Reasons why I love the Board, number infinity

[bookish_dragon]

Watch two intellectuals completely miss the point of LotR:FotR. Noam Chomsky, whom I know mainly as a linguist(?) and a Howard Zinn, whom I've never heard of. Whether this is real or not is, for me, completely besides the point. It's too funny regardless.

One thing though: I doubt Black Speech is Orcish. But I could be wrong.

Edit: so it's not real. Which I might have guessed anyway, but I still found it funny. See boz4pm's comment for more on Chomsky. :)

Comments

[boz4pm.livejournal.com]

It's not them actually talking - it's a cod written piece. The clue is 'by Jeff Alexander and Tom Bissell'. Chomsky has better things to do with his time than this stuff.

Yeah, he's primarily a linguist - one of the biggest of this generation - but through studies in that field, he slowly became VERY politically outspoken, as I think the writers are trying to have a dig about in that piece. Frankly, Chomsky makes a LOT of sense AND usually has good proof to back it up (he makes a habit of going through US government docs with a fine-tooth comb as they are released and has the memory of an elephant, so he can remember what they said/claimed at the time, the language they used and then compare it with the newly revealed 'truth' - it was how it all started, with his interest in how language can be twisted to hide the truth by goverments).

Zinn, after a quick check, is also someone whose stuff is posted on Z-Net/Z-mag - places that also host Chomsky's work and Robert Fisk's (well known journalist who is also very outspoken about America and the Middle East). Z-Net (http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm)

Is it funny? Well, I suppose if you think that America was right in going to war in Iraq, then yeah. *shrugs*

[yattara.livejournal.com]

*shrugs.* I think a lot about the Iragi war, though 'The US were justified in going there' isn't one of them. Frankly that wasn't my point, though. I liked the article, is all. It's so wrong on oh so many levels.

But yeah, after what you've told me about Chomsky, I can see the satire inherent in the article. So Iraq would be Mordor then? That doesn't favour the Iragis too well...And Numenor is Atlantis. :P

[boz4pm.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't suggesting that was your point! Sorry for not being clear. No, as I see it the article is a very good parody of Chomsky's style of writing/arguing when he discusses American foreign policy and particularly the Iraq War, thus I think those that wrote the article don't approve of Chomsky's position politically. I didn't read it as 'Iraq = Mordor' so much as 'let's take that git Chomsky's modus operandi and apply it to LOTR'. 'Cept I don't think Chomsky is a git. Far from it.