Tolkien Against the Machines. Environmentalism and Antifascism in Middle-earth
Original title: Tolkien contre les machines. Écologie et antifascisme en Terre du Milieu
Tolkien Against the Machines. Environmentalism and Antifascism in Middle-earth
Original title: Tolkien contre les machines. Écologie et antifascisme en Terre du Milieu
Synopsis
Culture wars are so fierce that they spill over onto every battlefield, even those of Middle-earth. Indeed, for several years now, Tolkien’s work (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings), seemingly apolitical at first glance, has been appropriated by right-wing thinkers who find ammunition for their reactionary arguments within it, argues Sébastien Fontenelle. In this short book, the French author strives to prove the contrary, finding evidence in the British master’s texts and correspondence that Tolkien was, in fact, an early environmentalist and a gentle anarchist hostile to any centralization of power. The demonstration is effective, though sometimes a bit far-fetched (Tolkien, a precursor of anti-speciesism, really?). Above all, it offers a new perspective on the literary work of the father of fantasy , whose youth was indelibly marked by the rampant industrialization of his rural surroundings. — Le Devoir
Tolkien’s work is an implacable denunciation of power, seen as essentially totalitarian, the most tyrannical forms of which are explicitly condemned as being responsible for the endless violence devastating Middle-earth and its inhabitants.
In recent years, however, attempts by the extreme right to hijack the Tolkienian universe have multiplied. Indeed, the strategists and intellectuals who promote the fascist parties vying for power, or who have already won it, are trying to create a culture for themselves out of nothing. Faced with the emptiness of their baggage, they appropriate a work which, as Fontenelle demonstrates, advocates the very opposite of what fascist ideologies stand for.