Recent content by toddhoffious

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    It’s a poor wizard that blames his fools

    The problem with relying on providence and that "in the end that it redoundeth only to my great glory" there's literally no event that can't be turned towards some other end. So if there were no Morgul knife, no Barrow-blade, no Gandalf's absence, something else would have happened instead and...
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    It’s a poor wizard that blames his fools

    I think gandalf is just mad at himself for trusting such an important task to butterbur. It was a flawed plan to begin with. So gandlaf is spiritually self-scolding.
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    Are the palantiri corrupting?

    You may or may not be aware that there's a controversial company call Palantir the makes surveillance software. In an article Does Palantir See Too Much? (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/21/magazine/palantir-alex-karp.html): When I asked Thiel about the risk of abuse with Palantir...
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    The ring as a cognitive dissonance eraser.

    There's always a lot of discussion about what the ring is. Does it have agency? Intent? Will? Mind? If the ring was filled with Sauron's will, that is has some kind of mind seems quite plausible. We see smart birds, wolves, cats, etc. Why not a ring? The anti smart ring faction thinks of the...
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    Morgoth's Ring Class 22 is the Glossy Brochure Version of Valar Management

    My understanding of the first rule of Tolkien Professor textural interpretation is to pay attention to the text. So when in Class 22 we get the glossy management version of the role of the Valar saying they are completing the design of the structure of the universe, it's kind of comical. The...
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    Feed borked again?

    Thanks. I just asked them. We'll see what they say.
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    Feed borked again?

    When I pledge money I do that mostly for the podcasts. Should I assume that none of that money goes to the care and feeding of the podcasts?
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    The silmarils are like a virus [Morgoth's Ring]

    Can't agree that the silmarils are blameless for the desire of others. Viruses without people are harmless as well, but that misses symbiotic nature of the system. The silmarils and people coevolved like viruses and people coevolved. The similarils were created precisely to be desirable. They...
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    Is the RSS feed dead?

    There hasn’t been an update in a while. Is anything wrong? thanks
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    Do the souls of women matter in Le Morte d'Arthur?

    You can say Guinevere is empty headed and hasn't learned, but as far as I can tell there's no effort at all to teach the women anything in the book. The whole machinery of heaven conspires to guide a few privileged knights to a grail state. Not so for the women. So how are they supposed to...
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    History of warfare prior to Kinslaying?

    If everyone secretly has one that seems like there must have been some sort of original sin event. What caused the separation of elf from elf?
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    History of warfare prior to Kinslaying?

    I understand what you are saying, but swords have only one purpose: war. Where they get that motivation from isn't clear. I don't think elves would use them in courtship displays or dominance games.
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    History of warfare prior to Kinslaying?

    To me that doesn't really make sense. You don't make and carry swords without a credible persistent threat. But as you said, that's all we have.
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    History of warfare prior to Kinslaying?

    Thanks, I wasn't sure if they had a history of warfare. Since they don't seem to be vegetarians, having bows for hunting make sense. Swords are the pinnacle of manufacturing technology and differ considerably based on the type of battle tactics. There's really no reason they should have swords...
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    History of warfare prior to Kinslaying?

    A potentially very stupid question occurred to me listening to the Kinslaying silmfilm episode. The elves seem to have an advanced martial arts given they hadn't to that point fought each other. Who were they fighting before?
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