Does it matter if it's not real?

“Yet discussions of modernization demonstrate a certain inconsistency, particularly when addressing issues of race and politics. Jackson echoes Tolkien loyalists when he asserts that it is "inappropriate" to apply modern political thinking to a fifty-year-old story ("J. R. R. Tolkien"). But he uses Nuremburg as a reference for the army shot at Isengard in Two Towers because "that sort of imagery is so potent"; such historical references, he continues, effectively "press buttons in people" ("Audio," Two Towers)… Jackson and many others have also pointed out the Ring's affinity with technology and Tolkien's anti-industry, proecology stances ("J. R. R. Tolkien"). If such references are so potent, regardless of strict historical connections, then why are modern race and gender issues—"modern" in the sense of the last two centuries—irrelevant?”

In this quote Kim challenges the prevailing idea that race and gender considerations need not apply to contemporary media that reference fantasy, especially historically-influenced fantasy. It is interesting that filmmakers choose to add a “modern” twist to some aspects of fantasy films, which are made with the benefit of modern technology, while refusing to incorporate progressive attitudes toward race and gender. Simply dismissing these films as “not real” does not justify their use of archaic ideologies. Although the films are not based in reality, the human emotions and interactions that drive the characters are very real. Furthermore, the fantasy genre does inform actual human thought and behavior, despite its imaginative characteristics. In fact, ideology operates through cultural constructs and myths, not realities, to create “common sense” value judgments, so just because something is not “real” doesn’t mean it has no impact on real human experiences.

However I don’t know that it is appropriate to ascribe racism to the equation of black with evil and white with good. I understand how that can potentially influence perceptions of race, but it seems so much a part of Western culture that I cannot imagine how it could be eliminated. Is the perception of dark/black as evil not simply an innocent product of the fear we associate with night? On the other hand, I do find it extremely problematic when dark people are cast as evil characters in films, and I consider it imperative for filmmakers to acknowledge modern race politics even in historical fantasy.

On a completely different note, I wanted to briefly address the pervasiveness of primitivism in the environmental movement (as evidenced by the “crying Indian” commercial we saw in class). The paradox of romanticism lingers on and manifests itself in modern environmental discourse: Environmentalists (read white and wealthy) glorify a “simpler” lifestyle that lacks the complexity of industrialization and nostalgically recall the “harmonious” relationship between “savages” and nature, yet they dictate the solutions to climate change, pollution, etc. and criticize many of the environmental practices that these same “primitive” peoples employ (such as “slash and burn” farming). Despite its ostensibly liberal roots, the environmental movement simply uses a new language to perpetuate the same old colonialist b.s.