In this post I am commenting on Michael Brannigan’s essay “The
Road Goes Ever On and On” in The Hobbit
and Philosophy.
Bilbo Baggins (the hobbit) yearns for the security of his
own home, which is in accordance with the nature of the Baggins family,
consisting of respectable well-to-do hobbits.
From his mother’s side which is the Took family Bilbo also has a
yearning for adventure. The Tooks were
well-known for their predilection for adventure. These two separate sides of Bilbo’s nature
which apparently afflict many of us humans as well, do not need to be
reconciled and are not contradictory according to the ancient Taoists of two
thousand years ago. Thus the reader is
lead into a consideration of Chinese philosophy. The Tao apparently is the fundamental
principle of reality and the origin of the Universe. I am not sure though what a “fundamental
principle of reality” is. To me a principle is a statement of some kind and it
is hard to see how a statement can be the origin of something like the
universe. If we interpret ‘principle’ as
some sort of fundamental thing, it seems there is this thing called the Tao and
from it came two other things which are called the yin and the yang. Yin is the force of darkness, receptivity and
femininity while yang is the force of light, activity and masculinity. The forces of light and darkness are regularly
interwoven in some cosmic balance.
Perhaps this is a poetic way of saying opposites are inextricably linked
with each other or that everything has two sides which are in tension with each
other. There are these sayings that
every cloud has a silver lining or there is a reason for everything that
happens. Perhaps the cloud is the yin
and the silver lining is the yang though interpreted this way the association
of femininity with darkness or clouds has an unfortunate whiff of misogyny
about it, which perhaps the Chinese did not intend as they may not have
necessarily seen darkness as negative.
On the other hand, they seem to associate femininity with
passivity/receptivity which seems rather sexist but I don’t know much about how
women figured in ancient Chinese society.
Apparently the power of the Tao within us is living
according to our original and true nature.
We big folk apparently represent a fall from grace not living according
to our true natures. It is not clear to
me how to identify the parts of our nature which are supposed to be authentic
and those that represent a fall from our natural path. The secret apparently is in detachment but
this seems to imply we must be free from desires (as in Buddhism) whereas a
yearning for adventure or security which supposedly represents the true nature
of some people still seems to involve desires.
The essay addresses Tolkien’s critique of machinery. Machinery attempts to actualise desire and
apparently this cannot be done with real satisfaction. Our technology has noxious side effects such
as global warming which is yet to lead to further ‘horrible evil’ in the
future. Then there is the risk of a
nuclear holocaust. On the other hand,
machines have made our lives easier and more comfortable also, when one
compares the quality of life these days with that a hundred or more years ago.
Perhaps our lives have been made too easy with the result that we are not
getting enough exercise and hence we now have an obesity epidemic.
But it seems we cannot turn the clock back and undo the
making of machines. The only way out, if
there is a way out, would be to carry out scientific research on possible solutions
to the problems environmental and otherwise which we are now afflicted
with.
Apparently with machinery we are overburdened with the
weight of our desires and lose sight of our original nature which is our
Tao. It is not clear to me how a thing
from which the Universe came from can be the same thing as the original nature
of each person. Also this seems again to imply we must be free of desires which I am not sure is realistic. However, Taoism has
apparently inspired some poetic works which may have literary merit (mixed in
with negative elements such as sexism perhaps?).
The next post comments on the third essay in The Hobbit and Philosophy which is about
walking.
No comments:
Post a Comment