LOTR Luddism?

Here's a morsel for the casual LOTR fans out there. I know there are countless Lord of the Rings fans, and I know from a few of my friends that a lot of you have spent obscene amounts of time amassing almost unfathomable amounts of information about Tolkien, Middle Earth, hobbits, etc. If you have read the Silmarillion, this probably won't be news to you so please don't flame my ignorance, but... For those of you who, like me, read the books years ago and have been enjoying the movies in a pretty casual way—as in, so casual you're never really sure when the films depart from the books and your ignorance doesn't really bother you—you might enjoy The Engineer Guy's short discussion of the role of technology in the books. Now why would a trilogy that demonizes technology and celebrates the simple agrarian life have so much appeal in a world of smart bombs and modern bureaucratic systems of surveillance and control (hello TIA)? Hmm... I wonder. (Note: The TIA program has a new logo. What a shame! The logo was the best part of the whole concept! Oh well. You can still see the old one here.)

Posted January 28, 2003 09:39 AM | ai movies