| WE are the orcs [message #192125] |
Di, 27 Dezember 2005 18:00 |
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* Orcs are sentient
* Orcs wear clothes
* They have no language of their own but take what they can of other
tongues and pervert it to their own liking
(Note: our own infants have no language of their own (beyond goo goo
ga ga when they're happy and screaming their heads off when hungry,
if you call that "language"); starting as toddlers we take on whatever
language we hear and pervert it to our own liking, such as rap lyrics)
* They are tribal and live in groups or settlements; filled with
malice they hate even their own kind (We've recently had weeks
of rioting in France, Australia and elsewhere)
* They make tools and weapons: "Hammers, axes, swords, daggers,
pickaxes, tongs and also instruments of torture, they make very well"
* "It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have
since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing
large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions
always delighted them..."
(Reality check: WE invented *ALL* of the machines that have troubled
the world, and we're obsessed with wheels and engines and explosions;
in fact our whole civilization runs on them.)
* Left to their own devices, orcs prefer to slip off and set up
somewhere on their own with a few trusty lads and no big bosses
(Human behavior in its most primitive form is similarly tribal.)
It's obvious from Tolkien's writing that orcs are not bug-eyed ogres
as portrayed in the movies; they're people. He even calls them people
-- "foul people" (LoTR Appendix F).
And it's always open season on orcs. They may be attacked without
challenge or quarter by any of the Free Folk: Ents, Elves, Dwarves,
and whomever, with no prisoners taken. It's as if they're the sentient
equivalent of anthrax, to be exterminated wherever and whenever found.
What a world to live in if you happen to be an orc, no matter
what your disposition. So, gentle reader, if you're reading this
on any medium except a Palantir you're probably an orc, and your
only friends are werewolves, trolls and spooky undead kings.
In fact do you ever find yourself compulsively indulging in anti-
social or self-defeating behavior that you can't reconcile with your
self-image as a "good" person? If so, you're almost certainly an orc,
and the mysterious compulsions that psychologists call "subconscious
urges" or "hidden agendas" are actually the Call of Sauron.
Please take warning that if the One Ring is ever destroyed,
the swollen brooding thing that holds us in sway will be smitten,
and the Power that drives us on and fills us with hate and fury
will waver and we will tremble as doubt fills our hearts and our
laughter will fail and our hands will shake and our limbs will be
loosed and we will run hither and thither mindless, subject to
immediate termination; and our only chance for survival will be
to flee wailing back to holes and dark lightless places far from
hope, where we'll sit around cringing in dread like Londoners
hiding from German air raids in subway stations.
Sean
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