From: word_chemist@hotmail.com   
      
   "Martha Bridegam"  wrote in message   
   news:1E5Vf.8462$tN3.162@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net...   
   > Ben Brumfield wrote:   
   > > Thanks for the link.  Don't you think the criticism of Carloman as of   
   > > racist / orientalist / islamophobic could be just as easily applied to   
   > > Tolkien's Harad?   
   >   
   > Calormen, isn't it? Well, Harad is unfair too, yes, but in   
   > Tolkien's defense, the people of Harad at least aren't   
   > bluntly described as being cruel by national character as   
   > the Calormenes are, IIRC in a tell-me-don't-show-me   
   > statement in the very first couple pages of *The Horse And   
   > His Boy*, which I never really liked. That business with the   
   > back injuries just seems pointless to a mind not formed by   
   > British boarding-schools, and *Horse And His Boy* is the   
   > book I remember enjoying least out of the seven. (Lewis had   
   > much more fun writing *The Voyage of the Dawn Treader*,   
   > don't you think?) Tolkien's Haradrim, on the other hand, are   
   > shown only as very foreign foreigners who are presumed to   
   > have been bribed, deceived or menaced into fighting for an   
   > evil leader who doesn't serve what we can guess of their   
   > interests.   
      
   I'll get the stash-box out...;O)   
      
   >   
   > > There's a flaw in that critique akin to presentism, I   
   > > think.   
   >   
   > There are unsavory streaks in Tolkien that aren't in all   
   > older storytellers -- worst, really, is the idea that Orcs   
   > are worse than human and therefore can be presumed to be   
   > uniformly evil by heredity. Also, the Gollum/golem   
   > similarity is hard to ignore once pointed out, and the   
   > explanation given for the nickname "Gollum" is a lot less   
   > convincing than most of Tolkien's backstory material. But at   
   > least Tolkien was scholar enough to stay inside his   
   > characters' heads when it came to meeting people from very   
   > far away: the hobbits and even the lords of Rohan and Minas   
   > Tirith are all provincial by modern standards. They simply   
   > don't know much about the Haradrim or the Wainriders beyond   
   > experience with them as opponents in war. It's suggested   
   > that Gandalf knows them because he has been everywhere --   
   > but of course Gandalf doesn't always say all he knows.   
   >   
   > >   
   > > Pullman's sneer doesn't bother me too much -- we shouldn't be too   
   > > surprised to see someone accused of producing atheist propaganda for   
   > > children throw a similar accusation at the Narnia series.   
   >   
   > There are some bad things in Mr. Pullman's brain. Never mind   
   > his theology, I don't trust his taste -- do you?   
      
   Care to enlarge?   
      
   ROBBIE   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)