I’m really uncomfortable with the notion that basically anything is permissible for the sake of art, as long as the message is one we can get behind. Not only is it a lazy mindset, art with no boundaries or rules or restraints is often lacking, but it also opens the door for
people turn a blind eye to immorality if it furthers art and furthers the message. When you are pushing the limits of what is acceptable, trying to be shocking, trying to make people uncomfortable, by using tactics that are questionable at best, instead of giving yourself
restraints of decency, you don’t learn how to create a poignant piece using creative subtly, suggestion, imagery, and symbolism, but instead by simply showing all, you often end up engaging in the same or in the least encouraging the same behaviour you claim to condemn.
I do not think we should stray away from depicting the ugliness of the world in our art and storytelling, but I think people have lost the ability to know how to do that in delicate yet powerful ways. You either get those weak Christian films that almost parody sin and evil or
we just... show it all as it is. And like shock comedy, using sex, violence, nudity, etc. for shock soon becomes obvious and predictable as it becomes more commonplace, so you have to continually push those boundaries if you want to really shock anyone anymore. So where do you
stop? Have people lost the ability to know where to draw the line? I believe a lot of people have. And it makes me sad because I think they have become blinded and desensitised to the point where they really can’t distinguish right from wrong.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
This just made me burst into laughter. “The godless book he wrote”… I just… I can’t 😂
“In Tolkien’s narrative world, there is no God and no religious practice.”
*Ilúvatar disliked this*
Okay so the author clearly hasn’t read The Silmarillion but beyond that I don’t think this person actually knows how to read beyond surface levels if they actually read the book.
Okay. I’m done. I’m tired of this. Yes we’re dealing with COVID but life still goes on, you’re not getting any younger. We can’t walk around paranoid that us and everyone around us is just a sack of germs. We’re humans, we need community and contact and touch to survive and not
go crazy. You all have become so obsessed with this disease that you have refashioned your whole self around it. People are now things to be avoided, community is to be shunned. We must not see each other as humans and we must walk around carrying to worry and potential guilt
about the natural process of passing on germs. You think this is healthy? You think this is righteous? You think allowing people to waste away all alone, not being able to get so much as a hug or a handshake, you think people having to die alone and have funerals where people
@JeremyDBoreing Okay here is what I think. It’s good to be considerate of others, to put others first, to love others. And during a time of extraordinary stress and fear it is good to consider how our actions affect others. Yes we are all individuals but we are also dependent on
others and have people who depend on us to some extent. Life is meant to be a communal thing. We are not created to be solitary. That being said we are also born into a world where we can die billions of ways. Anything we do could inadvertently start a chain that leads to the
death of another or could improve someone else’s life because our lives are inseparably intwined. If we spend our days so concerned with every step we take and how it could effect ourselves or another we really can’t live. Because to be alive is to risk death. In the end we do
At this point it seems everyone has felt the negative effects of the virus or the response to it. People are scared. People are separated from loved ones, people are grieving, people are sick, people are losing work and money, people are depressed, lonely, anxious, missing out on
education, missing out on opportunities, having to cancel weddings, can’t be with friends. This is a time when we need to be there for each other, if not physically, through other means of support and encouragement. This is a time where we are all meant to be on the same side
against something that has the potential to hurt us all. This is a time where we need to listen to each other, give up things for each other, be strong for each other. This is not the time to score political points or bicker about who cares about human lives most. I will try to
I’m going to start by saying that any suggestion that orcs are meant to be a stand in for black people sounds incredibly racist. There are human beings in Middle-earth. We mostly see the white ones because they are in the part that would geographically be Europe. but black humans
exist in Tolkien’s world because his world is meant to be this world in some mythological past. Orcs are completely fictional characters who are not “working class”, they are slaves of Sauron. Sauron doesn’t pay people. Orcs have been twisted and changed to the point where little