".
Tolkien's wonderful stories, and other expressions of the hero myth, help us understand the nature of evil, to be able to see it's often hidden face. Are we "a Shire bereft of heroes"? What would our redemptive heroes look like, can we even recognise good and evil in ourselves?
The archetypical, eternal, adversaries, one: "the mythological hero. He faces the unknown with the presumption of it's benevolence - with the (unprovable) attitude that confrontation with the unknown will bring renewal and redemption."
The other (the hero's adversary) "horrified by his limited apprehension of the conditions of existence, shrinks from contact with everything he does not understand. This shrinking weakens his personality ....and makes him rigid and authoritarian as he clings desperately to the familiar" "The personality of this adversary comes in two forms ....inseparably linked. The fascist sacrifices his soul ...to the group, which promises to protect him from everything unknown."
"The decadent, by contrast, refuses to join the social world, and clings rigidly to his own ideas.....The fascist wants to crush anything different, and then everything; the decadent immolates himself, and builds the fascist from his ashes. The bloody excesses of the 20th century, manifest most evidently in the culture of the concentration camp, stand as testimony to the desires of the adversary and as monument to his power."
Abridged excerpts from chapter 5 "The hostile brothers", Maps of Meaning - The architecture of Belief. Chapter 5 "The hostile brothers" by J B Peterson 1999.
This article makes me lament the vanished New Zealand I came to in 1971.
I wasted a generous slice of my time reading Tolkien's works. The only impression I was left with was that Tolkien had revealed an important truth about social decay when, on the heros' return, they found that in their absence the Shire had been taken over by a bunch of nobodies who were interested only in pushing everyone else around. The returnees set to correcting this.
I wasted even more time watching Peter Jackson's endless herds of elephants thundering down mountainsides. I persevered watching because I wanted to see how Jackson presented the sorting out of the Shire. But he didn't.
Are we really that bereft of heroes that the reprehensible Shaneel Lal, indulger in the "hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness" (Orwell) is "young New Zealander of The Year"? Do we even know what a hero is anymore?
"The decadent, by contrast, refuses to join the social world, and clings rigidly to his own ideas.....The fascist wants to crush anything different, and then everything; the decadent immolates himself, and builds the fascist from his ashes. The bloody excesses of the 20th century, manifest most evidently in the culture of the concentration camp, stand as testimony to the desires of the adversary and as monument to his power."
More babbling nonsense from Peterson. The sort of thing that's so vague you can pretty much assign any meaning you want to it. I will say though, Peterson has very little to say about the fascists that – with support from you conservatives – are arising all over Europe at the moment. As do you David.
Thanks GS, that was merely an excerpt from the introduction to a chapter, abridged by me. The full chapter (The Hostile Brothers, 162 closely typed pages) fully examines the hero/adversary duality. Vague it is not.
If you decide to read that formidable, extraordinary book, and I recommend you do, it is best to read all the summaries/introductions to each chapter and sub chapters first.
JP has certainly had plenty to say about fascism, the clearly fascist Chinese regime most recently and in particular. You'd have to have a pretty loose or expedient definition of the word to describe the conservative/nationalist/populist European parties in that way. I'm a supporter of the likes of Italy's Giorgia Meloni FWIW.
Just thinking about our heroes, our courageous seekers after the truth; any suggestions? Obviously ideologues, all those attached to ists and isms, can't qualify, they're on the other side.
Rachael Stewart, Dane Giraud, Thomas Cranmer, Chris Trotter?
Overseas: Mary Harrington, Lionel Shriver, Kathleen Stock, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Jon Haidt, Mike Shellenberger, Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson?
"if Jackson had reminded us of what Rogernomics and Ruthanasia had done to “The Shire”, and shown us how our besmirched birthright could be made to shine through the friction of defiance and revolt, then maybe, just maybe, he could have ended up making more than a movie."
Neo liberalism made those movies. Funding, Law changes to circumvent organized labour. Would including the 'scouring of the Shire' be a back hander to vision of a neo liberal government that enabled it?
I was privileged to have spent a lot of time with Austin Mitchell. "Quarter Acre" was an analysis of 1960s NZ society from the view of someone that was a product of pot-War Britain, where societal reconstruction and a move for opportunity to those previously denied by class was the political talking point. Austin represented a new wave of University educated working class intellectual. A Yorkshireman, he was part of the first move in broadcasting moving away from the "BBC accent" and presenting the people's voice. A self-styled "Gaitskellite", he looked at NZ as a model for social, political and economic reform.
In NZ he found a place which identified with egalitarianism. The government was motivated by decisions based on what benefits or harms the people. The result was a comparative social cohesion. The issues of identity politics were less emphasized in line with the profile of the time, but few would suggest that Austin's humanism was not inclusive. A true Fabian, he was in a position to review the NZ that the Webbs visited turn of the century and George Bernard Shaw pre-War. As an amiable presenter and journalist, he presented his findings with humour.
A genre followed in the 1970s - "Godzone", "We don't know how lucky we are"... NZ reveled in this affirmation, but failed to protect that which had been hailed as a societal blue-print.
The dismantling of the economy that anchored the communities that Mitchell wrote about was sudden and almost complete. Attributes that had been vices such as greed and selfishness in "Quarter Acre", were being promoted are the virtues of the new right.
Austin Mitchell returned to NZ in 2002 and revisited the society he had praised."Pavalova Paradise Revisted", as both a book and documentary, remains one of the best expeditions into the impact of the economic and social changes upon NZ. By then, a type of insulated chauvinism had captured NZ, and one of the great international champions of NZ was seen as intruding on our national identity by showing our national shame.
RIP Austin Mitchell, Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit
" the clearly fascist Chinese regime "
Obviously David your definition of fascism lacks something. I can only recommend you read Robert Paxton's excellent book, The Anatomy of Fascism. Which unlike Peterson is clear as a bell.
I would particularly recommend his chapter on post-war Western European fascism and its struggle to normalise itself by abandoning the language of 1930s fascism for something softer. Unfortunately it was written in 2005, and therefore doesn't cover the 21st-century fascist parties quite so much, but he does cover the post-Soviet eastern European fascist parties quite well.
Of course there are differences, as very few fascists these days call for the end of the free market, but the similarities are there, including the support of the religious right which enabled successful regimes to establish themselves in Italy and Germany.
I would particularly recommend his page 219 summary of the characteristics of fascism, one or 2 of which you have come close to in these posts.
Incidentally, I notice that Meloni has started using the courts to muzzle the press. Gosh – how very 1930s. And how very 1930s for you to support her.
John key definitely but i agree the creators of Act and ruth of national did the destruction. The latter parties just blindly helped it along. Oh i forgot mr greedy himself peters!
Speaking of heroes "Go f'n Go Starlink!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5-FAVuFniI&t=159s
Yes we do indeed have a new hero RNZ ediitor Michael Hall sacked for the crime of introducing some balance into Reuters News on the Russian Ukraine conflict such as adding that the invasion was provoked by the 2014 US backed coup in Ukraine with the help of neo-Nazis and creating a threat to Russia’s border. RNZNews went ballistic because these facts are not permitted to be mentioned in the US controlled media propaganda narrative imposed on all NZ’s mainstream news platforms.
GS: "the fascists that .... are arising all over Europe at the moment"
Malapropism aside it's certainly a trend in Europe and has been for some time. A rebellion against an out of touch elite that hates you, your culture and your way of life perhaps?
I was in Noumea airport the day after Trump won, ran into a couple of very unhappy youngish American (what they call) liberals. Something they said sums it up; "I guess the hogs will be happy".
Similar to the slur current in the UK, "Gammon" it is there.
"A couple of centuries ago, at the dawn of the modern democratic era, the rabble that wanted more of a say in public life were looked upon as pigs. Today they're looked on as pig meat. I'm pretty sure that's a demotion. At least pigs are alive and pretty intelligent too. Gammon, in contrast, is inanimate flesh, unfeeling, unthinking, liable to decay. That's us apparently. That's the throng now."
Excerpt from Brendan O'Neill's new book "A Heretic's Manifesto" chapter 5 The Rise Of The Pigs.
I'm pretty sure there's a lot of us Kiwi "pigs", European and Asian in particular, considering their options right now.
Re the rise of right wing parties in Europe; this just came through on my email:
Excerpt:
"Similar trends can be observed in other European countries, where right-leaning parties are gaining popularity. Only six out of 27 EU governments lean towards the left, and even in Denmark, the Social Democrats' immigration policy is described as "far right" by critics.
The resurgence of right-wing parties can be attributed, in part, to a lack of trust in established political systems and concerns over mass, uncontrolled immigration. Europeans, while acknowledging the benefits of immigration, want it to be controlled and for their safety to be ensured. Incidents of violence perpetrated by individuals categorized as "non-Germans" in Germany have raised concerns about the effectiveness of immigration policies.
The EU, UN, and left-wing factions that deny these issues may inadvertently contribute to the rise of right-wing ideologies across Europe. The current trajectory suggests that the right may soon dominate European politics entirely."
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/06/europe-is-rapidly-shifting-to-the-right/ Paywalled.
"Elon Musk" A seeker after truth?
Are you ignorant of his blatant violations of people's free speech? Or do you you just not care or even approve because he is censoring people you don't like? Particularly his craven bowing down to various authoritarian governments about censoring Twitter posts. Not bad for a so-called free speech absolutist. He's even censored your hero Taibbi.
Twitter is more heavily censored now than it ever was. Apart from tweets from paedophiles and Nazis of course, which have increased – a lot.
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
If the cap fits.
If Jordan Peterson isn't a seeker after truth, he certainly should be given this penchant for lying. And these days – crying at the least provocation. He really has gone bonkers.
Thanks for that GS, the accepted definition of fascism can be easily looked up in a dictionary. I don't like the use of scary, and inaccurate, labels generally; it doesn't do your credibility any good - just as terms like "communist" as a descriptor for the Ardern government discredits what are probably quite valid criticisms on that front. It's not helpful, weak and deliberately misleading at best.
GS is a fierce badger with a fierce nose for truth. I gloss over the right-wingers, friends of the rich, enemies of rationality, nitwits and alight on GS, like a bird letting down its wings.
I have a fault by not addressing obviously faulty ideas, thus letting them by. Good fun, our new 30s. Up till the new 40s.
Hope you're well. We're not sympatico personally and I differ about some of your last views but I applaud, rousingly, your great speeches for the people. The people need heroes and you were a lighthouse light in black nights.
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