this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
907 points (98.3% liked)

Lord of the memes

8257 readers
451 users here now

The Lord of the rings memes communitiy on Lemmy. Share memes about Lord of the rings and be respectful.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] jwiggler@sh.itjust.works 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, yeah, you're coming to a small community of LOTR fans and accusing the author of their fandom of being racist. I'm not sure what you expect lol.

But yeah there are some dubiously racist characterizations in the novels. There are also some moments of reflection, like Sam seeing the dead Harad soldier:

He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home.

I mean, the book is written from a Western POV, and by a white Catholic guy who was born in the late 1800s. I think the chances were pretty slim of him having a modern outlook on race, gender, sexuality, etc.

Edit: omg on midwest.social too hahaha