CommentsTHE DOCTOR IS IN - There's a reason or ten why Tolkien despised allegory in his or other mythological or fantasy works,
why Tolkien and his family/estate disavowed many previous attempts at the Lord of the Rings, and why Tolkien's family/estate were accepting of Peter Jackson's version of "The Lord of the Rings"...but disavowed themselves from "The Hobbit".
Ditto for the upcoming Lord of the Rings "Second Age" tale by Amazon. Tolkien's stories were meant to both have underlying themes but not straightforward or in-your-face lessons. In fact, it could be argued that an advanced high school or even college course is necessary to understand what on Earth (or shall I say "Middle Earth"?) he was writing about:
1) Life and Death...the Elves were born immortal (but could be killed) yet their souls trapped within The World (Arda) until The World's End, and Men were born mortal, and their souls freed to go...somewhere...beyond and outside of this World. For either the Elves or Men (both Children of Ilúvatar, or God) to challenge Ilúvatar or his Valar viceroys who were angelic beings in the Far West was something that would lead to the rebels' ruin.
2) Pride, Avarice, Murder, and Greed were all negative in the devout Christian eyes of the late J.R.R. Tolkien. War and Prejudice were inevitable in his realistic knowledge of history...but John Ronald Reuel Tolkien had no love of War (he was stricken ill in the trenches of World War I and lost several close friends, to say nothing of witnessing its terrible results) or Prejudice (he rebuffed Hitler and informed Hitler he wished he WAS Jewish).
3) Mortal women (of the race of Men) fought in times of crisis--his character Eowyn of Rohan was brilliant, inspiring, and courageous--but when females Elves fought like Men it was an abomination. Hence the otherwise-excellent portrayal of Tauriel by Evangeline Lilly in "The Hobbit" trilogy was also an abomination in Tolkien's eyes.
4) Galadriel and her female Elven forebearers had powerful and great abilities...but did so through Creation, Beauty, Words, and Song. Having Galadriel as a scary powerful figure in "The Hobbit" was awful enough, but making her a "bad-ass" in Amazon's Second Age The Lord of the Rings is beyond the pale.
5) Tolkien's lands and stories, replete with detail, focus on the northwest corner of Middle-Earth and as a new version of England's pre-historical mythology. The Second Age of Middle-Earth (a term which, by the way, is based on the Norse "Midgard" which described mortal Earth), does have a powerful, "supermen" version of Men who lived in the western isle of Númenor expanding their role over the world...
...so having a racially diverse cast might work, but NOT in the manner towards which Amazon appears to be moving.
Black Dwarves? Perhaps.
Black Númenoreans? Forget it.
Similar to Asian actors being cast in the Lord of the Rings. Both Elves and Men were "born" in the Far East, and perhaps might take on Asian features if they did NOT move to the Light of the West (think of a sliding scale of Western light and Eastern darkness), but they were NOT Asian...
...any more than David Carradine was Asian in the old TV series "Kung Fu."
...any more than a white actor playing Kunta Kinte in the wonderful minseries "Roots".
There WERE "Swarthy Men" and Black Númenoreans...but the former was not a slam on individuals of color, and the latter were probably not of a "black" skin color.
Because those who traveled West in the very start of Man's birth were fortunate enough to see the God-granted Lights of the Two Trees and the Silmaril Jewels from which the last Light of those two trees emanated.
A long story, on which I shall elaborate (if CityWatch so allows) in brief...but my point is that those of the East and South WERE with virtue and courage, but were stuck in the grasp of Sauron and his greater, more frightening Dark Lord Melkor who he worshiped and who preceded Sauron. They just got "stuck behind enemy lines", and were as much God's Children as anyone.
So Amazon is possibly on its way to coming up with a gem of a series, but appears about to lay as big an egg as any TV series we've seen since the aforementioned "Kung Fu". Miscasting and well-meant efforts will actually be as incorrect and racist as anything we've seen in recent times.
Because Lord of the Rings is no pro-war, "isn't that kewl" special-side-effects-focused series as we saw in the Tolkien knockoff that is "Game of Thrones". It isn't just against canon to declare that Lord of the Rings must be reinvented.
It's about Hollywood morons who NOTHING of what Tolkien wrote, and who are missing a few amazing ways to make a MORE exciting, MORE imaginative, and MORE multiracial Second Age-focused Lord of the Rings if those Hollywood writers knew about The World Tolkien actually wrote about.
More to come!
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father to two cherished children and a wonderful wife. He was termed out of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) twice after two stints as a Board member for 9, years and is also a Board member of the Westside Village Homeowners Association. He previously co-chaired the MVCC Outreach, Planning, and Transportation/Infrastructure Committees for 10 years. He was previously co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee, the grassroots Friends of the Green Line (which focused on a Green Line/LAX connection), and the nonprofit Transit Coalition His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
