I have some Tolkienesque thoughts and weird sense of déjà vu that I’ve already written this essay, but I don’t see it in my stuff, so it may have just been in my head. It’s on Tolkien and moral culpability, based on thinky thoughts raised by this interesting video (qv):
If you’re not watching the video right now, basically Tolkien held that people could not be held morally culpable for failure to do something beyond their capacity (a very understandable view for a WWI vet, by the way). He, therefore, held that while Frodo failed to destroy the Ring (spoilers!), he wasn’t morally culpable for that failure because he had been pushed well beyond his own capacity. (Have I really not already written this? Let me know you’ve seen this somewhere—by me.)
I totally respect this view, and it’s different from mine. Tolkien’s reasoning stood about to me because one could argue my views of moral culpability are actually more judgmental than his. And I’m not used to feeling more morally judgmental than a traditional Catholic. 🙂 But I think his Catholicism—and my Buddhism—are in play here. ( Read more… )
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