Fixing a Whole

[Hekate]

22. Awww, I read LOTR in 1965, when I was 17...

My whole family read sci-fi and fantasy, so when that showed up in the house I just thought it was another fantasy novel, albeit quite a good one. Exceptionally good, in its way. I was more than a little bemused when I went off to college that fall and discovered there were people who wanted to inhabit these worlds for real.

I chose to major in history, which is fact-based; should have majored in English, but that is another story. As a sideline to Asian history I chowed down on as many translated novels as I could, for insight into cultures not my own. That's how I view the best of fiction to this day: as insight into the human condition.

When Peter Jackson brought out the LOTR movies, he had an audience that had been waiting at least 30 years, including me. He hewed pretty closely to the text, because he knew a whole generation of us would scorn him if he didn't.

Certain scenes leapt out at me, as we were in the midst of BushCheney's rush to war. One was the Galadriel quote; the other was an exchange between Frodo and Gandalf:
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we must decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

"The time that is given us" is reminiscent of Nancy Pelosi quoting the Founding Fathers on how they were "made for these times," and how she sees that "these times have come to us."

It rather haunts me, because I fear I am no longer up to these times. You are, though; I can tell. Thank you for all you do.