Americans love Tolkien’s Middle Earth. It’s just like home!
Both are highly unequal societies of great & small people. But we can still put America on another path.
j r r tolkien
Why don’t our dreams of a better world inspire us to act?
Summary: In this chapter of our search for a better America we examine our stories and myths. Do they show a path to the future — inspiring us to act — or are they just dreams of salvation by gods? {1st of 2 posts today.} Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and …
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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Battles finishes the series
Summary:Â Today film critic Locke Peterseim reviews the last of The Hobbit films, The Battle of the Five Armies. Peter Jackson gives us fare that well suits 21st century America, a spectacular but shallow and overly long war. Three hours of CGI carnage without meaning or emotion, just like our real wars (except to those …
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Hollywood transforms “The Hobbit” into The Desolation of Tolkien
Summary:Â Today we have another guest post by film critic Locke Peterseim, a review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. He shows how Hollywood transforms Tolkien’s small story into The Fast and Furious visits Middle Earth, draining away its character and meaning (much as they did in the last two of the three Lord …
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Why Americans should love Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – we live there
Summary: We can all learn much from reading Lord of the Rings about the new America now emerging. A stratified society, with great and small people. Tolkien, ever the realist, shows how the small people can prosper in the 21st century — as America comes to resemble Middle Earth. Always on the top of my reading list …
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