Tolkien had a very important idea that it was not only people with depraved hearts who worshiped the ring. But this is true of anyone who has something to do with the ring, even someone like Boromir who only occasionally glimpses the ring's eyes. It can be inferred from this that The Middle-earth world at this time had fallen. Fall into evil.
However, this evil claim through fetishism marks the beginning of a more modern form of alienation, especially in the modern capitalist economy. More than half a century before Freud wrote his treatise on fetishism, the term fetishism had been used by Marx as a central idea in his critique of industrial capitalist society.
In Marx's magnificent masterpiece, Capital, he describes the ghostly relationship between us and what we produce. As Marx saw: when a piece of wood is made of a table, (the shape of the wood changes) but it is still just a table (still an ordinary thing that can be felt), but once it enters the market field "as a commodity, it becomes a sensible and transcendental thing."
It not only stands on the ground with its feet, but also stands upside down with its head in relation to all other commodities, and from its wooden head gives rise to rhapsodies far stranger than its automatic dancing." The TV car commercial in which the young girl caresses the body of the car is a perfect proof of our tendency to think of the product as a living thing.
Marx went on to preach that in the market economy of modern society, the connection between producers and consumers is severed, and even we are separated from the objects of our own labor.
The relationship between things replaces the relationship between people, and the commodity has a kind of worship that is like an idol: all this is of people's own making, but we do not know it. In real life, our lifestyles are made up of brand-name brands, as well as food and clothing producers we don't know at all.
I am not saying here that The Lord of the Rings is a Marxist text, nor am I saying that Tolkien aspired to a country like Charl. What is clear, however, is that through the depiction of the ring, the novel presents a thorough critique of the radical tendencies of people who have gathered treasures, idolatry, alienation, and the radical tendencies that emerge from psychological and economic analysis.
In addition, Tolkien was a devout Catholic. And in the 20th century, the Roman Catholic Church, in its encyclicals preaching to the masses, criticized capitalism as harshly as it criticized National Socialism. Although, on the one hand secular writers can understand Tolkien's critical work from their point of view, and on the other hand, as an appropriate response to the fetishistic question, it can be said that the religious dimension of the book is also extremely important.
In Tolkien's view, everything that is created is good. As he writes at the beginning of The Elven Diamond about the secrets of creation. In the unincorporated index of the third volume, Tolkien separately lists the category of "thing".
It follows that the world of things is of vital importance to him. Follow the entry down. This category can be found to be quite strange, ranging from rings, weapons, flowers, and books that everyone can think of, to unexpected ones, such as postal systems, battles, meetings, chronicles, and language.
The inclusion of these immaterial things in the category of "thing" is because Tolkien used the word "thing" in a very ancient sense. The earliest example of the modern conventional use of "thing" in the Oxford English Dictionary to refer to living objects appeared in 1689.
Prior to this, thing refers to things, events, and even parliaments in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse and Old Germanic languages, as Heidegger points out in his treatise on thing, thing means: "assembly, especially to the assembly to discuss controversial events" The "thing" that we now understand as separate from us as objects of our feelings evolved from the events or events that were put forward for discussion, experienced, Thing refers to things that people discuss in places of discussion, and it has an inherent public character.
As Heidegger said, "thingsing gathers." Today, when we are no longer subject to the totem of things, we go to the other extreme, where we see things as dead things that have no intrinsic value at all. The goods in the December window that strongly seduce people to buy will be exhausted on the January discount list.
Tolkien's theological views gave legitimacy to making and creating things, so in his magical world, most of what mattered was good. And those relatively rare evil things are inevitably destructive or arbitrary by nature. For example, the formidable Siege Hammer Grand, named after Mogus's scepter, has a wolf-shaped iron head on the front.
In addition, in fact, there are not many things in the book "The Lord of the Rings". The index about things is also much shorter than other indexes. After the plot develops away from the relatively materially rich Xia'er country, it can be said that there are few things. And most of the things are just travel equipment in the Middle English sense.
The equipment that the Guardians of the Rings brought with them was simple: food, cooking utensils, water bottles, pipes and tobacco, grey elf cloaks, and weapons. The world has been stripped down to the point where only a few basic necessities of survival and defense remain. Therefore, the fewer things are, the more precious they are. For example, Sam suddenly remembers the rope he brought from Lorraine's boat:
"Rope!" Sam was excited and relieved to hear this, and couldn't help but say to himself loudly, "I should have hung this idiot on a rope!" Sam Gamzi, you're nothing but an idiot. Dad used to say that about me. rope! ”
"Don't nag!" Frodo shouted. By this time he had relieved himself, and he felt angry and funny when he heard Sam's words. "Don't mention what daddy isn't daddy!" Did you carry a rope with you? If you carry it, throw it away! ”
"Not really. Lord Frodo, it's in my bag. With it for hundreds of miles, I poured well and forgot a grain light! ”
Sam danced happily at the thought of the rope, while Frodo climbed the cliff, describing the scene in a humorous tone, and the simple language was in contrast to the critical situation.
The silky rope is silver and shining, but such a description does not detract from the magical nature of the rope. The rope swayed and swayed to remind one of other life-saving ropes, such as the rope that Rahab had laid down for Two of Joshua's spies, which became a sign of Joshua's forgiveness of her family when he attacked Jericho.
Whether depicted in a literary contrasting way, in this scene the rope shows a complete and sufficient existence. Sam gave the rope its best compliment: "Look thin and small, usable and sturdy; squeezed in the hand as silky and soft as milk." Put it in the bag gently, no weight at all. Elves are amazing! ”
Sam mentions the rope-making spirit, and associates things with their makers, with their power and use, so that he is freed from attachment to things.
Source: The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy
Author: Alison Milkbank
Original title: My Baby: The Lord of the Rings and Fetishism
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