Comment by goldenarm

2 days ago

Anduril is quite a positive name, it is a broken sword reforged later to save humankind. Quite a metaphor about western reindustrialization.

except of course that Tolkien, as a Catholic was quite adamant that he didn't write a story of Western chauvinism. The sword is not a metaphor for industrialization, which is quite literally the villain of the story, it's a symbol for restored kingship and hope.

  • Right, and his concept of nobility and just kingship was about mercy love justice and a love of nature, good food, merriment, harmony, and treating others with respect. His works are full of cautionary tales of people who reached for immortality, power, self-aggrandizement, and control over others and fell as a result.

    (Though he was obsessed with lineage and blood quotients and pale skin)

    • It's very difficult to judge the attitudes and held values of people who lived in the past - I mean the parentheses.

      We don't know how much of it is real flaw or corruption and how much is just the zeitgeist they lived in.

      I wouldn't be at all surprised if Musk's capital T today would end up becoming the beginning or turning point of a cautionary tale in the future. And, for better or worse, I know a lot of otherwise great and talented people who are still his fans.

  • You misunderstood me, Palmer Luckey made a metaphor when picking the name, not Tolkien of course.

  • tolkien largely copied the nibelungsenlied and accidentally inherited western chauvinism and many other ideas from that lore, including especially a great amount of racism