Tuesday, July 12, 2011
in regards to the shire
Many, many years ago, before the Google gave us the way to instantly connect and hyperlink to all human knowledge, I remember reading an article about J.R.R. Tolkien.
Anyways. . .
I read about this FAMiLY group in Iowa, and this pledge they created for Presidential candidates to sign to earn the support of their organization. It's full of lots of crazy sounding shit about "Humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy" whatever the fuck that means. I mean really now, in some circumstances the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy could be referred to as Santorum.
Okay, I'll link to that because it's funny. Almost makes me want to start a contest. What's a Bachmann?
Back to the pledge. The rejection of Sharia Law. What the fuck is that? Where did that come from? Because the President is a secret non-American muslim? Because our nation was founded on The Ten Commandments of Jewish law? Because we should base our lives on and our laws on one ancient mythology and not on another? It almost makes me want to start bitching that all the trouble in our nation today is caused because we have turned our backs on Zeus. You don't want to slight him. Nope. He's not one one to trifle with. Ask Odysseus. And Zeus was as kinky as he was vengeful. I'm not talking just the standard whips, chips, chains, and dips type of stuff. I'm talking hardcore, like beastiality. He banged Europa as a bull, and Leda as a swan.
But I am really digressing. . .
Back to Tolkien.
For Tolkien the hobbits and The Shire were a metaphor for the English people. Not the Williams and the Kates nor the Harper Sevens of England, but the people of England. The hardworking, honest, and sensible people that made (and presumably continue to do so) the majority of the country, just the people living their lives in the hamlets, villages and hillsides. The hobbits and The Shire represented the fellows who got up every morning and did their job without complaint so long as they could enjoy a pint with a friend at the end of day, the salt of the earth folks.
Some might say Springsteen paints a similar picture of America for our times: "I had a friend was a big baseball player back in high school. . . "
Or David Byrne: "People like us. . . we don't want freedom, we don't want justice. We just want someone to love".
Iowa.
Iowa is that place and those people for me. Iowa is my Shire. Sweet Iowa, the land where the tall corn grows, the land of my birth, the land of my childhood, the land of my idyllic Tom Sawyer days running through the woods to the banks of the river.
"Is this Heaven?" "No, it's Iowa." - Field of Dreams
"I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space." James T. Kirk, Star Trek IV
You know that scene near the end of Lord of The Rings? The books, not the movies. The Hobbits return to The Shire and discover to their horror that it had become the ugly scene that Sam witnessed when he looked into The Mirror of Galadriel.
I feel like that. It cuts me to my core to see the good people of my Shire fall prey to the evil and ignorant, hurtful and hateful speech of such a Wormtongue.
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Anyways. . .
I read about this FAMiLY group in Iowa, and this pledge they created for Presidential candidates to sign to earn the support of their organization. It's full of lots of crazy sounding shit about "Humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy" whatever the fuck that means. I mean really now, in some circumstances the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy could be referred to as Santorum.
Okay, I'll link to that because it's funny. Almost makes me want to start a contest. What's a Bachmann?
Back to the pledge. The rejection of Sharia Law. What the fuck is that? Where did that come from? Because the President is a secret non-American muslim? Because our nation was founded on The Ten Commandments of Jewish law? Because we should base our lives on and our laws on one ancient mythology and not on another? It almost makes me want to start bitching that all the trouble in our nation today is caused because we have turned our backs on Zeus. You don't want to slight him. Nope. He's not one one to trifle with. Ask Odysseus. And Zeus was as kinky as he was vengeful. I'm not talking just the standard whips, chips, chains, and dips type of stuff. I'm talking hardcore, like beastiality. He banged Europa as a bull, and Leda as a swan.
But I am really digressing. . .
Back to Tolkien.
For Tolkien the hobbits and The Shire were a metaphor for the English people. Not the Williams and the Kates nor the Harper Sevens of England, but the people of England. The hardworking, honest, and sensible people that made (and presumably continue to do so) the majority of the country, just the people living their lives in the hamlets, villages and hillsides. The hobbits and The Shire represented the fellows who got up every morning and did their job without complaint so long as they could enjoy a pint with a friend at the end of day, the salt of the earth folks.
Some might say Springsteen paints a similar picture of America for our times: "I had a friend was a big baseball player back in high school. . . "
Or David Byrne: "People like us. . . we don't want freedom, we don't want justice. We just want someone to love".
Iowa.
Iowa is that place and those people for me. Iowa is my Shire. Sweet Iowa, the land where the tall corn grows, the land of my birth, the land of my childhood, the land of my idyllic Tom Sawyer days running through the woods to the banks of the river.
"Is this Heaven?" "No, it's Iowa." - Field of Dreams
"I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space." James T. Kirk, Star Trek IV
You know that scene near the end of Lord of The Rings? The books, not the movies. The Hobbits return to The Shire and discover to their horror that it had become the ugly scene that Sam witnessed when he looked into The Mirror of Galadriel.
I feel like that. It cuts me to my core to see the good people of my Shire fall prey to the evil and ignorant, hurtful and hateful speech of such a Wormtongue.
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