Last week MSNBC host Rachel Maddow tried to link Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, to the "far right" by revealing that he is a fan of fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings.
Does the Left Really Want to Argue That Enjoying Lord of the Rings Is ‘Far-Right’? | National Review | Jack Butler:
July 19, 2024 - "This week, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow welcomed J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings to the fellowship of things, such as patriotic flags and ... physical fitness, that are now bad because the 'far right' likes them. Maddow reacted to Donald Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as his running mate by noting Vance’s connections to tech billionaire Peter Thiel, and finding fault in their affinity for Tolkien’s work:
Mr. Thiel ... has named his companies after things in the Lord of the Rings series of J.R.R. Tolkien books. Lord of the Rings is a sort of favorite cosmos for naming things and cultural references for a lot of far-right and alt-right figures both in Europe and the United States. Peter Thiel names all of his things after Tolkien figures, like his company Palantir, for example. Like his mentor, like Peter Thiel, who had given him all his jobs in the world, Mr. Vance also when he founded his own venture-capital firm with help from Peter Thiel named it after a Lord of the Rings thing. He called it Narya, N-A-R-Y-A, which you can remember because it’s “Aryan” but you move the “N” to the front. Apparently that word has something to do with elves and rings from the Lord of the Rings series. I don’t know.
"Maddow’s snide rant towers to such absurd heights as to resist being taken seriously. But let’s try. It is true that Thiel, like some of his professional peers, enjoys naming things after The Lord of the Rings.... But do you know who else likes The Lord of the Rings? Basically everyone. Exact figures are hard to pin down, but at least 150 million copies of the work (divided into three entries) have been sold; it has been translated into more than 40 languages.... And Peter Jackson’s two trilogies of movies based on Tolkien’s work ... have made about $6 billion in box-office receipts worldwide. That level of success is difficult to achieve with a narrowly cast partisan appeal....
"Tolkien would also scoff at Maddow’s apparent contention that 'Narya,' the elvish ring of power after which Vance named a venture-capital firm, has some connection to Aryan racial mythology. In 1938, Tolkien entered discussions for The Hobbit to be published in German. The German publisher he was working with wondered whether he was 'Aryan.' Speaking to his English publisher, Tolkien wondered whether the country’s 'lunatic laws' required confirmation that he was, and, if so, preferred no German translation appear at all if it meant 'giving any colour to the notion' that he 'subscribed to the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine'."
Rachel Maddow's UNHINGED RANT On Lord Of The Rings Is The DUMBEST Commentary EVER | Jon Del Arroz | July 21, 2024:
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