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trisdacunha t1_j2bi4u4 wrote

Reply to comment by bhbhbhhh in I finished re-reading The Lord of the Rings by EldritchHugMachine

I think the journey is the point. And the journey takes you from the quiet peace and beauty of The Shire through to some very dark places, but all so you can return again in the end. No matter how bad it gets, something good survives. Sounds a bit trite, I know, but it is after all a Hero’s Journey and this template has been used and reused countless times over countless generations.

But the thing about journeys is you don’t return the same in the end. Sometimes the journey breaks something inside you and >!like Frodo returning to The Shire, nothing is ever the same, he can’t settle back into the old routines and decides instead to leave it all behind.!< Perhaps that’s how a soldier feels when returning from war? A feeling Tolkien was all too familiar with.

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CrazyCatLady108 t1_j2c0xcv wrote

No plain text spoilers allowed. Please use the format below and reply to this comment once you've made the edit, to have your comment reinstated.

Place >! !< around the text you wish to hide. You will need to do this for each new paragraph. Like this:

&gt;!The Wolf ate Grandma!&lt;

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>!The Wolf ate Grandma!<

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daiLlafyn t1_j2dja7r wrote

Yep - and worth mentioning that both Tolkien and Frodo had survivor's guilt in bucket loads. >!Boromir and especially Gollum - and that Frodo at the last fails, and the agent for the mission's success should be one that also failed, but died.!<

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bhbhbhhh t1_j2cuzud wrote

It's one of those curious phenomena of Reddit where people upvote comments containing mutually contradictory truth claims.

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daiLlafyn t1_j2diw72 wrote

As it should be. If it's friendly and well-argued disagreement, that should be encouraged. Have we not seen enough poisonous polarisation in the world?

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bhbhbhhh t1_j2dj7hk wrote

It appears to be the same people upvoting two comments putting forward theses that cannot both be true.

> If it's friendly and well-argued disagreement, that should be encouraged.

"Upvote anyone who disagrees with the one person I don't like" is a pretty poisonous attitude towards debate.

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daiLlafyn t1_j2djjue wrote

Upvote both, if it's well-argued and friendly. Applaud both sides.

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bhbhbhhh t1_j2dkbvf wrote

This is on top of the fact that people in this thread upvoted the comment telling me "Its utter stupidity... That kind of extra-literal over interpretation is also absolutely moronic... I guess, in review, I'm not surprised you tried to make a red herring fallacy. Nothing else you've said makes sense. Why should you start making sense now. Just don't expect anyone to take your poorly thought out and easily disproven arguments seriously."

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bhbhbhhh t1_j2djo2e wrote

What are you talking about? This is a case of "applaud sides two and three because fuck the first one."

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daiLlafyn t1_j2dl1ys wrote

Just scrolled through, and realise yours was the heftily-downvoted comment - understand now. I think you're also irritated by the thread that is now entirely deleted - which I couldn't see. Your first comment is right, though - the chapter, "The Ring goes South" really is tough. It takes a downturn before then - as soon as they leave Tom Bombadil's House, it turns much darker, even, than the darkest parts of the Hobbit. I love the Hobbit and hated what the films tried to do to it, while loving the bits that were true to the story. But The Hobbit was a children's book - Lord of the Rings really isn't.

Happy to discuss this, free of acrimony and downvotes if you want.

Edit: going out for a New Year's Eve walk now. Don't let the bastards grind you down.

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