The Lord of the Rings and Its Meaning For Our Lives Right Now!

This month's post is an important article by Kevin Fennell on a story much cared for by readers and moviegoers:
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The huge popularity of the current series of films, The Lord of the Rings has sparked a new interest in the trilogy of books on which they are based, by J.R.R. Tolkien. And they have caused people who read those books years ago, as I did, to remember what a pleasurable, gripping experience it was, and how deeply they affected us.

What is it about this fantastic tale--of two hobbits, Frodo and Sam, and the epic quest of what comes to be called the Fellowship, including dwarves, elves, and men--that has stirred people so deeply? What does the Ring of Sauron represent? And why does it matter so much to us that the Fellowship succeed in destroying it?
As a student of Aesthetic Realism, the education founded in 1941 by the American poet and critic Eli Siegel, I am excited to see that the reason these books have meant so much to so many people is that they deal with the most crucial matters of our lives in a powerful, even beautiful way. Aesthetic Realism teaches that every person is in a continuous fight between our deepest desire--to like the world honestly, to see meaning in people and things--and our desire to have contempt; to get “a false importance or glory from the lessening of things not oneself." The understanding of this fight in us is the key both to our individual happiness and to the biggest problems facing humanity now. It is also the key to understanding why people have loved Tolkien’s trilogy.

In a recent class taught by the Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism, Ellen Reiss, she spoke about The Lord of the Rings--its meaning, its value as literature, and its relevance to us right now in the 21st Century--and it was absolutely thrilling! At the outset of this great class, Ms. Reiss said, “This book is about ethics centrally. A big thing throughout is whether there is anything that is going to be more powerful than this ring.” Do the Ring and the evil power it embodies correspond to the ordinary desire for contempt that is in every person, but which, through the Ring, becomes absolute: unchecked? And she quoted this important passage from Eli Siegel's book, James and the Children, A Consideration of Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw”, in which he describes what that fullness of contempt, would come to:

"You would see the whole universe as existing in order to be despised and give you glory…The tendency to take every beautiful thing and to see it as only serving you, is the fulness of certain tendencies which, in ordinary civilization, are kept within bounds because people wouldn't stand for it if they weren't. If this fulness were seen, people would think it was in another world."

There is an “other world" quality in the evil doings of Sauron, his dwelling in Mordor, and his strange, supernatural servants, the Ring Wraiths. But these are full-blown, fantastic representations of our desire to have our way with the world—to have another person or thing “serve” us—without any regard for what that person or thing truly is or deserves. Aesthetic Realism shows that the deepest thing in us--stronger, more insistent than the hope for contempt--is our desire to be fair, and that is the motive we are deeply longing to have win in our own lives! "The great fight in the Tolkien books," said Ms. Reiss, "is between good will and contempt."

Two Kinds of Power

An important aspect of Tolkien's story is his creation of hobbits--human-like, comfort-loving, small in stature, but having in them also something grand. In fact, the whole fate of Middle Earth comes to depend, not on characters with great outward power and wisdom like the wizard Gandalf and the Elvin queen Galadriel, but on Frodo and Sam. This has big meaning. Said Ms. Reiss:

"The fact that it is going to be the persons who seem most humble, non-magnificent, who are going to be the ones who will save the world, is quite beautiful. Frodo has good will. Sam has great good will in his faithfulness to Frodo...It is a great thing and a beautiful thing."

We heard a moving instance of this in a passage near the end of The Return of the King. Frodo has accepted the sole responsibility of destroying the Ring, but he and Sam have become separated in the wilderness of Mordor after an attack. To protect Frodo, Sam has taken the Ring and is wearing it around his neck. As he feels himself nearer to Mount Doom, in whose fires the Ring was made and must be destroyed, Tolkien writes, "The Ring's power grew, and it became more fell, untamable save by some mighty will." The Ring tempts Sam, tries to delude him into feeling that by putting it on his finger he could become a very powerful “hero of the age." There is a terrific struggle in Sam, but he is not fooled. He keeps his perspective. “He knew in the core of his heart," Tolkien writes, “[that] the one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command."

What Aesthetic Realism enables you to see--and I’m very grateful for this--is that honestly liking and respecting the world makes you strong; far stronger and happier than the contemptuous pleasure of elevating yourself above everything and everyone. What can look to us like the greatest triumph is really our greatest downfall. Learning this in Aesthetic Realism consultations changed the direction of my life. Contempt needs to be understood, in ourselves and in nations. The desire to have “a garden swollen to a realm," and “the hands of others to command" is a description of the contempt that drives the profit-based economic system that has done so much harm throughout history—and which people, more and more, are showing we don’t want; and it is also what has one nation brutally want to control another.

Frodo and Sam—and the Fight In All of Us

The intense fight between good will and contempt is stark in a further passage. When Sam finds Frodo and tells him he still has the Ring, which Frodo had thought was lost to the servants of Sauron, he at first is grateful. But as Sam begins to return the ring, having felt its terrible power, he bravely offers to share the burden with Frodo. “‘No, no!’ cried Frodo, snatching the Ring and chain from Sam’s hands. ‘No you won’t, you thief!’”

Although Frodo is soon very ashamed and apologizes to Sam, he shows here the readiness in a person to be suspicious, ill-natured, jealous. Even his dearest friend Sam can suddenly look like an enemy. “The contempt seems to all be coming from the Ring,” said Ms. Reiss, “and of course that’s not true.” What the Ring is able to evoke in Frodo is part of the basic equipment of every self: our desire to feel the world is against us and we have to, therefore, beat it out.

The fact that good characters in this book don't simply fight evil beings on their way to Mount Doom and dispose of the Ring, but also have to battle evil in themselves--and that they win--is very important. Virtue is not easy. There's something ugly in us that we need to come to grips with and see for what it is, for the better thing in us to come forth.

I didn't know, for example, that the way I wanted to use and manipulate other people (though I acted innocent and well-meaning); the way I inwardly hoped someone would do something weak or stupid so I could feel superior; or the way I wanted a woman to worship me and do my bidding, was why I disliked myself so much. I see now that my hope to change was the big reason I loved this book. It stands, in its strangeness and fantasy, for the change we all are looking for.

People and nations need to learn the difference between liking the world and contempt, and Aesthetic Realism is the education that can teach us that difference. It is taught in public presentations and individual consultations (in person and by phone) at the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation, 141 Greene Street, New York, NY 10012, (212) 777-4490, www.AestheticRealism.org
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Biography

Kevin Fennell lives with his wife and 11-year old daughter in New York City, where he is employed by the U.S. Postal Service and is studying for the profession of Aesthetic Realism Consultant in classes taught by the Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism, Ellen Reiss. He has given public seminars on subjects including imagination, integrity and ambition, and has spoken about the lives of Wayne Morse, Elvis Presley, James Connolly, and such works as Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones.