One parallel between _Atlas Shrugged_ and _LOTR_ that I'm surprised Jablecki doesn't make a bit more explicitly is that both novels the central "gimmick" (as Rand would use the term) involves the refusal of power. LOTR turns the standard "mystic quest" theme on its head by making it a quest not to obtain a magical object but to get rid of it; Atlas turns the standard torturing-the-hero incident on its head by making it an attempt, not to get the hero to submit, but to get the hero to rule. In both cases the desideratum, as presented in the novel, is not to get the right person into power but to get rid of the power. In that respect the two novels are interestingly parallel.
There are other, less significant parallels too -- like the fact that both books contain: a door that can be opened only by using the right secret phrase; a
hidden utopian valley where the heroes rest before continuing their struggle; a wonderful metal that is lighter but tougher than steel; and a former wise man with S-A-R in his name who succumbs to the lure of power, shrivels drastically in moral stature, and comes to an ignominious end. (I've got a list of further parallels somewhere, plus connections of both books to Plato's Republic -- been meaning to write about this eventually.)
... Lord of the Rings? I suppose Frodo and Samwise's blank in innocence of the temptation of the One Ring is a good example But there's a srong thread of...
Politically, Tolkien was a mixed bag. (He said his two favourite systems were monarchy and anarchy.) But if you read the ring as a metaphor for political...
... I find the Hobbit society pretty attractive--as Michael Holmes has no doubt discerned. -- Kevin Carson Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org ...
... Hash: SHA1 ... Well, during the time he was writing _The Lord of the Rings_, he seems to have been a bit of both. From a letter to his son Christopher (29 ...
... William Stoddard wrote an essay on this topic in 1992: http://www.troynovant.com/Stoddard/Tolkien/Law-Institutions-Shire.html Bill is Vice President of the...
"Tolkien was not a libertarian. he was a monarchist." Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that. According to an essay on LOTR and Rand's Atlas...
... Actually it's from two years ago -- 7/9/07, not 7/9/09. By the way, in the foreword to LOTR, denying that the book is an allegory of World War II, Tolkien ...
One parallel between _Atlas Shrugged_ and _LOTR_ that I'm surprised Jablecki doesn't make a bit more explicitly is that both novels the central "gimmick" (as...
... There's also a letter where he says that the difference between war in Middle Earth and war in the real world is that in the real world there are Orcs on...
... Both quotes sound almost like Dwight MacDonald before he became a neocon. -- Kevin Carson Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org Mutualist Blog:...
This reminds me of something. A few days ago, I finally saw "Hearts and Minds" and of the many scenes that stood out, there was David Ellsberg saying, "We...
... Let me be more specific here. War does not turn every individual who sees combat into a monster. War seems to have an effect on people so that some will...
Does it? Aside from chimps, war seems a, sadly, very human thing. And, heck, in the case of chimps, it's almost like they're being human when they go to war. ...
On that topic, Steven Pinker has a good article: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/2009april/Pinker054.php Money quote: Man's inhumanity to man has...
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