Isengard in Oxford

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/isengard-in-oxford/

by lermontov • 7 months ago

117 17 7 months ago

delichon• 7 months ago

If we took all of the recorded works of this man who hated the automobile, train an LLM from them, and ask it what it thought of AI, the result would be obscene twice. Once for the project itself and once for the sentiments it would express. If it chose a metaphor from middle earth it would probably be a palantír, and would not appreciate the joke of having become one.

TRiG_Ireland• 7 months ago

And yet he owned a motor car, and enjoyed fast driving. Humans are complex.

ionwake2• 7 months ago

well he probably had a problem with cars around the university. Ive lived there and the traffic with cars is basically horrendous, for a small university town ( and Ive lived in Birmingham and London very crowded places). Finally after a century they have made big changes to reduce traffic.

Its such a problem that if you investigate cycling deaths, the biggest hotspot is literally a roundabout in the center of Oxford outside a college. By hotspot I mean , its literally the number one most dangerous location ( about a 10 meter stretch) for cyclists in about a 50 mile radius. I discovered this one day just doing some random research on my own.

Also unfortunately I know someone whose girlfriend got killed near that same roundabout.

I dont even think its common knowledge, other than "watch the traffic".

Its actually quite shocking they even allowed the traffic to get that bad, it is after all "meant" to be the brightest minds in the country ( or was at some point).

Doctor_Fegg2• 7 months ago

Not mentioned in this review is that the scheme to reduce Oxford's traffic actually took effect in October: https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-31-october-ghost-edi...

So far it seems to be making a noticeable, albeit modest difference. Traffic in the city centre is clearly reduced. Buses are no longer queueing for ages at the Plain (the notorious roundabout that connects East Oxford to the city centre) - in fact, bus journey times are improved throughout. There are some knock-on effects, particularly in North Oxford in the evening peak, but generally it's working well. Footfall in the city centre remains high according to official figures, and certainly it was pretty rammed yesterday when I was doing my Christmas shopping.

It's only the third congestion charge to have been implemented in the UK, after London and Durham. (The Oxford scheme thus far is a slightly watered-down version of the full "traffic filters" mentioned in the review, because of the overrunning closure of the bridge by the railway station which cuts off one of the main routes into Oxford.)

So Tolkien was right. Ignore the conspiracy theorists. Have courage and fight back. Cars in historic city centres like Oxford are not something we have to just accept.

notahacker• 7 months ago

The bridge closure is such a big impediment to travel into Oxford I haven't even bothered applying for the residents' permit...

Congestion charge is only ever going to be a minor inconvenience to Oxford city centre visitors since it's already inconvenient to drive in and driving has very little benefit considering it's very small, doesn't sell much in the way of bulky items and has a decent bus service to the suburbs and park and ride.

lelanthran• 7 months ago

Link doesn't seem to have a link to the text; I'd love to read it.

cgh• 7 months ago

It’s available for purchase from multiple sellers, from bookshop.org to Amazon.

gotezk• 7 months ago

Have to hand it to the author of that article. It is really nicely written for what it is and doesn’t get in its own way. Learned lots of new things. Would be intrigued to hear what exactly happened to Christopher Tolkien and being silenced/pushed aside.

KineticLensman• 7 months ago

Well Christopher Tolkien was 'silenced' by the fact of his dying at the age of 95.

The article in my opinion unnecessarily links JRR Tolkien's views on the monstrosity of cars with the much later conspiracy theory that car-free zones are an attempt by the UN to limit personal freedoms. TFA does itself make clear that there wasn't a connection but if it was me I wouldn't have mentioned it in the first place, when there is so much more interesting to say about Tolkien's own views on modernism.

mmooss• 7 months ago

Would be intrigued to hear what exactly happened to Christopher Tolkien and being silenced/pushed aside.

What are you referring to? The article says Christopher died two years after releasing the last book.

yoan9224• 7 months ago

Tolkien's hatred of automobiles and industrialization permeates all his work, but I'd never read about his specific activism against Oxford's road-building schemes.

The irony is that Oxford now has one of the most restrictive traffic policies in the UK (congestion charging, traffic filters) and it's working quite well. Buses are faster, footfall is up, and the city center is more pleasant.

Cars in dense historic city centers really don't make sense. They take up enormous space for parking, create noise and pollution, and are slower than walking or cycling for most trips within city limits.

Would be interesting to see what Tolkien would think of modern urbanism movements. Feels very aligned with his values.

retrac• 7 months ago

Would be interesting to see what Tolkien would think of modern urbanism movements. Feels very aligned with his values.

Still much too dense.

There was a movement, broadly contemporary with Tolkien, that somewhat reflect his views on this topic. The push at end of the late 19th century in the UK to create "garden cities". They were the first modern planned cities. Supposed to be communities of several tens of thousands, fully walkable, with industry and large ugly infrastructure hidden out of sight behind greenbelts.

They wouldn't really be built in that manner until after World War II and by then were much more car-centric.

I anticipate some skepticism on Tolkien's part about the basically progressive nature of the whole scheme. I think Tolkien was skeptical about the basic concept of social progress. His whole generation was. The War sort of ruined any hope of progress. He hated industrialization for a much deeper reason than just the automobile. The influence of the war on his anti-industrial and social views is hard to overstate:

Here nothing lived, not even the leprous growths that feed on rottenness. The gasping pools were choked with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and grey, as if the mountains had vomited the filth of their entrails upon the lands about,

That is surely from his memory, lifted directly from the Western Front.

Isengard in Oxford

Related Stories