And, oh, dear, yes, reading Tolkien badly (just as badly as Santorum's quote in the Politico article when he claims that the "game plan" should be to go to Mordor: "'I’m also someone who believes that the message of Tolkien is that evil must be confronted. And so the idea is that well, we can wait until it comes to the Shire, but that is not a very good game plan. You gotta go to Mordor.'"
He musta not noticed that the whole idea of direct (military) confrontation was NOT the game plan -- the plan was to destroy the Ring so nobody could use it (which is what the Twits above seem to be arguing against!).
I have been "following", off and on, what the Paypal mafia and their epigones had been doing for many years and when I saw Vance chose that particular name for his 'company' at the time I thought to myself 'oh boy, he's going to be trouble.' I really don't like being right in such matters....
I knew about Thiel's Palantir which I thought was pretty appropriate though unintentional--though now that I think about it, the palantiri were created by the Numenoreans, if I remember correctly, so not necessarily evil at the start. But they can be misused! And yeah, the more I become aware of the fascist Tolkien fans, the more depressing it is (although I must fangirl you for the use of "epigones" which is a great word that needs more use!).
Thanks for this. It will be helpful background on Vance's psychological profile part II. Lifelong LOTR fan but just found out about the right's appropriation beyond Thiel. Wouldn't surprise me if he is behind most of it. He's almost certainly behind all of Vance's interest. Cheers!
It's a shock, isn't it, finding out about the appropriation all the more in that it's been developing for decades Craig Franson is doing some amazing work (toward a book!) on that very topic (https://americanid.substack.com/aboutpropriation). And yes, Thiel is definitely there (I'm pulling together a post of links and excerpts, and this one may be of interest to you, if you don't already know about it -- includes a discussion of Curtis Yarvin as a major proponent of building a fascist world on epic fantasy (https://speterdavis.substack.com/p/frauds-in-the-wings-the-plagiarized). I had never heard of Yarvin before now.
"Those who advance feminist, Marxist, or “queer” interpretations of Tolkien’s work are akin to the Orcs who defile and disfigure the good that they find; but those who advise conservatives to abandon the beauty of Tolkien’s works, to see it as something other than conservative and Christian, to allow the rampaging Orcs to desecrate wherever they will — these are much more like to the whispering traitor Gríma Wormtongue. "
Sometimes I am not really sure how such views can co-exist in one world but then I am still way too naive on a lot of things. *lesigh*
Yikes--thank you for the link - somehow I had missed that response to the news about fanboi Vance. Am I the only one snickering about how "queer" gets extra SCARE QUOTES in McCarthy's piece (and isn't that a hilariously fucking ironic name????)
I always appreciate people linking because there is so much on the internet that it's impossible to keep track of it all.
A lot of this sort of rhetoric (at least in the U.S. which is the only national culture I can speak about as a native) went underground since the McCarthy hearings and the Civil Rights movements--Trump enabled all the racists, christo-fascists, techno-fascists, misogynistic men's groups (who feel totally victimized by the EEEEEEVUL wimminfolk who won't have sex with them), etc. etc. to let loose, and he's cheering them on). I made an archived copy of the article which is how I reference/cite such things (to avoid giving their sites clicks and $): http://archive.today/gHAOK
I encourage others to do the same, if possible (archive.ph is the site I use, but it's not the only one).
The phrase "Tolkien-pilled Catholic" needs to be tried at The Hague for being a crime against humanity.
Some bonus "Christians reading Tolkien badly": https://twitter.com/HasBrainCanRead/status/1816603897974456387
*heh* Well, also being a blatant rip-off of "red-pilled" which was yet another appropriation from a popular text (and I just like to remind people that Lily Wachowski told Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump to "fuck off" when they used the term!: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/18/lilly-wachowski-ivana-trump-elon-musk-twitter-red-pill-the-matrix-tweets).
And, oh, dear, yes, reading Tolkien badly (just as badly as Santorum's quote in the Politico article when he claims that the "game plan" should be to go to Mordor: "'I’m also someone who believes that the message of Tolkien is that evil must be confronted. And so the idea is that well, we can wait until it comes to the Shire, but that is not a very good game plan. You gotta go to Mordor.'"
He musta not noticed that the whole idea of direct (military) confrontation was NOT the game plan -- the plan was to destroy the Ring so nobody could use it (which is what the Twits above seem to be arguing against!).
I have been "following", off and on, what the Paypal mafia and their epigones had been doing for many years and when I saw Vance chose that particular name for his 'company' at the time I thought to myself 'oh boy, he's going to be trouble.' I really don't like being right in such matters....
I knew about Thiel's Palantir which I thought was pretty appropriate though unintentional--though now that I think about it, the palantiri were created by the Numenoreans, if I remember correctly, so not necessarily evil at the start. But they can be misused! And yeah, the more I become aware of the fascist Tolkien fans, the more depressing it is (although I must fangirl you for the use of "epigones" which is a great word that needs more use!).
Thanks for this. It will be helpful background on Vance's psychological profile part II. Lifelong LOTR fan but just found out about the right's appropriation beyond Thiel. Wouldn't surprise me if he is behind most of it. He's almost certainly behind all of Vance's interest. Cheers!
https://samray.substack.com/p/jd-vance-a-psychological-profile
It's a shock, isn't it, finding out about the appropriation all the more in that it's been developing for decades Craig Franson is doing some amazing work (toward a book!) on that very topic (https://americanid.substack.com/aboutpropriation). And yes, Thiel is definitely there (I'm pulling together a post of links and excerpts, and this one may be of interest to you, if you don't already know about it -- includes a discussion of Curtis Yarvin as a major proponent of building a fascist world on epic fantasy (https://speterdavis.substack.com/p/frauds-in-the-wings-the-plagiarized). I had never heard of Yarvin before now.
"Those who advance feminist, Marxist, or “queer” interpretations of Tolkien’s work are akin to the Orcs who defile and disfigure the good that they find; but those who advise conservatives to abandon the beauty of Tolkien’s works, to see it as something other than conservative and Christian, to allow the rampaging Orcs to desecrate wherever they will — these are much more like to the whispering traitor Gríma Wormtongue. "
Sometimes I am not really sure how such views can co-exist in one world but then I am still way too naive on a lot of things. *lesigh*
Source: https://washingtonstand.com/commentary/the-crownless-again-shall-be-king-the-conservative-heart-of-jrr-tolkiens-work
Yikes--thank you for the link - somehow I had missed that response to the news about fanboi Vance. Am I the only one snickering about how "queer" gets extra SCARE QUOTES in McCarthy's piece (and isn't that a hilariously fucking ironic name????)
I always appreciate people linking because there is so much on the internet that it's impossible to keep track of it all.
A lot of this sort of rhetoric (at least in the U.S. which is the only national culture I can speak about as a native) went underground since the McCarthy hearings and the Civil Rights movements--Trump enabled all the racists, christo-fascists, techno-fascists, misogynistic men's groups (who feel totally victimized by the EEEEEEVUL wimminfolk who won't have sex with them), etc. etc. to let loose, and he's cheering them on). I made an archived copy of the article which is how I reference/cite such things (to avoid giving their sites clicks and $): http://archive.today/gHAOK
I encourage others to do the same, if possible (archive.ph is the site I use, but it's not the only one).
I also completely forgot to send you the link to my first ever Curumo's Current affairs - I finally found the courage to publish it.
It's mostly on the (again) rise of neo-fascism in Italy and the exhibition on tour as well as some smatterings on Ukraine etc.
https://steadyhq.com/thetolkienist/posts/a1b9b34c-2bf7-47e4-898e-76277f4af851?utm_campaign=steady_sharing_button