Hello everyone, and welcome back to our regular format, which is simply easier for me to do. It's hard writing a conversation between two disembodied voices - who knew!
Anyway, this week we begin book four, which reconnects us with Sam and Frodo. Having fled from the rest of the company, they must push on towards Mordor. But they also know they are being tracked by Gollum, who wants the Ring back.
The chapter is called "The Taming of Smeagol," and it is not long before he indeed finds them. They see him, too, climbing down a cliff towards them.
Sam restrained himself, though his fingers
were twitching. His eyes, filled with anger and disgust,
were
fixed on the wretched creature...
Gollum falls from the rocks he is climbing and Sam takes the opportunity to pounce on him. Even caught unawares like this Gollum is a fierce foe. Frodo has to intervene, Sting unsheathed and at Gollum's neck. They have captured him!
But he soon tries to escape. They stop him, and determine they must tie him up. Sam goes to retrieve his Elvish rope.
‘And where were you off to in the cold hard
lands,
Mr. Gollum?’ [Sam] growled. ‘We wonders, aye, we wonders. To
find some of
your orc-friends, I warrant. You nasty treacherous creature. It’s round your
neck this rope ought to go, and a tight noose too.’
Gollum lay quiet and tried no further tricks.
He did not answer
Sam, but gave him a swift venomous look.
Sam and Gollum are very different characters. Sam is selfless and dedicated to Frodo. Gollum is deceitful and selfish, unless loyalty to the Ring counts. I don't think it should, because it's probably not a willing loyalty.
But the hatred they are capable of is similar, as is the purpose behind their stares. Sam stares at Gollum when he is out of reach, and Gollum stares at Sam when he cannot hurt him. But they both want to harm the other, and they are both worried one will kill the other. Sam has already proven the point. It is he who lunges first at a defenseless Gollum, as he fell from the rocks. Sam is not looking for an honorable duel.
Gollum, we know, will spend the rest of this book biding his time, waiting for the hobbits to be vulnerable enough for him to attack. He will not hesitate when that time comes, nor fret over his unfair advantage.
But stares from afar can be interpreted both as "I am making a plan to strike when able" and "I am powerless to do anything else." When you can strike, you don't glare at your enemy as if you can shoot lasers from your eyes. You don't imagine all the wonderful ways you'll overcome them, you just do it even if it's a bit messy, imprecise, or uncertain. Similarly, when someone suggests grand plans to do something, it might be that they are really planning on completing those plans. But the plans might also be expressing a sense of powerlessness. Unable to know where to begin, they just imagine the situation they want.
I have a friend who relatively recently moved to Alaska as preparation for climate change. I'm not really sure this will help him as he imagines. I don't think its counter-productive, either. But it's an awfully grand gesture which will feel good. I don't mean that dismissively - it is fine to pursue things that feel good. If he is as powerless in the face of climate change as I think he is (as an individual), then this is at least something to combat that feeling. "I did what I could," even what he did wasn't helpful.
When we see ourselves imagining grand changes we're not actually empowered to do, we should catch ourselves and ask why. It can be fun, or cathartic, but it's not empowering. It's fine to do things fun and cathartic, but we shouldn't fool ourselves about the direct usefulness.
When we hear others, or ourselves, presenting One Weird Tricks we should stop listening. Frustration is a powerful emotion, but thinking the world will be solved if just everyone listened doesn't take into account the realities of this world. One solution won't work for everyone, and trying to push such a thing will just increase your frustration, etc etc. Or it does work and now you're a tyrant, and that's Bad. Obviously, none of us have the ability to become tyrant of the world, but it is possible to do so within our family, friends, workplace, etc. We should watch ourselves within the realms we can actually amass power.
Sam and Gollum both get the opportunity to act on their fantasies. Both fail miserably. What works, for Frodo and for Aragorn and company (And, at least almost, for Gollum), is to take problems one step at a time, keeping an ultimate goal in mind. Frodo believes Gollum may be a necessary ally for some of their journey. If Sam kills him and then they starve in Emyn Muil, what then? For Gollum, killing Sam would just alienate Frodo from him further, thus making it harder for him to get the Ring from him.
"We're not so different, you and I," Sam and Gollum might say to each other. But in this way the Creative Wizard shows such glares are never productive, whether pursued in service of a friend or the self. Powerlessness is not a strength, and imagining success is not a strategy.
As an aside, I've always found it peculiar Gollum dies at Mt Doom by losing his footing and just... falling. He isn't described as a character prone to those kinds of accidents. And yet the first time he enters our narrative as a real character, that's exactly what happens. Sam doesn't heckle him. Gollum doesn't see the hobbits and is startled. He just loses his footing. I hadn't ever noticed this before.
In this case he survives, but next time won't be so lucky. I don't know what lesson to draw from this but intend to pay more attention to descriptions of Gollum's climbing ability. Maybe it isn't as strong as I think it is...
This had been a patreon-supported project, but that proved too annoying to maintain. If you would like to financially support this project, drop $1.11 (or any amount, I suppose) into my Venmo!
No comments:
Post a Comment