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<blockquote data-quote="Grimhelm" data-source="post: 2638271" data-attributes="member: 37079">Tolkien's work is relevant to our times for a reason.&nbsp; I feel that the books echo a theme of our own humanity that cannot be denied, and that is our quest to control the forces of the world and so reduce the mystery that surrounds us.&nbsp; We can either view this trend as the loss of magic and mystery, or the gaining of such power for ourselves, in a sense.&nbsp; When the elves left Middle Earth, there was a romantic/nostalgic quality about their going that equates to the loss of eternity.&nbsp; In a sense this leaving echoes the story of the Garden of Eden.&nbsp; It also echoes man's inherent feeling of having been disconnected somehow from god.&nbsp; I suppose this is tragic, but it isn't necessarily depressing.&nbsp; Tolkien ends the book with the birth of Sam's child, saying to us:&nbsp; This is eternity.&nbsp; This is how we compensate.&nbsp; This is how the great story just keeps on going for us.Howard's work is about how we compensate for this loss, too, in a sense.&nbsp; He says, live, fight, kill, do whatever, for tomorrow we die!Lovecraft, though I have not read much, agrees with Howard, saying that all life is pointless and man's place in the universe is utterly insignificant.&nbsp; Again, is this bleak or depressing or pessimistic?&nbsp; Not really.&nbsp; It's just the damned truth.&nbsp; People need to stop equating these sorts of truths with pessimism and flip the coin.&nbsp; The flipside of all this is that admitting these things is liberating to the mind and spirit.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Grimhelm, post: 2638271, member: 37079"] Tolkien's work is relevant to our times for a reason. I feel that the books echo a theme of our own humanity that cannot be denied, and that is our quest to control the forces of the world and so reduce the mystery that surrounds us. We can either view this trend as the loss of magic and mystery, or the gaining of such power for ourselves, in a sense. When the elves left Middle Earth, there was a romantic/nostalgic quality about their going that equates to the loss of eternity. In a sense this leaving echoes the story of the Garden of Eden. It also echoes man's inherent feeling of having been disconnected somehow from god. I suppose this is tragic, but it isn't necessarily depressing. Tolkien ends the book with the birth of Sam's child, saying to us: This is eternity. This is how we compensate. This is how the great story just keeps on going for us. Howard's work is about how we compensate for this loss, too, in a sense. He says, live, fight, kill, do whatever, for tomorrow we die! Lovecraft, though I have not read much, agrees with Howard, saying that all life is pointless and man's place in the universe is utterly insignificant. Again, is this bleak or depressing or pessimistic? Not really. It's just the damned truth. People need to stop equating these sorts of truths with pessimism and flip the coin. The flipside of all this is that admitting these things is liberating to the mind and spirit. [/QUOTE]

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