We live in a society highly dependent upon technology and machinery. You could say that we live, thrive and survive off of it. Our vehicles get us from point A to point B in relatively no time, our computers provide us access to vast pools of knowledge, and our medical technology allows us to live long and healthy lives. To many people, our technology may seem like a gift from God or the gods, depending on their belief system. However the Inklings, at least Tolkein and Lewis, seem to have a slightly different view when it comes to technology and modernization.
Most of the time the authors appear almost to condemn the use of machinery, a key example being the character of Saruman in The Lord of the Rings who turns his mind away from nature to the advancement of his army by means of new tools and systems. With science and a form of medieval technology he goes from being an agent of good to a powerful proponent of wickedness and greed. Once a lover of nature, he now rips down the trees to fire his industry and creates unnatural monsters out of the earth. Another example, if not such a potent one, are the actions of Shift and the Calormenes in The Last Battle. They conduct a conveyor like system, nearly working the Narnians to death, to tear down trees to make into rafts and other contraptions for their profit and advancement. In both of these situations nature is destroyed to make way for inventions with an evil intent. A final example is Uncle Andrew's science in The Magician's Nephew. Lewis casts a very grim light on the antics and personality of the scientist, and although both good and evil became of the use of Uncle Andrew's rings, perhaps it would have been better left undone.
So what does this mean for us? Does our use and dependence on science and technology mean that we too have begun to lose our roots and turn from nature to greed? Although the trees in our world do not have voices or kings and ents to defend them, do we have more of a right to cut them down for profit? Now, I'm not trying to bash technology. Although our world does not have vials of magic elixir from the Valley of the Sun our modern medical technology can be borderline miraculous at times and our machines and computers are not something to dismiss lightly. So is there a difference between our use of technology and Tolkein's or Lewis' use? In the Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings an example of a good use of technology doesn't come to my mind. The "good people" are mostly peasants or similar people who have little use for modernization. Is this lack of representation what puts a stigma on technology? Perhaps the authors do not intend for us to pay such close attention to the methods used to carry out wicked deeds, but the actual wicked deeds and the evil minds behind them.
I had intended to continue this and make it more coherent but honestly I lost my train of thought and motivation. I also got incredibly frustrated trying to spell the word medieval.
ReplyDeleteYes, Lewis and Tolkien both seem more comfortable in a medieval setting than a thoroughly modern one. Even Lewis's "scientifiction" novel, Out of the Silent Planet, seems more like a journey into the medieval heavens than a typical space voyage. Lewis very much wants us to hang onto the hold the medieval worldview has on our imagination, seeing the modern worldview as more sterile.
ReplyDeleteMy question is whether there comes a point at which we need to find the magic in modernity rather than hearkening back to medieval times. Or perhaps that's part of being post-modern: the willingness to jumble the modern and the premodern.