i’m just saying aragorn son of arathorn oh im sorry STRIDER (one of them rangers what his right name is i never heard etc etc) didn’t need to be that sexy at the prancing pony. like ostensibly he’s trying to lay low but even dipshit little [relatively] eighteen y/o frodo is like hey what’s the deal with that extremely ostentatiously sexy man in the corner
“you draw far too much attention to yourself ‘mister underhill’” if i were frodo i wouldve snapped. jesus christ. i can’t help that i’m two feet shorter than everyone else in this definitely definitely 100% a gay bar but at least i didn’t lurk in a sexy corner making eyes at everybody from under my cloak at least im TRYING to pretend i’m not a protagonist you fine ass idiot. i KNOW i’m being pursued by the black riders which is why i didn’t SERVE CUNT from the SHADOWS. the fellowship of the nerve of this bitch
Controversial, but I think it's harmful to tell people you're never going to write something good on the first try or it's always going to be pure garbage, like that may be helpful for some on some level, but I personally don't think it's a healthy way of thinking, and it causes others to second guess work that is good. Is editing often helpful? Yes. But you're not going to have to Ship of Theseus everything you ever make. Anyway, the phrase "idk, man, it depends" strikes again.
I think there's a broader problem behind the LotR-is-progressive-actually thing, which is. hm. probably the actually dangerous part.
which is the idea that if someone has sound values, it means they're coming from the same political position.
no one ideology or philosophy has the monopoly on ideas like "total war is bad" or "you should be nice to people" or "power corrupts". these are ideas that the majority (not all! but most!) of the world holds. you cannot believe that everyone who holds these beliefs is politically aligned with you, or sets the same boundaries on those ideas.
this is how you get drawn towards abhorrent ideologies. you want to believe LotR is progressive because it contains good and resonant political ideas you (a theoretical progressive) hold as part of your progressivism. this is also how people who start out on the left come to believe in "protect women" transphobia, or classical conservatism, or neoliberalism, or even nationalism and borderline fascism. this is the ideological pipeline.
and I don't think that means you throw the whole man away. I think there's a danger that you go the other way, and you start to say "well, they don't really hold those values" or "they don't mean those values", or even "those values, as stated, are bad actually".
I think it's so important, in media criticism if only as practice for life, to recognise and hold the competing ideas of "these are genuine, good values that come from recognising a real issue in the world, and I may be able to learn from them" and "the framework here is not one I accept or like, and this creator is not my political ally."
more specific tolkien thoughts under the cut
the thing is, I do not find Tolkien's philosophies personally abhorrent. I disagree with them, but I also think they're coming from a good place: he clearly valued social responsibility, mercy, forgiveness, respect for people regardless of their standing, seeking after knowledge, finding contentment in small things. his works condemn selfishness and prejudice (at least against Real People, we're not reopening the orcs-and-trolls issue), glory-seeking, people who want power for its own sake, arrogance and bigotry.
these are all values that I agree with! but the framework that he puts them in is a traditionalist Catholic conservatism which believes the way to attain those values is to have the Right People in charge and to engage in a clearly-stratified heirarchy where responsibilities and rights are socially enforced by top-down custom.
I believe the way to attain those values is an egalitarian anarcho-socialist structure where we build social norms from the bottom up, encourage political and religious questioning, and emphasise the direct relationship between responsibilities and outcomes.
we do not agree about politics or ideology.
but I see a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater in a lot of media criticism and political discussions at the moment, where "Tolkien shares values with me" means "Tolkien is politically aligned with me". Tolkien is progressive. Tolkien is liberal. Tolkien is a leftist. (On the other side: Tolkien is a fascist. Tolkien is a free-market Thatcherite. Tolkien is a nationalist.)
and I think that part of how we get "Lord of the Rings is a progressive narrative" is the scary part. because you see it constantly. this assumption that if someone says something you agree with, they're saying it as you would say it, and it's self-evidently aligned with your belief.
this is why you get people saying they can't understand why right-wingers think LotR is for them, because LotR preaches the Good Things and surely fascists only like the Bad Things! this is... not an uncommon take. arguably it's a take Tolkien himself had.
but people don't come to political positions magically in a fully-formed state. they develop moral values, and their political position is shaped by those.
I think it is worth discussing ideas like "it would be good if, like Aragorn, leaders did not want their positions of power and viewed them primarily as duty rather than privilege" or "being satisfied with a lower- or middle-class existence with a nice garden and a loving family is a healthy response to being presented with the sight of immense wealth and power". and I think it's important actually to consider them in the spirit intended (insofar as it was intended), because Tolkien's conservative ideas come from somewhere. they come from an intelligent man recognising genuine issues in his society and being frustrated with them. but that doesn't mean we have to accept the solutions offered, or say that these are progressive/left-wing concerns.
idk man i'm writing this instead of my essay i need to shut up so i'm leaving this unconcluded
Mammal identifier unfortunately made it sound like this Pudú Pudú is a little one. He is, but just FYI, pudús don't get much larger than this like they are all tiny, not even knee high. Adorable little things
received a lot of comments like this i swear I'm not singling you out and I don't know the exact location of this place but if there's something I do know is the geographical range of our country!!
this is argentina
this is also argentina
and this is argentina
and this!!
and of course this
and this!!!
and- ok you get the point
I guess it just seems a little ignorant to see any white mountain and think "oh this must be Switzerland!" Instead of the possibility of it actually being the country it says it is, considering it's the eight largest country in the world (Switzerland being the 135th) and one of the most geographically diverse.
If we're being realistic though, xmen being a gringo movie and all, if this is a real shot and not a composite then it's probably somewhere in the rocky mountains. probably Canada but could be northern US.
