The Lord of the Rings: J.R.R. Tolkien vs the Modern Age by David Brin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


David Brin is a believer in progress, and pretty consistent about it. His Star Wars On Trial also makes many of the points he makes here in this essay. Tolkien’s fantasy is a rejection of progress and modernism that makes it frankly reactionary in the true sense of the word. That could be possibly explained in part as a reaction to World War I, the first mechanized industrial experience of slaughter, and that would be understandable. I have read the novels and enjoyed the movies, but I also like Brin’s take because I fundamentally believe that the future will be better, and that there was never a past Golden Age.



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