Tumblr crosspost (18 May 2020)

An anon asked:

I'm sorry if this bothers you, but I've seen some of your (brilliant btw) meta, and would love to see you elaborate on Anakin's identity as a Jedi. Plenty of fans think that he would have found fulfillment in leaving the Order and being husband and father, but I've seen some of your thoughts on it being integral to the OT and would love to see more (I agree: we barely see Sith in the OT - until Palps uses the Force, you'd think Vader is his pet Jedi). Thank you and sorry if it's a bother

I replied:

Not a bother at all, and thank you very much about the meta!

I think how you read Anakin’s identity as a Jedi is going to rest on quite a few things, but especially three:

1. How you see Anakin
2. How you see the Jedi
3. How much weight you give the PT vs OT

That is, I’ve mostly seen the idea that Anakin would have been better off leaving the Jedi or wasn’t truly a Jedi at heart from people who are intensely critical of the PT Jedi in particular. This isn’t a denunciation of that POV as such. But in my experience, “Anakin would have been better off leaving the Jedi” does tend to be accompanied by negative views of the Jedi (mostly shaped by the PT) and not just a sense that he’s temperamentally unsuited to it (also mostly shaped by the PT).

And I do think this is driven by the very real flaws of the Jedi Order as an organization—flaws that extend into the OT (whee, patricide!), but are dominated by their dynamics in the PT era.

(Note: I do think some of the condemnations lean uncomfortably to the Western-centric, even considering how #problematic SW itself is.)

OTOH, if your view of Anakin and the Jedi is primarily shaped by the OT, with the PT filling in the blanks, the issue can look very different. Anakin remains deeply dedicated to the Jedi faith despite his rejection and destruction of the Jedi organization. His offer to Luke is to complete his training as a Jedi, not to train him in something else entirely. There’s the culminating moment where Luke declares that he is a Jedi, like Anakin—which can be read as either “I am a Jedi, as Anakin is” or “I am a Jedi in the way that Anakin is.”

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Tumblr crosspost (18 May 2020)

Shout-out to my man Erasmus for his take on Giuliano della Rovere/Pope Julius II, c. 1517:

But when nations and their rulers have been carrying on riotous raids and counter-raids for years on end, what happens then to the papal authority, once second only to that of Christ himself? It might be exercised even here, if the popes were not held in the grip of the same passions. Let the pope call for war, he is obeyed at once; when he calls for peace, why isn’t he obeyed the same way? If the princes were so eager for peace, why did they obey Julius in his belligerent outbursts yet pay hardly any attention to Leo when he spoke out for peace? If the pope’s authority is sacred, it ought to be particularly so whenever he urges the same things as Christ originally proposed. The princes who listened to Julius when he called for that awful war but then couldn’t hear Leo when he called for Christian concord were practically admitting that, while using the church as a smoke-screen, they were really serving their own appetites.

Tumblr crosspost (19 May 2020)

Another Faramir highlight from the letters:

As far as any character is ‘like me,’ it is Faramir– except that I lack what all my characters possess (let the psychoanalysts note!) Courage.

(Letter 232)

Tumblr crosspost (19 May 2020)

An anon asked:

this might be the wrong time period for you, but in lovers' vows (english translation by inchbald), why does count cassel say he learned love in the "wilds of America"? was America famously slutty at this time? i understand that it was seen as lawless, and count cassel says love is taught in "all barbarous places" - is that all the line is about, that it's a place where you can sleep with native women or something? do you know if the original german version is different?

I replied:

Right time period, but I’ve never gotten around to reading it, actually. America was often seen as ~wild and untamed~, certainly.

( tag )

Tumblr crosspost (21 May 2020)

my advisor is cited in the Cambridge companion I’m reading o_O

elperian replied:

isn’t that a surreal feeling?!

I said:

EXTREMELY

( tag )

hmm

It's occurred to me that one of the things I love most about Tolkien's writing is how intensely, shamelessly earnest it is. And there are valid criticisms to make for sure, and valid reasons to bounce off his style, but I think there are some critics and fans who are viscerally uncomfortable with earnestness that isn't vaguely ashamed of itself.

Also, I think it's why much of the fandom's adoption of tongue-in-cheek, above-it-all, shitposting detachment bothers me more than for any other fandom. Tolkien is not actually my favourite author—that's Austen. But that style of engagement bothers me less with her (still not my thing, but not nearly as grating), and I think it's because of how much it jars with Tolkien's approach. Austen is tongue-in-cheek in a way that can feel fairly detached—I think the fundamental seriousness of her writing is overlooked sometimes in favour of it, but at least it's something that is there reasonably often. But it's so much rarer with Tolkien.

It's not that everything and everyone has to be serious at all times, or that there's no comedy in his work—of course there is. But it's not a comedy of detachment. It doesn't serve to protect him from criticism or whatever. His writing has this quality of deep unironic immersion that is essential to its function, but is also very at odds with modern fandom's desperate attempts to avoid being cringe. I mean, Tolkien was a serious scholar who went to Venice and was like "wow, it was so pretty that it reminded me of something I made up for my fantasy novel." I've seen critics who are like "who does that?? It's kind of embarrassing if you think about it." But I doubt he would have been embarrassed in the slightest.

His fandom, though, cares very deeply about not being embarrassing or embarrassed, and it just ... feels like a very odd match.

(no subject)

Just watched "Princess Scorpia." It's such a satisfying episode, esp "You're a bad friend," with the hints of Scorpia bonding with the Black Garnet.