I read an article today about how JRR Tolkien and his books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings helped shape the anti-war movement.
Fantasy books and fairytales have always held a fascination to me. As youngsters, we had a set of the My Bookhouse series from the 1920s that had belonged to my Mom. Full of fairy tales and imaginative stories. I could easily get lost in them.
The first fantasy book series I read was The Oz books – all 14 of them – before I was 8 years old. I had a library card and the L Taraval streetcar stopped at the corner and dropped me off directly in front of the Parkside Branch of the library. This is circa 1959/1960 – the library was built in 1951, so it was still new and bright and totally inviting to this little bookworm. The books were all highly illustrated, which made the reading all the more fun.
The Children’s Section was huge and the librarians caring and helpful. It’s also where I started The Hardy Boys – and Nancy Drew – and on to Agatha Christie.
I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy in Jr High School. – before being of Draft Age and before the first time I was teargassed at a protest. I even had a “Frodo Lives” button just like the one in the picture. I guess I was a geek before it was cool – because, really… the last thing I was in school was “cool”.
Freud would definitely have a field day figuring out why I would immerse myself in fantasy and other worlds – probably had nothing to do with the fact that I had to hide the fact that I liked boys. (Yes, I knew even way back then…)
I think I’ve always been anti-war – even if I did go off to war in Viet Nam. As lottery numbers were being drawn, I said I wanted to go to Canada because I was NOT going to go into a jungle and kill people. My father said to try an alternate service before making a decision that would affect me for the rest of my life. Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club gladly accepted me.
I’m not sure how The Lord of the Rings helped shape that, though. I knew then as I know now, that good has to overcome evil, but I’ve never seen myself as the hero of the story. More of a Samwise than a Frodo. Today, I’d be more of a Resistance Intelligence Gatherer, reporting back. Old men are invisible – walk into an Old Navy store if you need proof. And in todays political climate, being a part of the Resistance is more important than ever.
Being from San Francisco, I never considered myself a “hippie” – even if I did frequent the Haight and smoke lots of pot. But there were other parts of that counterculture that I really liked besides the anti war aspect – from questioning authority and breaking down gender and color barriers to attending The Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Novato several times – always in costume, of course! They were a 20th century interpretation of 15th and 16th century England – with lots of pot and tankards of mead – and smuggled in flasks of whisky!
20/20 hindsight being what it is, our egalitarian gatherings really were mostly white. The people of color who we were saying were all equal to us were too busy trying to eke out a simple existence to head out to Marin for an Elizabethan fancy dress party. The realities of life we didn’t see.
Today, the realities of life are much clearer. All you have to do is look.
Being anti war and willing to fight evil are not mutually exclusive. The evil ones are trying to cause the wars – and it’s our duty to stop them.