One of my favorite parts about reading a book, most any book, is the way that the phrases and sentence structures tend to filter down into my own speech and writing. The archaic quality of the language might not make it through entirely, but the general cadence of the words, the ebb and flow of the paragraphs manifests itself a least a little. I decided to pick up the third installment of the Lord of the Rings again and am well into it. It’s taking a bit to really get going, but I have no doubt things will heat up significantly before too long. I am reading with great anticipation, however, since all of the more prescient characters, nay, people, in the story have given overwhelming indications that a malevolent doom is emminent, but I have trouble imagining a more ferocious onslaught of evil than what they underwent during the last book… All of the previous predictions have (obviously) been right on the mark, so I am very eager to see Tolkien’s imagination tackle the prophecies he’s set up for himself. As I read, of course, I am increasingly doubtful about the future two movies ability to communicate satisfactorily the range of landscapes and lifeforms the author has conjured up, but we’ll just have to see and watch them and reserve our judgments until the movie is through.
It’s interesting how our moral imaginations are stirred by the depiction of such traditions as chivalry and knighthood and everything associated with the middle ages. The living conditions during that period of time were at least as low, if not lower, than any other period in history, and yet we cling nostalgically to that era rather than to perhaps a civilization more technologically advanced, such as Rome or Greece. Maybe the morals we have ingrained are more directly related to the ones they held them? Perhaps it’s the time frame that’s closer to our own that creates the wistfulness for those ideals… Or maybe the memory of moral deeds and ideals lasts longer than a fleeting new advance in technology. I suppose technology is fundamentally ethically neutral (those some would argue otherwise), the bare mechanics of it, at least–though what is technology? Can a new technology be implemented and exist indepedent of ethical ramifications? Probably not–but that’s a topic for another post. At any rate, the vast majority of us strive to ever better ourselves, to do the right thing, whereas technology, while convenient and certainly pretty cool, simply exists in comparison, it is thus the highest manifestations of our moral aspirations that pull hardest on our heartstrings. It’s just things like this that scamper across the plain of my mind as I read.