That perspective on Gondor, especially as expressed by Aragorn and Elrond, has historically been one of the things I struggle with most in Tolkien! That Faramir provides such a welcome other perspective is somewhat comforting, but also contributes to my Doylistic sense of Tolkien’s own somewhat mixed-up racial understandings.
I think, sometimes, of JRRT’s family roots in South Africa and the very deliberate positive migration selection (positive in the taking-action/encouraging sense, not the “good” sense) engaged in there for the maintenance of a unitary racial upperclass. (Which happened and continues to happen all over the place, of course, but does seem particularly clear in that example.) Not a 1:1 correlation, of course, or even necessarily causal, but it does help me think through Tolkien’s own approaches to racial mixing in his work.
no subject
I think, sometimes, of JRRT’s family roots in South Africa and the very deliberate positive migration selection (positive in the taking-action/encouraging sense, not the “good” sense) engaged in there for the maintenance of a unitary racial upperclass. (Which happened and continues to happen all over the place, of course, but does seem particularly clear in that example.) Not a 1:1 correlation, of course, or even necessarily causal, but it does help me think through Tolkien’s own approaches to racial mixing in his work.