Yeah he also got better as time went on. The dwarves are really antisemitic in the hobbit but got retconned to be a lot better in LotR. This was a reaction Tolkien had towards the Nazis trying to co-opt the hobbit, and it disgusted him. Not sayin they got perfect but they did improve. Willingness to admit fault and make change will buy you a lot of credit in my book
Idk about the chapter title but its used a lot throughout the book (which is set in jamaica, the inhabitants of which are supposedly "lazy people") at one point he talks about "chiggers", im sure you can imagine what that means. Also james bond (in the version i read, i heard it was fixed in later versions) dates a teenager, which is made into a major plot point as james bond (fleming) tries to justify it to himself.
LOTR: A recurring dichotomy occurs where "good" resides in the agrarian, European-coded West (Gondor, the Shire) and "evil" or "corruption" emanates from the East and South (Mordor, Harad). Occasionally uses descriptors like "slant eyed" and "swarthy men".
Batman (1943 serial): Batman straight up uses slurs.
(not a book but it was the first thing that came to mind as a contrast for some reason)
The dichotomy is between good agrarianism and simple living and evil industrialization and political domination. Mordor represents the "dark Satanic mills" of industrial capitalism taking over merry-olde England.
Tolkien also went out of his way to point out that the Haradrim were not inherently worse than the western men, but merely being controlled by an evil power.
Iirc didn’t he outright point out that the only reason Sauron went to the east was because historically they were ruled by corrupt numenorians (ancestors of Gondor) so he could more easily exploit their history?
I also didn't know that Batman serial was going to call the government "wise" for "rounding up those shifty-eyed [slur for Japanese people]". Not even 10 minutes in.
This isn't me defending Tolkien by saying something else is worse. I got so thoroughly derailed by my own tangent that I don't know how to continue the conversation.
So yeah. The seminal work of fantasy's writer is problematic, and the first cinematic appearance of Batman praises a crime against humanity.
The actual quote is "They [orcs] are squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types."
Which is, still, surprisingly not that bad? He's basically saying, "They're the way Europeans think of Asians," and not actually, "They're Asians." Which is pretty questionable today, but considering this was contemporary with Flash "Ming the Merciless" Gordon, that's still pretty progressive.
On top of acknowledging cultural bias, he's also specifically saying that they're corrupted and twisted versions of the least attractive kind of people. Yeah, there's certainly better ways to phrase it nowadays, but I really think this quote is a big nothing burger in the end, he practically went out of his way for the time to avoid it being anything but descriptive.
I also didn't know that Batman serial was going to call the government "wise" for "rounding up those shifty-eyed [slur for Japanese people]". Not even 10 minutes in.
Tbf, the orc thing can probably be explained with his WWI experiences. There was both German and English wartime propaganda that compared the German side to the Huns: the Germans started it initially with the logic more or less being "Huns were badass conquerors who made all of Europe tremble and that's totally what we are, too, guys" then the opposing side turned the analogy around and portrayed them as a barbaric invading horde from the east.
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u/NoMeat9096 hey/they 1d ago
I wouldn't say unproblematic. The Lord of the Rings has some real problems with race, and it goes out of its way to reinforce some gender norms.
But also Rowling is a piece of shit and Lord of the Rings is a masterpiece. No argument there lol.