Imagine that you could interview J.R.R. Tolkien. What questions would you like to ask him? How might he have responded to your questions if he were still alive?Include the following information in your reports: the author's personal life (including his early years), books he's written, and any awards or other accomplishments he has received.
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Answer:
I would ask him about the historical attempts to redeem orcs, trolls and other “unfree” peoples, and what had come of them. It always disturbed me that the so-called good characters seemed to write off genocide so lightly.
Tolkien makes an extremely bold assertion–that the very existence of the dark races is an evil that would be corrected by genocide. That’s quite a pill for the reader to swallow. For me to accept the views of Tolkien and his “good” characters, simple conformity to precedent is not enough. I would require (1) a detailed analysis of how the dark races turned to evil, (2) a mechanistic explanation of why the corruption cannot be undone, (3) a coherent moral argument that the extent of their corruption justifies killing them on sight. Since Tolkien and his “good” characters view these races as a repulsive afterthought, Tolkien hasn’t bothered to add any of these things to canon. As a result, I cannot accept that they should be killed on sight.
To me, the only way to exonerate the mythos is to recognize the reclusiveness of the “good” characters as a moral failing, as it keeps them on the easy path of simply killing and prevents them from researching the answers to these questions. Conversely, I admire the Uruk-hai of Isengard for their bravery, their loyalty and their willingness to endure physical discomfort to Make Things Happen–which makes me even more skeptical of Tolkien’s stance. See this post: In conclusion, I believe the canonical morality of the Lord of the Rings is seriously flawed.