Tolkien and the Machine
Musings at the crossroads of Art, Technology and Mythology
Welcome to Wraith Land — Tolkien, Myth and the Machine…
The great writer once stated in 1912 that “a belief in ghosts is essential to the welfare of a people.” To which if we were to apply to our own time, we might observe that:
A wraith is a ghost; we live in a ghost world where the digital and the physical collide in cyberspace, where myth and truth converge in exciting and dangerous ways; where an inability to recognize and distinguish the two threatens the welfare of the planet.
Because truth is a funny thing. It doesn’t reveal itself every time we open the screen. And if it does, it’s because it’s coming at us with daily images of suffering and heartache. It’s enough to make the most stalwart optimist despair.
Modern fantasy, ergo J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and his loopy mythology, was his answer to such despair. The mechanized slaughter he witnessed firsthand in the First World War, and the murderous fascist wave he watched grow and crest in the Second World War, convinced him that despite all of our scientific progress, humanity is forever prone to losing its way. On the face of it, he offered instead a kind of “escapism” rich with possibility. Deeper down, he delved the human psyche for the ancient interplay of light and shadow.
Wraith Land explores the same territory in an attempt to shed light not just on Tolkien and his magnificent creations, but on the revelations, trends, manias and breakthroughs that have shaped our own age of fantasist thinking: from sci-fi and fantasy to algorithmic hypnotics and humanist awakenings. With an East-West hybrid perspective, we’re on a quest for wisdom in rhythm:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie…
Along the way, we’ll be continuing the tradition with our own fiction and world-building, finding the truth between light and shadow, past and future. At Wraith Land, we call it the “myth in the machine,” and if you want to help find the road that “goes ever on and on” under hills and over hills, on paths that fool moons have led, both seen and unseen, walk with me…
- T.Q. Kelley
Los Angeles, Jan. 14, 2021