The Two Towers

The text is cramped and the book is tiny.

Heel mooie uitgave, soms een beetje licht gedrukt maar steeds goed leesbaar

'An angry Ent is terrifying. Their fingers, and their toes, just freeze on to rock; and they tear it up like bread-crust. It was like watching the work of great tree-roots in a hundred years, all packed into a few moments'. The wonderful thing about the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the poetic and beautifully descriptive way that Tolkien describes Middle Earth and the many and varied characters, beasts, locations and events within it. It is all very well being able to use language rhetorically in fantasy tales but the magic is in describing an event as if it has actually occurred in wonder before your very eyes; as in the example above. And the Ents are just one example of how Tolkien layers deep meaning within his characters; such as how nature can be both serene and calm and devastating and all powerful. The idea that man sees himself as separate from nature and having the ability to conquer the many terrains and rich array of resources; what you could describe as a self-important and justified attempt to control the environment without truly respecting the force that nature can wield at any given moment, or the complex relationship between organic and mineral matter. Or maybe we do understand to some extent the magnitude of these truths, but it seems that our desire to achieve success and acquire leverage in our social groups has seen the initial work of the 'great' explorers in producing inventories of places and things progress into practices which have indeed expanded trading relationships, yet separated our thinking from our environment (by we and our I mean those with social influence). I don't personally believe that the Enlightenment period in itself precipitated the dogmatic devotion to the idea of a Utopia to be achieved by continual technological progress, as the question 'should we do that' often accompanied the statement 'we can do that' in the public sphere at that time. But it is obvious that somewhere along the line the spiritual appreciation for creation has fallen by the wayside and that the unabashed exploitation of the earths natural resources through our manufacturing and industrial capabilities has proceeded with very little resistance. Wisdom and due diligence have been lost and the game of power now plays out without limits. In order of significance, we are a mere aspect of the history of the Earths complex ecology, though regrettably as a race blessed with the ability to make choices based upon logic and common sense we act in ownership rather than custodianship. We can only really surmise about how the earth has developed and the many factors which influence it's gradual environmental changes; and what leads to things like aggressive patterns of weather. Very much like modern medical thought, prevailing mainstream industrial practices consider and treat materials (or symptoms) in relative isolation; marginalising holistic approaches, and of course there are dangers in this particular type of thought and behaviour when unchecked. And 'The scientific community' is far more advanced in it's understanding of particular objects of study over others, with knowledge in scientific terms being essentially our understanding of concrete causes and effects. We can see as far back as 13 billion years or so into space, tracing our steps back to a time long ago (to the Big Bang which is but a theory). As a counter point, how much do we really understand about the depths of our oceans or the sub-tectonic workings of the inner Earth? When we extract oil from the Earth or fracture shale rock are we truly aware of the long term changes that will occur by way of the initial act. Have we Humans recently demonstrated due diligence in our use of the earth as a resource, proportionately weighing up the advantages and potential risks of a given practice in equal measure. Did our planning help to mitigate the damage cause by The Deep Horizon disaster by way of an ever-progressing movement to search further, dig deeper, and extract more? From the news it would seem that the actual industrial practice is fine... it was the specific actors who failed. Yet ultimately we conceptualise in terms of Man's time when nature works in aeons and shifts subtly over vast distances. A blink of nature's eye can seem like complete devastation on the human scale. I have narrowed my focus here to offer something slightly different as a review in appreciation of the attention to detail and meaning inherent within the LOTR. Not forgetting the absolutely amazing plot, characters and battle between good and evil which make for epic reading. The films are a homage to the original book make no mistake about it. I love Peter Jackson's movies and they are great to get my Wife gripped as she prefers film to reading but the book is that awe inspiring that you can actually finish it and, if approached with the right frame of mind, come out the other end a more virtuous and noble person for it.

Prachtig boek, maar het is nu voor de tweede keer in 1 week beschadigd afgeleverd, omdat het niet goed verpakt was.

Great book.

Sur les 6 tentatives de commande, je n'ai pas réussi à recevoir un exemplaire neuf en bon état. Vraiment dommage pour ce livre qui autrement est un vrai chef-d'oeuvre.