Er, come again?

[wellinghall]

"JRR Tolkien, in The Lord of the Rings, reveals the elves as the immortal side of humans with goblins as their natural antithesis; much as Orcs are to humans."

Er, come again?

ETA: From http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KK25Dj02.html

Comments

[colinbj.livejournal.com]

Where is this wonderful quote from?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Now added to the entry. I had meant to include it originally.

[segh.livejournal.com]

If I remember rightly, the orcs were made in imitation of the elves. I suppose elves and humans must be genetically similar, since they can interbreed.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Who did the what with the where now? I'd hate to have to diagram that sentence.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

"Apparently a phenomenon among teenage girls, although honestly I had no idea that this demographic actually read books..."

This is someone who doesn't spend a lot of time in bookshops!

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

I don't think the columnist is really sensitive to the issues connected to immortality that Tolkien was dealing with. 'Cause they sure are not the same ones that occur with "vampire immortality". For one thing - vampires have to "steal life" in order to continue on, which elves do not have to do.

Much more likely is the fact that the columnist felt the need to make some reference to Tolkien, his works being so influential and all. "Hey, Tolkien has immortal characters too, let's stick in a seeming 'deep' reference in this piece."