In passing, Gil Guillory at LRC (http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/009107.html) remarks that Lord of the Rings was falsely characterized as racist. I devoured Tolkein's books when I was younger and caught the movies on opening week, and I even played Dungeons and Dragons regularly in college and law school. I like Tolkien and some other fantasy literature, but I have to admit that there is a streak of racism in them.
Let us take the case of orcs. These are clearly sentient beings and are said to be related to elves. They are always portrayed as absolutely evil and lacking in any redeeming qualities. You never see an orc mom with her cute orc baby or a family of orcs in their hovel. They have been twisted by Sauron, it is said, and they are beyond redemption. The only good orc is a dead orc.
This is classic racism, albeit directed at an imaginary race. I see the orcs as victims ruled by the tyrant Sauron and his totalitarian regime. They are his catapult fodder, and all you ever see are orc soldiers doing their duty for their overlords. In this they do not differ from the Rohirrim or the fighting elves or the folks of Gondor. They have been dehumanized/de-elfitized/de-dwarfitized/de-hobbitized and set up as the evil "other". Someone should tell the story of the Lord of the Rings from the orc perspective.
When I played D&D, I wanted to be an orc, but the other players, none of whom would want to think of himself as racist, dissuaded me by pointing out that orcs are inherently evil and that their characters would be bound to kill my character. The same kind of thinking goes on all too often in science fiction as well. Commander Ryker could plausibly trash the Ferengi as a species even while The Next Generation decried racism in its story lines.
No harm done, you might say, since there are no orcs or Ferengi to be offended, but the kind of thinking that lets you demonize imaginary races can be called upon to permit you to demonize real people, Iraqis for instance. It is appropriate to point out the issue even at the risk of taking some of the fun out of the fantasy.
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2 comments:
An admirable stance you have taken although I think you may have over-thought this one just a tad...
At the end of your post you mention exactly what I planned to point out to you as I read through your argument, that the Lord of the Rings is fantasy.
It is a surreal, escape from reality world in which the line between good and evil yields no room for gray. Is the concept naive? Absolutely, but that is a charming aspect of the story and not one which should be misintepreted as racist.
Then again, I could be wrong :)
The Orcs are definitely not the only racist aspects in the books. Ever notice how everyone is always talking about how the Numenoreans became weaker when they mingled with 'lesser' races? How all the protagonists are white, while the evil Black people of Harad and Asians of Rhun are allied with Sauron?
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