The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)

by J.R.R. Tolkien

‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

A lovely gloss on the definition of heroism. Heroes don't seek out confrontations; they choose to do the right thing -- which is always very, very hard -- when it becomes a duty in a dark time. Many have interpreted The Lord of the Rings as a metaphor for the Second World War (or any other conflict in which ideological confrontation between good and evil is at the heart). I think it's worth meditating on the portrayal of ideological good and evil in Tolkien. Good is mostly represnted as the local, the concrete, the commonplace. The hobbits want good food and good company, to make and arrange their own hobbit holes as they like, to be left alone, to be surrounded by greenery. Community, control over one's immediate environment, leisure to converse with friends, nature, playful idleness—these are the pillars not only of what is good in the Shire, but also the desired life in countless children's books. The core value of this vision of the good is not overweening individualism, but communitarian-individualism: there's a good reason that "fellowship" plays such an important role in these books. Evil, on the other hand, is associated with distant authorities obsessed with abstractions, with uniformity, with grandiosity. Obedience takes the place of community; all-consuming conquest takes the place of local control; self-definition is erased by authority; nature is despoiled by industrial exploitation. What have we done, as individuals, to push back against ideological evil? What have we done, as individuals, to push for the local, the diverse, the human-scaled, the playful, the heart-to-heart? We don't get to choose the age we live in; we can only choose which path we'll walk through the time we're born into.