>>>Why hasn't Middle Earth had an Industrial Revolution?
It does not need one. You're missing the point. You've written a sarcastic essay about books you have not read. I would say try them again but I can see it's too late for you. It is a beautiful story and you are missing out. Eric
" When looking into Galadriel's mirror Frodo witnesses a polluted world of industry and factories, adding to the negative view expressed towards industry and technology."
For all we know, Tolkien's world is a post- fourth wave industrial revolution simulacrum of a paradise where all of the problems discussed by Ted Krasinski have been solved through a number of accommodations to the nature of reality.
Firstly, however, we have to consider the second era, and the Changing of the World. We may presume that the long-lived, powerful, and wise Númenóreans who lived in this time may have had advanced technology, and envied but could not achieve immortality, and in their lust for it, they were destroyed.
After this, the world is reborn anew, so to speak, and for the entirety of the period of time that the books concern, we must contemplate that two forces prevent the development of advanced technology:
force #1: dragons. "The dragons of the Second Age and Third Age were a blight upon the Dwarves and all those who hoarded treasure. Some, like Smaug the Golden and Scatha the Worm, went from the Withered Heath and invaded Dwarven kingdoms. Before the coming of Smaug, there had not been notable activities observed during the Second Age, as they are largely independent.[6]"
we may presume that these dragons were a pest upon any advanced civilization and would promptly destroy any weaponry and people who might develop it that would challenge their supremacy.
force #2: . Sauron might symbolize the evils of industry. "Mairon was as Eru had created him: good and uncorrupted. His greatest virtue was his love of order and perfection, and dislike of anything wasteful. However, this would also prove to be the cause of his downfall, as Mairon saw in Melkor the will and power that would help him achieve his personal ends than if he pursued them alone. However, while Melkor wanted to either control or destroy Middle-earth itself, Mairon's desire was to dominate the minds and wills of its creatures for what he perceived to be their own benefit. To see his marvelous designs through, Mairon sought to increase his innate power and this power in time became the end in itself; so he was ensnared by Melkor, entering his following and soon becoming his (self-centered) chief agent." Certainly Thangorodrim, being 5 miles across each and over 13 thousand feet tall, would probably be a product of advanced technology.
After the beginning of the second age, I assume that mankind hasn't had enough time to develop advanced technology and remains in a medieval state due to constant war with Sauron, but it's possible that they discover gunpowder but realize
A runes are more effective
B: weapons that are not magically protected against sauron, can be stolen and used by sauron.
"‘Isengard began to fill up with black creeping streams and pools. They glittered in the last light of the Moon, as they spread over the plain. Every now and then the waters found their way down into some shaft or spouthole. Great white steams hissed up. Smoke rose in billows. There were explosions and gusts of fire. One great coil of vapour went whirling up, twisting round and round Orthanc, until it looked like a tall peak of cloud, fiery underneath and moonlit above. And still more water poured in, until at last Isengard looked like a huge flat saucepan, all steaming and bubbling.’"
Sauron, in all probability, had advanced technology, but couldn't clone servants capable of using it and had found fear and dark magic much more effective, and found that crude medieval weaponry was just as efficient at killing elves. Also, had he introduced it, man might have found a way to copy it and use it against him, but man couldn't copy dark magic, by the use of it they would simply be corrupted into his service.
The existence of blacksmiths working steel en masse is enough to show that coal is used, and probably even understood to a degree that it is purified of sulfur before being used. Coal (or charcoal) is essentially a prerequisite for that kind of work, as is excellent process and heat control, and it's very likely the dwarves would have been using it for that purpose.
Some varieties of coal don't take millions of years to form (perhaps oil does) but decades to centuries the time interval between feanor and frodo is not 11.000 years as far as I know, but more like two million and it dpesn't say in how much time did iluvatar create erda. Could be five minutes or five billion years. Also, you don't need dinosaurs to have coal.
Unlike Eric, I think your essay is interesting in the sense that it is about industrialisation and its un/avoidability, not lord of the rings. However, once you reached the coal issue, I had to stop reading.
2) Because sustained and exponential innovation and production requires a Renaissance of the minds and unleashing of liberty. Middle Earth had none of that. Technology doesn't just happen as a guaranteed part of a certain amount of time passing, no matter how much a certain gatekeeping academia wants to claim so, while sticking to their other false premises like zero-sum and central control.
Confession time. I never finished the article. I was hanging on with it until the author seemed to feel another author was bad at writing because their fantasy characters weren't eating enough calories. Crazy stuff.
Great article! I wait for the next part. As for some snobs in the comments: there is a list of sources and I read LOTR, but it is by far not the best fantasy book, hard to read. Additionally, for myself it was very informative to put our industrialization in perspective of other world (unfortunately we don’t have many real worlds to choose from, do we?).
>>>Why hasn't Middle Earth had an Industrial Revolution?
It does not need one. You're missing the point. You've written a sarcastic essay about books you have not read. I would say try them again but I can see it's too late for you. It is a beautiful story and you are missing out. Eric
" When looking into Galadriel's mirror Frodo witnesses a polluted world of industry and factories, adding to the negative view expressed towards industry and technology."
For all we know, Tolkien's world is a post- fourth wave industrial revolution simulacrum of a paradise where all of the problems discussed by Ted Krasinski have been solved through a number of accommodations to the nature of reality.
Firstly, however, we have to consider the second era, and the Changing of the World. We may presume that the long-lived, powerful, and wise Númenóreans who lived in this time may have had advanced technology, and envied but could not achieve immortality, and in their lust for it, they were destroyed.
After this, the world is reborn anew, so to speak, and for the entirety of the period of time that the books concern, we must contemplate that two forces prevent the development of advanced technology:
force #1: dragons. "The dragons of the Second Age and Third Age were a blight upon the Dwarves and all those who hoarded treasure. Some, like Smaug the Golden and Scatha the Worm, went from the Withered Heath and invaded Dwarven kingdoms. Before the coming of Smaug, there had not been notable activities observed during the Second Age, as they are largely independent.[6]"
we may presume that these dragons were a pest upon any advanced civilization and would promptly destroy any weaponry and people who might develop it that would challenge their supremacy.
force #2: . Sauron might symbolize the evils of industry. "Mairon was as Eru had created him: good and uncorrupted. His greatest virtue was his love of order and perfection, and dislike of anything wasteful. However, this would also prove to be the cause of his downfall, as Mairon saw in Melkor the will and power that would help him achieve his personal ends than if he pursued them alone. However, while Melkor wanted to either control or destroy Middle-earth itself, Mairon's desire was to dominate the minds and wills of its creatures for what he perceived to be their own benefit. To see his marvelous designs through, Mairon sought to increase his innate power and this power in time became the end in itself; so he was ensnared by Melkor, entering his following and soon becoming his (self-centered) chief agent." Certainly Thangorodrim, being 5 miles across each and over 13 thousand feet tall, would probably be a product of advanced technology.
After the beginning of the second age, I assume that mankind hasn't had enough time to develop advanced technology and remains in a medieval state due to constant war with Sauron, but it's possible that they discover gunpowder but realize
A runes are more effective
B: weapons that are not magically protected against sauron, can be stolen and used by sauron.
"‘Isengard began to fill up with black creeping streams and pools. They glittered in the last light of the Moon, as they spread over the plain. Every now and then the waters found their way down into some shaft or spouthole. Great white steams hissed up. Smoke rose in billows. There were explosions and gusts of fire. One great coil of vapour went whirling up, twisting round and round Orthanc, until it looked like a tall peak of cloud, fiery underneath and moonlit above. And still more water poured in, until at last Isengard looked like a huge flat saucepan, all steaming and bubbling.’"
Sauron, in all probability, had advanced technology, but couldn't clone servants capable of using it and had found fear and dark magic much more effective, and found that crude medieval weaponry was just as efficient at killing elves. Also, had he introduced it, man might have found a way to copy it and use it against him, but man couldn't copy dark magic, by the use of it they would simply be corrupted into his service.
The existence of blacksmiths working steel en masse is enough to show that coal is used, and probably even understood to a degree that it is purified of sulfur before being used. Coal (or charcoal) is essentially a prerequisite for that kind of work, as is excellent process and heat control, and it's very likely the dwarves would have been using it for that purpose.
>>I have never read Lord of the Rings.
So everything you typed after that is completely useless.
Some varieties of coal don't take millions of years to form (perhaps oil does) but decades to centuries the time interval between feanor and frodo is not 11.000 years as far as I know, but more like two million and it dpesn't say in how much time did iluvatar create erda. Could be five minutes or five billion years. Also, you don't need dinosaurs to have coal.
Unlike Eric, I think your essay is interesting in the sense that it is about industrialisation and its un/avoidability, not lord of the rings. However, once you reached the coal issue, I had to stop reading.
1] Because it's fiction.
2) Because sustained and exponential innovation and production requires a Renaissance of the minds and unleashing of liberty. Middle Earth had none of that. Technology doesn't just happen as a guaranteed part of a certain amount of time passing, no matter how much a certain gatekeeping academia wants to claim so, while sticking to their other false premises like zero-sum and central control.
Total failure. Let me write an essay about something I've never read. Grade: F
Why hasn't Middle Earth had an Industrial Revolution?
It did: it's called the Fourth Age.
Confession time. I never finished the article. I was hanging on with it until the author seemed to feel another author was bad at writing because their fantasy characters weren't eating enough calories. Crazy stuff.
registered just for direct hit the like button
Great article! I wait for the next part. As for some snobs in the comments: there is a list of sources and I read LOTR, but it is by far not the best fantasy book, hard to read. Additionally, for myself it was very informative to put our industrialization in perspective of other world (unfortunately we don’t have many real worlds to choose from, do we?).
This was awesome! Laughed my ass off. Great use of sarcasm and irony, real and implied.