by Dave Eggers
While driving around Ireland’s west coast, Jay Johnson’s car broke down in Dingle. Waiting for it to be fixed at the local garage, Jay stopped into a tiny pub—Tir Na Nog. There, four thousand miles from home, in a small pub with a thatched roof and six people speaking Gaelic, Jay didn’t know a damn person.
Jean Chappelle was a social worker in France who shared the same birthday as Lou Gehrig. In fact, Jean was also the exact same height and weight as the Iron Horse. At forty-eight, Jean was stricken with Lou Gehrig’s disease and died on the same day the Yankee great did. Of course, the French don’t really follow baseball, so everyone just said he died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Last May 19, Chris Albers went to the Cloverleaf Mall in Medford, Oregon, and parked in space 219. Amazingly, at the very same moment in the Cloverleaf Mall in Duluth, Minnesota, a man also named Chris Albers parked in space 219. The only one aware of this odd coincidence, however, was God.
UNUSED AUDIO COMMENTARY BY HOWARD ZINN AND NOAM CHOMSKY, RECORDED SUMMER 2002, FOR THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING DVD (PLATINUM SERIES EXTENDED EDITION), PART ONE
Jeff Alexander and Tom Bissell
CHOMSKY: The film opens with Galadriel speaking. “The world has changed,” she tells us. “I can feel it in the water.” She’s actually stealing a line from the nonhuman Treebeard. He says this to Merry and Pippin in The Two Towers, the novel. Already we can see who is going to be privileged by this narrative and who is not.
ZINN: Of course. “The world has changed.” I would argue that the main thing one learns when one watches this film is that the world hasn’t changed. Not at all.
CHOMSKY: We should examine carefully what’s being established here in the prologue. For one, the point is clearly made that the “master ring,” the so-called “one ring to rule them all,” is actually a rather elaborate justification for preemptive war on Mordor.
ZINN: I think that’s correct. Tolkien makes no attempt to hide the fact that rings are wielded by every other ethnic enclave in Middle Earth. The Dwarves have seven rings, the Elves have three. The race of Man has nine rings, for God’s sake. There are at least nineteen rings floating around out there in Middle Earth, and yet Sauron’s ring is supposedly so terrible that no one can be allowed to wield it. Why?
CHOMSKY: Notice too that the “war” being waged here is, evidently, in the land of Mordor itself—at the very base of Mount Doom. These terrible armies of Sauron, these dreadful demonized Orcs, have not proved very successful at conquering the neighboring realms—if that is even what Sauron was seeking to do. It seems fairly far-fetched.
ZINN: And observe the map device here—how the map is itself completely Gondor-centric. Rohan and Gondor are treated as though they are the literal center of Middle Earth. Obviously this is because they have men living there. What of places such as Anfalas and Forlindon or Near Harad? One never really hears anything about places like that. And this so-called map casually reveals other places—the Lost Realm, the Northern Waste (lost to whom? wasted how? I ask)—but tells us nothing about them. It is as though the people who live in these places are despicable, and unworthy of mention. Who is producing this tale? What is their agenda? What are their interests and how are those interests being served by this portrayal? Questions we need to ask repeatedly.
CHOMSKY: And here comes Bilbo Baggins. Now, this is, to my mind, where the story begins to reveal its deeper truths. In the books we learn that Saruman was spying on Gandalf for years. And he wondered why Gandalf was traveling so incessantly to the Shire. As Tolkien later establishes, the Shire’s surfeit of pipe-weed is one of the major reasons for Gandalf’s continued visits.
ZINN: You view the conflict as being primarily about pipe-weed, do you not?
CHOMSKY: Well, what we see here, in Hobbiton, is farmers tilling crops. The thing to remember is that the crop they are tilling is, in fact, pipe-weed, an addictive drug transported and sold throughout Middle Earth for great profit. Without the pipe-weed, Middle Earth would fall apart. Saruman is trying to break up Gandalf’s pipe-weed ring. He’s trying to divert it.
ZINN: Well, you know, it would be manifestly difficult to believe in magic rings unless everyone was high on pipe-weed. So it is in Gandalf’s interest to keep Middle Earth hooked.
CHOMSKY: How do you think these wizards build gigantic towers and mighty fortresses? Where do they get the money? Keep in mind that I do not especially regard anyone, Saruman included, as an agent for progressivism. But obviously the pipe-weed operation that exists is the dominant influence in Middle Earth. It’s not some ludicrous magical ring.
ZINN: Gandalf is deeply implicated. That’s true. And of course the ring lore begins with him. He’s the one who leaks this news of the supposed evil ring.
CHOMSKY: Now here, just before Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday party, we can see some of the symptoms of addiction. We are supposed to attribute Bilbo’s tiredness, his sensation of feeling like too little butter spread out on a piece of bread, to this magical ring he supposedly has. It’s clear something else may be at work here.... Here we have Pippin and Merry stealing a bunch of fireworks and setting them off. This might be closer to the true heart of the Hobbits.
ZINN: You mean the Hobbits’ natural inclination?
CHOMSKY: I think the Hobbits are criminals, essentially.
ZINN: It also seems incredibly irresponsible for Gandalf to have a firework that powerful just sitting in the back of his wagon.
CHOMSKY: Now we come to Bilbo’s disappearance. Again, we have to question the validity of the ring and the magic powers attributed to it. Did Bilbo Baggins really disappear at his party, or is this some kind of mass hallucination attributable to a group of intoxicated Hobbits? When forced to consider so-called magic compared to the hallucinatory properties of a known narcotic, Occam’s razor would indicate the latter as a far more plausible explanation.
ZINN: And here we receive our first glimpse of the supposedly dreadful Mordor, which actually looks like a fairly functioning place.
CHOMSKY: This type of city is most likely the best the Orcs can do if all they have are cliffs to grow on. It’s very impressive, in that sense.
ZINN: Especially considering the economic sanctions no doubt faced by Mordor. They must be dreadful. We see now that the Black Riders have been released, and they’re going after Frodo. The Black Riders. Of course they’re black. Everything evil is always black. And later Gandalf the Grey becomes Gandalf the White. Have you noticed that?
CHOMSKY: The most simplistic color symbolism.
ZINN: And the writing on the ring, we learn here, is Orcish—the so-called black speech. Orcish is evidently some spoliation of the language spoken in Rohan. This is what Tolkien says.
CHOMSKY: From what I understand, Orcish is a patois that the Orcs developed during their enslavement by Rohan, before they rebelled and left.
ZINN: Well, supposedly the Orcs were first bred by “the dark power of the north in the elder days.” Tolkien says that Orc comes from the Mannish word tark, which means “man of Gondor.”
CHOMSKY: Shameless, really.
ZINN: Gandalf mentions the evil stirring in Mordor. That’s all he has to say. “It’s evil.” He doesn’t elaborate on what’s going on in Mordor, what the people are going through. They’re evil because they’re there.
CHOMSKY: I think the fact that we never actually see the enemy is quite damning. Then again, Gandalf is the greatest storyteller of all. He weaves the tales that strand Middle Earth in this state of perpetual conflict.
ZINN: And now Frodo and Sam are joined by Merry and Pippin, as they finally escape the Shire. They’re being chased by the Black Riders. Again, if these Black Riders are so fearsome, and they can smell the ring so vividly, why don’t they ever seem able to find the Hobbits when they’re standing right next to them?
CHOMSKY: This episode in Bree should cause us to ask, too, how much Frodo knows about the conspiracy. He seems to be piecing it together a little bit. I think a
t first he’s an unwitting participant, fooled by Gandalf’s propaganda.
ZINN: I’m much more suspicious of Frodo than you are. I’ve always viewed him as one of the most malevolent actors in this drama, precisely because of how he abets people like Gandalf. He uses a fake name, Mr. Underhill, just as Gandalf goes by several names: Mithrandir, the Grey Pilgrim, the White Rider. Strider is also Aragorn, is also Estel, is also Elessar, is also Dunadan. He has all these identities.
CHOMSKY: We call those aliases today.
ZINN: But is Sauron ever anything but Sauron? Is Saruman ever anything but Saruman?
CHOMSKY: And now, with Frodo in the midst of a hallucinogenic, paranoid state, we meet Strider.
ZINN: A ranger. I believe today we call them serial killers.
CHOMSKY: Or drug smugglers.
ZINN: And notice how Strider characterizes the Black Riders. “Neither living nor dead.” Why, that’s a really useful enemy to have.
CHOMSKY: Yes. In this way you can never verify their existence, and yet they’re horribly terrifying. We should not overlook the fact that Middle Earth is in a cold war at this moment, locked in perpetual conflict. Strider’s rhetoric serves to keep fear alive.
ZINN: You’ve spoken to me before about Mordor’s lack of access to the mineral wealth that the Dwarves control.
CHOMSKY: If we’re going to get into the socioeconomic reasons why certain structures develop in certain cultures ... it’s mainly geographical. We have Orcs in Mordor—trapped, with no mineral resources—hemmed in by the Ash Mountains, where the “free peoples” of Middle Earth can put a city, like Osgiliath, and effectively keep the border closed.
ZINN: Don’t forget the Black Gate. The Black Gate, which, as Tolkien points out, was built by Gondor. And now we jump to the Orcs chopping down the trees in Isengard.
CHOMSKY: A terrible thing the Orcs do here, isn’t it? They destroy nature. But again, what have we seen, time and time again?
ZINN: The Orcs have no resources. They’re desperate.
CHOMSKY: Desperate people driven to do desperate things.
ZINN: Desperate to compete with the economic powerhouses of Rohan and Gondor.
CHOMSKY: Who really knows their motive? Maybe this is a means to an end. And while that might not be the best philosophy in the world, it makes the race of Man in no way superior. They’re going to great lengths to hold on to their power. Two cultures locked in conflict over power, with one culture clearly suffering a great deal. I think sharing power and resources would have been the wisest approach, but Rohan and Gondor have shown no interest in doing so. Sometimes, revolution must be—
ZINN: Mistakes are often—
CHOMSKY: Blood must be shed. I forget what Thomas Jefferson—
ZINN: He said that blood was the—
CHOMSKY: The blood of tyrants—
ZINN: The blood of tyrants—
CHOMSKY: —waters the tree of—
ZINN: —revolution.
CHOMSKY: —freedom. Or revolution. Something like that.
ZINN: I think that’s actually very, very close.
CHOMSKY: I think this is a tragedy, this story. Because it’s about two cultures. And poor leadership. It’s a human tragedy, and an Orcish tragedy.
ZINN: A perfect example of what you’re talking about is right here, when Strider attacks the Black Riders, “saving” Frodo from them.
CHOMSKY: Think of it from the Black Riders’ perspective. No doubt they arrived at Weathertop thinking, “Can we ask a few questions? We’d like to talk to you.”
ZINN: Now from here we jump to Isengard, post–ecological atrocities. What I personally see here is ... well, I see industrialization, I see a very cooperative workforce, I see a people who aren’t terrorized, a people attempting to make do with what they have.
CHOMSKY: Well, they’re making weapons, which is sad. I mean, it would be nice if they could make plowshares, but unfortunately this isn’t the time for plowshares in their culture. But they’re showing great ingenuity, and they’re showing cooperation, you’re right about that.
ZINN: Actually it shows the Orcs smithing a lot of pieces of metal. I don’t think it’s necessarily established that what they’re making is swords, is it? They could be farming implements of some sort. They’re definitely unusual-looking. But I have to ask you, what about the genetic engineering that goes on with the Uruk-hai?
CHOMSKY: It’s certainly a strange aspect of their culture, but why should we be so condemning? I mean, this is the way they reproduce. If it looks disgusting to us, well maybe we should readjust what we regard as disgusting. I mean, is that any more vile than pulling a baby out of a gaping, bloody hole?
ZINN: Now we witness the Black Riders finally together—all nine Riders—giving chase to Arwen and Frodo. When we see the Orcs destroy their environment, it is this big scandal. But Arwen is able to send a whole herd of watery horses down a river, no doubt a very delicate ecosystem, and probably completely demolish it, and no one says anything about that.
CHOMSKY: The Elves, of course, always say that they are the best custodians of nature. And there’s a curious type of nature-worship in their culture that allows them to claim, by every implication, “Trees are more important than people.” They don’t regard the Orcs as people. However, Orcs are thinking, sentient, conscious beings with a culture and a language. They feel pain. They express emotion. They are constantly evolving, trying to better themselves.
ZINN: But here the Elvish culture is revealed to be very elaborate, because, of course, they have better architecture. But I vastly prefer the real grittiness one finds in Mordor. Think of the suspiciously clean city of Rivendell. You don’t see any life going on there. No people at all. There’s hardly anyone in the streets. It should be said, though, that, on occasion, the Orcs have been known to eat one another.
CHOMSKY: That’s cannibalism, sure, but maybe it’s part of a sacred ritual with them. Maybe it’s an ancient part of their culture. Who are we to judge? Still, I have problems with it, I agree.
ZINN: So here we have another shot of Rivendell being beautiful because it happens to be located in the mountains, where the lighter people live.
CHOMSKY: The humans are all so entranced by the Elves’ completely mythological power. It’s a spell that has been cast upon them.
ZINN: I see the humans, embodied by Aragorn, as being indicative of a sort of middle-class longing.
CHOMSKY: It keeps them striving. If you’re a good enough man, you can be an Elf.
ZINN: An Elf. As if that’s the best thing to be.
CHOMSKY: Now, at the Council of Elrond, we have the Middle Earth equivalent of a television broadcast. It’s one guy sitting in a tall chair and talking at twenty other people. This is how information is spread in this culture. But, you know, it doesn’t have to be this way. Imagine that, right now, you have the people in Gondor with a palantir, the people in Rohan with a palantir, the people in the Woodland Realm with a palantir. And everyone could be standing around it, talking to one another, sharing a conference in which the people have an equal interest and stake in what decisions are made.
ZINN: Technology that Gandalf already knows is available. But do we see a single Orc?
CHOMSKY: Oh, of course not. Of course not. Because everyone here has a vested interest in keeping the Orcs down.
ZINN: Boromir is the only one honest enough to talk about what the real story is here.
CHOMSKY: Boromir’s an interesting case. His culture is threatened by the Orcs in a very real way. But he’s also seen that this occupation of Orc land is engendered by his people’s own aggressive policies. So he’s like an enlightened Israeli who looks at the situation and says, “If I were in their situation, I would be just like them.”
ZINN: Now Frodo, son of Drogo, agrees to take the ring to Mount Doom. Something tells me that no one in Mordor calls it Mount Doom.
CHOMSKY: And everyone baits Frodo into this. “You are our agent, going on a suicide mission. You have t
o do it for the Motherland.”
ZINN: So is Frodo the Mohammed Atta figure in this story?
CHOMSKY: He’s a fanatical true believer. And crazy. Obviously, totally insane.
ZINN: And listen to what Aragorn tells Frodo: “You have my sword.”
CHOMSKY: So militaristic.
ZINN: I think the only real diplomat of Middle Earth is Gollum. He’s the only one who makes any meaningful, cross-cultural exchange with any of these people: being a torture victim at the hand of the Orcs, and his attempted strangulation of the Hobbits.
CHOMSKY: I think of Gollum as more of a deluded madman, one more sinned against than sinning.
ZINN: There’s room for argument. And, yet again, here we see Bilbo ravaged from the effects of pipe-weed. It’s been flushed from his system in his idyll-cum-rehab in Rivendell. And what does he give Frodo? He gives him his sword, of course. Sting.
CHOMSKY: As if to say, “You know, when you’ve stabbed enough people in the back like I have, you’ll need this shirt of mithril.” Hobbits are bandits. They have this little veneer of nobility around them, but they are nothing more than demented little thieves.
ZINN: On the way to Moria, here, we should point out the fear that men and Elves have of the Dwarves’ culture. They refuse to enter the mines of Moria.
CHOMSKY: There is something very funny lingering around the edges of the whole Moria episode. Could it be that the Dwarves living there were starting to get different ideas about the Orcs? Were starting to talk to the Orcs, and establish some means of cross-cultural communication? Perhaps Gandalf and some of his Rohan friends went there only to find a bunch of Dwarves and Orcs talking, maybe forming an alliance or pact. And then Gandalf massacred all of them, and pretended as though there was some huge battle. This would explain why Gandalf can’t lead them back there. Genocide’s been committed. He hasn’t yet weaved a good enough story to explain away the evidence. He has to pretend that Moria is this scary place.
ZINN: Now, we see in Moria that the Dwarves had a fairly sophisticated mithril mine here. Wouldn’t you say the Dwarves are the Jew-like figures of Middle Earth?