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Re: OT: Politics
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D&D and other RPGs are in a different category for me, but it's not really about the occult. See, I grew up playing a lot of RPGs: D&D, GURPS, Shadowrun, Earthdawn (yay, horrors!), Call of Cthulhu, Torg, and many more. I was also a frequent player on several MUDs, which were the pre-Everquest version of MMORPGs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I spent an obscene amount of time, money, and effort on make-believe. Then I had an "Aha!" moment. What if I could devote even a fraction of that time, money, and effort to something or someone real? RPGs are a great form of escape. But as soon as the escape takes priority over the real world, something is horribly wrong.... |
Re: OT: Politics
Ive always said that the matrix movie had a very flawed basis for the story. The machines force us into a virtual world? If they perfect jacked-in technology then I think a too large portion of the populace will voluntarily take to their beds with more and more machines being force to take care of them.
Gandalf Parker Hurry up with the Matrix. I want to be playing Dominions 10 in the nursing home. |
Re: OT: Politics
Argh, the main problem with the Matrix storyline to my mind is the "we need you for your bio-energy" idea. This is bizarre on two levels:
1) Obviously you can't get out more energy than you put in. Just burn their food in a power station. 2) Even if bio-energy was somehow the way forward, why not use, for instance, cows? Or raccoons? Same bio-energy presumably, less chance of rebellion. They should have said they needed something from humans that only humans could provide - for instance, perhaps the machines need to harness the processing power of our brains? That would make much more sense. I often think that if only the film makers would pay me (or any other vaguely intelligent person) a tenner to look over their scripts before they started making them, films could be a hell of a lot better. There are so many glaring, stupid plot holes in so many films that could so easily be fixed. How can people put so many hours and so much money into making something that doesn't make sense, when that problem could be rectified by asking your mate in the pub if he had a more sensible idea? |
Re: OT: Politics
The way hollywood's going these days, paying those same cows or racoons to write the scripts would produce marginally better results http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif
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Re: OT: Politics
You know, until recently, they *did* used to say that we only used 10% of our brains.
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Re: OT: Politics
Well exactly.
Film script writers probably use less. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif |
Re: OT: Politics
Obviously, someone has never faced a full-blown raccoon rebellion. It ain't pretty...
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Re: OT: Politics
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(If you don't get it: The Wiz is a version of The Wizard of Oz with an all-black cast.) |
Re: OT: Politics
Tolkien should be looked at in a different light that right vs. left. He is an early environmentalist arguing with industrialism. He grew up in rural South Africa and later moved to a heavily industrialized England. From the rolling and wild plains of Orange Free State to the heart of the industrial world.
This is reflecting in his work and taken a step farther in the movies. Industrial orc hatched in factories, cutting the trees and inspiring the attack of the Ents. Noble Shirefolk getting their peaceful rural ways upset by men. The age of magic elves passing and dirty men with their mechanical and mundane ways coming. Interestingly, there are lots of parallels to early green movements in Germany in the 20’s and 30’s and, if we really want to talk politics, how those ideals and followers got pulled in and cooped by the Nazi movement. Up to today, the Greens in Germany have to be very careful about what images they use, as many of the traditional Green symbols were cooped by the Nazis. This is both for political and legal reasons, and I am sure many have you have seen various forum rules about Nazi imagery. Ideas of the Volk, connection to the earth and organic farming were all mixed together at the time. I do rush to point out that the Greens in Germany have worked very hard to distance themselves from this past and I am in no way suggesting they hold those ideals today. The Red Green coalition in Germany is a very long way from the past. In any case, looking at Tolkien developing his ideals in the pre war world, where the Greens were still young, but present, may give a different and, I would suggest, deeper view of his political thought. |
Re: OT: Politics
Thats interesting. I had always heard that the series was bedtime stories for his kids that just kept getting more and more elaborate as they grew older. And that trying to read hidden meanings into it was like looking for real world connotations in Dr Seuss.
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Re: OT: Politics
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Re: OT: Politics
Tolkein also created entire functional languages for the books, he was a professional linguist and took it all pretty seriously. As for Dr. Suess, with a new child in my life, I am getting to have a second look at them. Kids books yes, but with moral messages in them.
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Re: OT: Politics
The Hobbit was a bedtime story for his kids that wound up tying itself into the mythology he'd been working on for years.
The mythology grew, at least partly, as background for the languages he invented, being primarily a linguist. I wouldn't say hidden messages, he despised allegory and such things, but that doesn't mean there isn't meaning behind the surface. The Lord of the Rings is deeply informed by his Catholic faith, without being overtly religious, a trick not that often pulled off. Even more so in the Silmarillion mythology. For example, the origin of the orcs is left unclear because he kept debating with himself whether they had free will and were thus redeemable. |
Re: OT: Politics
Yes, Tolkien was through and through a Catholic and it shows in his work, but you have to look for it. Earlier, C.S. Lewis was mentioned and his blatant "Aslan is Christ." Lewis was a much heavier handed writer, but both tackled the same themes. They met at Oxford in the 20's and had regular drinking and discussion sessions through the 40's. A number of other authors took part in this and drafts of The Lord of the Rings, The Screwtape Letters and so forth were first discussed in the sessions. It is clear that the group were first and formost christians exploring the intellectual side of their faith, particularly through writing.
Anyone who is interesting in some academic readings on Tolkien, with a focus on the christian side, should check out "Tolkien, A Celebration." I think it falls short in examining his Green side, but it does cover a lot of other territory well. |
Re: OT: Politics
Ahhh ruin it for me.
Not that it was a big subject for my anyway. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif |
Re: OT: Politics
Gandalf,
What are you doing out of bed? I just realized that post about Dr. Suess must have been around 5 in the morning? Stay well, Saxon |
Re: OT: Politics
I went to the pub the other day where Tolkien and C. S. Lewis and the others used to meet.
I had a very unpleasant pie. |
Re: OT: Politics
Nothing worse than a bad pie.
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Re: OT: Politics
Bad pie with no beer to wash the taste away would be worse...
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Wasnt that pub where they met before they got famous?
No reason to think that it would be a good one. |
Re: OT: Politics
Hey Saxon, what are you doing posting here, I thought you were on your honeymoon????/ http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
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Re: OT: Politics
Guess who's leading the Republican presidential race according to AP polls?
Then look at this youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWrhesnvgLs |
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