Excellent analysis. Since we now have our sense of self, our ego, we are responsible for seeing evil and moving away from it.
There are no higher beings walking around(Elves) protecting us from it.
If we don’t learn to discern evil, it has the right to take us out just as any enemy has if we aren’t trained enough-strong enough—prepared enough. That’s the rules of the game.
‘My people perish for lack of knowledge’.
I’m watching Rings of Power. I live these archetypal shows. Human strengths and weaknesses writ large.
I wonder how we figure in the orcs and other obviously very foul creatures. They both feel foul and appear foul. Perhaps it's just straightforward: the test is feeling foul, and the orcs do, so you know what they are. And obviously, being fantasy, LotR can externalize evil in that way, which in the real world is so much more often masked. Are orcs and fair promises two sides of the same coin, in the way the dark lord himself has both faces?
I don't want to get into controversy, but the presentation of orc children seems to really mess with the whole system, in not a good way.
Thanks for your question! I agree, Orcs are interesting. I would say they seem to be an "anti-race," not a race in the proper sense of the word. They are twisted Elves. A mockery of a race. In this sense, they do not represent a race as such and cannot be viewed in the same terms. Much like corrupted people are humans, of course, but their "corruption" doesn't make them into a separate race. They are an anti-race in the sense that they do not have a being of their own but have a borrowed being. A shadow of being. All mockery is that way. It's based on something and yet departs from it so far that it turns into the "anti-thing."
Excellent analysis. Since we now have our sense of self, our ego, we are responsible for seeing evil and moving away from it.
There are no higher beings walking around(Elves) protecting us from it.
If we don’t learn to discern evil, it has the right to take us out just as any enemy has if we aren’t trained enough-strong enough—prepared enough. That’s the rules of the game.
‘My people perish for lack of knowledge’.
I’m watching Rings of Power. I live these archetypal shows. Human strengths and weaknesses writ large.
Thanks, Robin. Yes, sounds right. I have not watched Season 2, a bit skeptical about it. How do you find it?
Thanks, I always enjoy these short LotR pieces.
I wonder how we figure in the orcs and other obviously very foul creatures. They both feel foul and appear foul. Perhaps it's just straightforward: the test is feeling foul, and the orcs do, so you know what they are. And obviously, being fantasy, LotR can externalize evil in that way, which in the real world is so much more often masked. Are orcs and fair promises two sides of the same coin, in the way the dark lord himself has both faces?
I don't want to get into controversy, but the presentation of orc children seems to really mess with the whole system, in not a good way.
Any thoughts?
Thanks for your question! I agree, Orcs are interesting. I would say they seem to be an "anti-race," not a race in the proper sense of the word. They are twisted Elves. A mockery of a race. In this sense, they do not represent a race as such and cannot be viewed in the same terms. Much like corrupted people are humans, of course, but their "corruption" doesn't make them into a separate race. They are an anti-race in the sense that they do not have a being of their own but have a borrowed being. A shadow of being. All mockery is that way. It's based on something and yet departs from it so far that it turns into the "anti-thing."