"Carrot salad, relative velocity and (im)mortality" (originally posted May 1st 2014)

"Carrot salad, relative velocity and (im)mortality"
To the driver of a silver Hyundai i30 with a small blue sticker on its side:

Dear madam, 

I would like to bring to your attention the following details which may have escaped your notice earlier today* (*= 11:17am on May 1st 2014). Since you are never going to read this, and I am thus writing mostly for my own benefit, I shall not apologise for writing in English. Nevertheless, these are the facts I would seek to acquaint you with if I could:
This morning I was driving the route I usually drive to work and almost anywhere else. I was going to see my friends for a barbecue. I had in a box on my passenger seat a big covered bowl of very juicy carrot salad, quite well contained and held in place, and below it a bag with my mobile phone, camera, and assorted electronics. I was already going to arrive a bit later than I would have liked, having been held up, notably by the carrot salad; yet having been reassured by our prospective host the preceding evening that timeliness was not a criterium to worry about, I did not drive anywhere near the speed people usually employ on that segment, as indeed they legally may. I had quite a few things on my mind, and just then an itch in my nose staying just shy of letting me sneeze. When I saw you come driving up, I scarcely paid you any heed. I noticed you about as much as the big hedge to the right of the road, which was starting to come into bloom, or the approaching rain clouds, which were just cresting the ridge across the valley.
When you did, however, take a sudden sharp left, ignoring a stop sign and me going that way, and pulled out right in front of me, I noticed you.
I did more than notice you.
In fact, as my foot crushed the brake pedal down as fast and hard as it could before my brain had consciously realised it wanted to give the order, I saw you.
I saw you looking straight ahead, cigarette in your left hand, mobile phone in your right, both clutching the steering wheel.
I saw your face in profile, and the frustration on it at having taken a wrong turn earlier leading you up a hill and out of town and now having to do a detour and a dangerously sharp spontaneously left to compensate; a thesis corroborated by my mind in overdrive mode supplying the colour of your number plate and the first two letters of your car's registration, barely glimpsed from a corner of the eye when first glancing your way moments before, and considered in context of the location and a host of factors instantly crystal clear to me.
In that drawn-out moment, with my eyes dashing from reference point to reference point, my brain frantically calculating relative speeds and the quickly diminishing distance, I thought I saw every little scratch and dent and smear of dirt and wet tree blossom petal sticking to your car.
I saw your teenage daughter sitting in the passenger seat and your pre-teen son in the right back seat. She looked pre-occupied, maybe thinking of whomever she had put on a little too much makeup for. He looked bored, and resigned to whatever family- and food-related fate was supposed to be awaiting you.
As I heard and felt through the sole of my foot my car's anti-lock braking system angrily whirr into service, I saw both their heads swivel around in perfect unison. Your son's face was mildly intrigued. Your daughter seemed to comprehend in that same timeless flash. I would swear I saw her eyes widening as she saw me hurtling towards you. I would be prepared to bet that her jostled mind saw every detail of me with the same startled surreal clarity that I was experiencing in that instant.
Staring at your children's faces with every fibre of my optical nerves straining, the labels "gryphon" and "cat" popped into my consciousness. By this I mean no insult to your children. In retrospect, I realised that somewhere at the back of my skull, a set of neurons were firing excitedly, happy at finally storing a perfect snapshot to connect to an empathetic experience related a long time ago in Ursula K. LeGuin's 7-page short story "Direction of the Road", of a car crash told from the perspective of an oak tree, published in "The Wind's Twelve Quarters", my copy of which is decorated by an image of a gryphon and a cat. In that story, a young driver sees that looming oak tree in a way he never saw it before, sees it truly, sees it out of time, sees in it eternity, and sees in it death hurtling towards it. And that that was what I was seeing in your children's faces. This my intertextual mind understood, but I had no time to fully understand that, then.
Instead, I understood that your car had already lost a lot of its momentum in that sharp left turn you'd demanded of it.
Just as my mathematical mind was calmly informing me that the numbers were probably not going to add up, -"close! but nope", you either picked up on your kids' reactions, or realised you were still going too fast to safely make that hastily executed turn, and slammed down on your own brakes. Your head never turned, and you never saw me.
As soon as my eyes darted to your car's change in angle and momentum, my extrapolating imagination overwrote my vision with the projection of your car coming to rest in road at about a 30° angle close to perpendicular right across my path, your children looking at me, their bodies protected from the solid engine block of my car by nothing but the thin egg-shell of sheet metal and glass of your car's flank.
"Nope, not even close to close!" - my mathematical mind chimed in helpfully.
I could not say whether the snarl I felt had time to form on my face before I had finished pulling my car off the road. It must have been there by the time my car came to full stop, my left rearview mirror perhaps 3cm from yours. It certainly hadn't left my face completely yet, for I saw you seeing it there as you leaned forward and turned and looked around your daughter's head and saw me for the first time and saw it on my face, for your mouth formed a silent, almost comical "Oh", followed by guilt and embarassment flashing across your features.
I saw your daughter's nostrils flaring as she finally took a deep breath, and the stunned look on your son's face finally turning into dawning comprehension, and I bowed and nodded you all a courteous greeting, which you may not have seen me finish, for you swivelled your steering wheel and put your foot down and sped away.
I had watched you hurry down the hill and disappear around the bend in the road before looking beside me, and with a sigh more relief than frustration took to digging my mobile phone and camera out of a notably uncontained mound of carrot salad on my car's floor, and wiping more bits of carrot off my dashboard and salad dressing and juice off my seat as best I could.
I would like to tell you all this if I could, not to moan about the carrot salad and mess, nor even to overly berate you ( -well, okay, quite a bit, actually, but within reason- ) about your reckless lack of attention and sore negligence. While you undoubtedly do deserve a stern talking-to for using your phone while driving, and a really stern yelling-at for smoking in your car while driving your kids, but that's still not what I want to tell you. You really should be able to figure out all of that on your own, if you know only a fraction of all these things that seem to have escaped your notice.
No, what I really want to tell you is that I am grateful! If any religious nutcase wants to jump on this perceived opening, well, please feel free to f*ck off and take your superstition and magical thinking with you. The only superhuman entities that resolved this crisis of opposing velocities of moving bodies were science, engineering and education. Your hypothetical conclusions make me wary of being grateful for the road being dry and the rain only starting a couple minutes later, and a number of similar very small factors beyond my control whose potential differences would have made this outcome drastically different from carrot salad all over my stuff.
I am, however, grateful to some people who directly influenced this outcome! I am grateful to my friend Gérard for telling me not to worry about punctuality. I am grateful to the people that made anti-lock braking a European safety standard. I am even grudgingly grateful to that overbearing, bad-tempered, pedantic safety inspector who recently forced me pay to have my car's brakes completely redone even though I had previously been assured they were still in reasonably good shape and technically still well above required minimum safety standards. I am grateful to my reasonably young body and all the parts of its sensory and cognitive apparatus that functioned as well as they conceivably could have today. Most of all, I am grateful to your children. I am grateful to your children for not being dead now. I struggle with my own mortality as much as the next guy, but I am grateful that when I saw them and when they saw me in those timeless 2.7 seconds, that wasn't the last thing they saw and the last thing that they were going to see for all eternity, that that immortality was not to be mine and that time resumed, and, for better or worse, we can keep going. And go mindfully, and pay attention as we go.

Tolkiens Erbe - ein Interview mit Journal.lu

- Der deutsch-sprachige Artikel befindet sich ein bisschen weiter unten! -

Tolkien's legacy - a few starting questions

1.      What is more important for popular culture according to You: The original books (Hobbit and Lord of the Rings) or the movies? Why is that the case?

By overall reach : the books. The influence of both and either is simply gigantic, however. Contemplating just how much would be different without their existence is simply staggering.

2.      How important was Tolkiens work for the fantasy genre? Do You think, fantasy would even exist the way it does today, if Tolkien hadn’t written The Lord of the Rings?

Tolkien is commonly called « The father of modern fantasy literature »(1).

English, German and French Fantasy has been alive and well since well before Tolkien, and remains very much so.

« High fantasy » in almost its entirety goes back to Tolkien. 

3.      Do these books and movies have a certain influence on other genres as well?

Undoubtedly ! Not just Fantasy, but many of the sub-genres and spinoffs of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the vast majority of authors working in those genres, genre fiction, and indirectly a lot of modern fiction, were profoundly affected by these books and movies.

4.       In how far do You think the books were a product of its time?

Context is always important. J.R.R. Tolkien the author couldn’t have been who he was or have done what he did if he hadn’t been a man who knew, directly and first hand, about war, about conflict, about heroism, loss, grief, and carrying on. Twice ! Equally, J.R.R. Tolkien the author couldn’t have existed without Tolkien the philologist, an Oxford university professor of Anglo-Saxon, a translator of Beowulf and an expert on Norse mythology, epic poetry, and much much more. None of those could have been anything without John Ronald Reuel Tolkien the man, able to live in and transcend his historical contexts. 

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Tolkiens Erbe - ein Interview mit Journal.lu

( Originaltext verfasst für ein Email-Interview mit dem Lëtzebuerger Journal, in dessen Ausgabe 29/07/2014 Auszüge hiervon und/oder auf Journal.lu erschienen sind )

Vor mittlerweile 10 Jahren haben die drei Herr der Ringe Filme allein über 1.5 Milliarden US Dollar in die Kinokassen gespült, und die derzeitig laufende Hobbit Trilogie verspricht diesen Erfolg noch einmal zu übertreffen. Von den Millionen Menschen die Neuseeland bereist haben seit 2001 gaben 6% an, der Ausschlagspunkt wären die Herr der Ringe Filme gewesen, weil Regisseur Peter Jackson hier archetypische Landschaften fand, die einer Vision von Mittelerde entsprechen. Schon vor diesen Filmen waren seit 1954 über 150 Millionen Exemplare dieser Bücher verkauft worden, von denen sehr viele von ganzen Familien, in Freundeskreisen und in Bibliotheken ein weitaus größeres Publikum erreicht haben, primär im Englisch-sprachigen Raum, und seither in über 40 Sprachen.  Wie kommt eine vor und während dem zweiten Weltkrieg verfasste Geschichte um Halblinge, Zwerge, Elben und Orks zu solchen Auswirkungen ?

Für die westliche Kultur sind diese Werke schlichtweg von sowohl fundamentaler als auch monumentaler Wichtigkeit : fundamental weil grundlegend, und die Basis für einen Großteil von dem was wir heute als Fantasy bezeichnen, aber auch für narrative Strukturen, die sich überall in Film und Literatur wiederfinden. Monumental, weil ein Meilenstein und ein Mahnmal, von weither sichtbar und weitreichend.

Ohne Tolkien’s Herr der Ringe gäbe es kein StarWars, kein Harry Potter, kein Hunger Games, kein Game of Thrones… (Twilight gäbe es wahrscheinlich trotzdem, doch ob es ohne den massiven Erfolg großer Fantasy Serien und Produktionen und den darauf beruhenden Fantasy Hype ein Publikum hätte finden können, ist fragwürdig). 

Ohne diese Filme, die darin pionierte Technik und den Erfolg von Weta Digital gäbe es auch kein Avatar, und vielleicht auch kein District 9, Avengers,und  Prometheus, oder zumindest nicht in dieser Form, um nur ein paar direkte Beispiele zu nennen. 

Die intertextual auftretenden narrativen Strukturen, wie wir über Geschichten, Heldentum und die Suche (the quest) denken, lässt sich im Einzelfall nur schwer aufzeigen, doch Echos finden sich überall, nicht nur in Fantasy und  Science Fiction, auf Mittelalter- und Fantasymärkten, in Brettspielen, Kartenspielen, Rollenspielen oder in Videospielen (noch immer spielen Millionen Menschen World of Warcraft, und andere Rollenspiele und Abenteuer erreichen große Teile der jüngeren Generationen) sondern über unser kulturelles Unterbewusstsein bis in die unerwartesten Ecken : In einem Interview (http://tdf.libsyn.com/tdf-ep-138-michael-everson) gab beispielsweise der Programmeur und Entwickler Michael Everson an, dass Tolkiens Bücher und die darin ausgelebten, voll entwickelten, exotischen Sprachen der Elben und Zwerge für ihn der direkte Anstoß waren, Linguist zu werden und schließlich den internationalen Sprachkodierungsstandard Unicode zu entwickeln. (2)

Der Herr der Ringe war mehr als nur ein Buch. Für den Leser war und ist es eine ganze Welt, im Detail erschaffen, innerlich konsistent, mit einer komplexen geopolitischen Hintergrundgeschichte, bevölkert von einer Vielzahl an Kulturen mit ihren eigenen, akribisch ins Detail ausgearbeiteten Sprachen, und gar eigenen Alphabeten. Und soviel mehr ! (3) Und diese Welt wurde seither weiter entwickelt, und weiter realisiert. Über viele Medien hinweg ist Herr der Ringe ein Phänomen.

Über das Phänomen Herr der Ringe wurden seither eine Vielzahl an Abhandlungen und ganze Bücher geschrieben. Ein schönes Beispiel : http://www.lordotrings.com/books/meditations.asp

Das wahre Kernstück des Phänomens  Herr der Ringe  ist, wieso diese Bücher, diese Filme, und diese imaginäre Welt sovielen, so sehr verschiedenen Menschen soviel bedeuten. Was ist es, was uns anspricht ? Welche Werte, welche Botschaften, finden wir darin, die uns bewegen ?

Dies ist für jeden Einzelnen unterschiedlich, doch findet sich hier nicht nur kulturell Spezifisches (und für imaginäre Kulturen Spezifisches), sondern sehr viel universell Menschliches. 

So fühlen wir uns angesprochen durch die vielen Momente unterwegs während der Abenteuer von Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Gollum, …, und was wir in ihnen lesen über Aufgabe, Suche, Abenteuer, Freundschaft, Treue, Vertrauen, Versuchung, Verrat, Schwäche, Versagen und Rückkauf, Tapferkeit, Heldentum, Erfolg, Verantwortung, Liebe, Sehnsucht, Unterdrückung, Gewalt, Macht, Ausbeutung, post-traumatischer Stress, Veteranenkonflikte, Umweltverschmutzung, Naturverbundenheit ,… 

Und diese Momente, diese Botschaften, diese Werte, bewegen Menschen in ihren Konflikten und Fragen und ihrer Suche nach dem Glück seit nunmehr  über 60 Jahren.

Ein Stück Schmuck in einen Vulkan zu werfen um das Böse zu besiegen ist natürlich so gesehen völliger Unsinn. In Mittelerde, innerhalb der Welt dieser Fantasy-Geschichte, macht das absolut Sinn, doch als Lösungsansatz in der realen Welt scheint ein solches Beispiel komplett nutzlos. Das Problem des Bösen allerdings, die subtile Versuchung und Korruption durch Macht, die weitläufigen Ausmaße von Gewalt und Unterdrückung, und dass auch der scheinbar Unbedeutendste von Allen dagegen ankämpfen und durch Mut, moralische Integrität, und die unverzichtbare Hilfe von treuen Freunden in diesem Konflikt etwas bewirken kann, das, hingegen, sind mächtige, aussagekräftige, in der realen Welt wichtige Botschaften. 

Fantasy ist aber auch immer mehr als nur Allegorie. (5) Was auch immer wir an Werten und Botschaften darin finden mögen, -und « The Lord of the Rings » ist ein reiches und subtiles Werk das seinen Lesern sehr, sehr Vieles, Wandelbares, und auch immer wieder Neues zu entdecken bietet,- so trotzt dieser Text schlussendlich doch allen definitiven Interpretationen. Die Magie bleibt erhalten. Wir mögen diese Werke analysieren und dadurch viel über narrative Strukturen, sozio-kulturelle Normen und Ideologie-übergreifende Werte und so auch letztendlich über uns selber lernen, doch das ist immer auch nur ein Anfang :
"The Road goes ever on and on". Die Geschichte geht immer weiter. 

(854 words)
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Danke für Ihre Fragen an Herrn Sven Wohl von Journal.lu, und Ihnen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit! Frohes Lesen! :)

(c) 2014/07/28 Christian M. Steinmetz

(B.A. English Literature, M.A. Science Fiction Studies)

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(Fußnoten, Anmerkungen meines Englisch-sprachigen Entwurfs und bibliographische Verweise folgen an dieser Stelle) 

(1) High fantasy, as it exists as a genre in our [Western languages-specific ?] cultural tradition, basically goes back to Tolkien,
while other strands in fantasy go back to others authors and previous genres, of course, and Tolkien as a classical philologist with a strong interest in and expertise on Beowulf, Norse mythology and saga, etc, is very strongly connected to classical traditions of fantastic literature, in heroic fiction and epic poetry, all the way back to Homer's Illiad and Odyssey and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Through Tolkien the literary critic, that tradition has been reevaluated and valued. Through Tolkien the author, his predecessors and those that follow in his footsteps have gained in merit and appreciation (see Tolkien’s essay : « Beowulf - the monster and the critics » which revolutionised literary criticism of trivialised or overlooked genre fiction )

For the title "Father of Fantasy" see
- Mitchell, Christopher. "J. R. R. Tolkien: Father of Modern Fantasy Literature". Veritas Forum, http://www.veritas.org/talks/ (March 2009).

-  The Oxford companion to English Literature calls him "the greatest influence within the fantasy genre. (Sixth edition, 2000, page 352. Ed. Margaret Drabble.)

-  Clute, John, and Grant, John, eds. (1999). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. St. Martin's Press.

(2) http://www.unicode.org/standard/WhatIsUnicode.html 

(3) "Tolkien's references to places, people, events (often of long ago) that are not part of the immediate story: these give the reader a conviction of the reality of the immediate scene — because it is shown to be part of a much greater landscape, a long history, a whole world of which it is only a glimpse. This is a strong technique for making an imagined world plausible. This is a technique which one can imitate, performing it in one’s own way. Now, with Tolkien, that history and geography already existed in his writings before The Lord of the Rings " (Ursula K. LeGuin) =>

The Lord of the Rings was among the first to ever offer a fully fleshed out, internally consistent, fully realised, and thus REAL and more than real world, that has a reality of its own and real consequences for people in the « real » world.

(4) LotR has in many ways created markets where there were niches. This is certainly true for the books, and the films have also proven extremely influential, with direct and indirect allusions cropping up everywhere since.

(5) This discussion I keep saving up for some other time. But to quote LeGuin again:

"No ideologues, not even religious ones, are going to be happy with Tolkien, unless they manage it by misreading him. For like all great artists he escapes ideology by being too quick for its nets, too complex for its grand simplicities, too fantastic for its rationality, too real for its generalizations.’ " (Ursula K. LeGuin)

Further reading:
J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth, edited by George Clark,Daniel Timmons

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, edited by Leslie Jones (p.126 - 140)