The same brilliant award-winning young journalist who once demonized J.R.R. Tolkien for daring to oppose unbridled modernity has since turned his attention to writing pieces like these:
How to survive the age of distraction
Has the internet brought us together or driven us apart
The deal we dare not turn down
2010--The year zombies came for our brains
In these pieces you’ll find him railing against internet culture and the accompanying rise of pornography and short attention spans in the age of Facebook and Twitter; bemoaning the decline and impending death of paper books and sustained, deep reading; expressing bitterness at omnipresent advertising and consumer culture, and lecturing us soberly on the decay of the environment.
Symptoms of unbridled modernity.
Which Tolkien warned us about.
In The Lord of the Rings.
I guess the message here is that the progress wrought by modernity is all good--when it’s Hari’s kind of progress, like the cosmopolitan city. But when it results in consequences with which he doesn’t align himself--like teh evil internets--it’s bad.
Rich, isn’t it?
What a fucking hypocrite. Not to mention a slack-jawed reader of Tolkien.
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Yes, I'm back from vacation! More light-hearted stuff to come soon.
8 comments:
Welcome back!
Brian, stop holding back. How do you really feel?
;-)
Welcome Back, Brian!
I guess it just goes to show that those who can't do (in this case write) become critics.
Welcome back!
Thanks!
Brian, stop holding back. How do you really feel?
What can I say? There's a few things in the world that get my blood boiling. Bad Tolkien criticism is one of them.
I guess it just goes to show that those who can't do (in this case write) become critics.
Hey, I sort of resemble that remark...
I'm not a fan of Hari, but frankly I had no idea he even talked about Tolkien, though frankly it doesn't surprise me the stuff he says was nonsense. My beef with Hari is more due to the fact that he's a goddamned lousy journalist who's been caught lying, plagiarising, and outright making things up for the past ten years, and yet still manages to have a job at the Independent.
Man don't even deserve your ire, that gives the impression he's worthy of such intellectual discourse.
You know what's funny Al? I wrote my post with no knowledge that he was recently suspended for allegations of plagarism.
I won't say that I didn't revel in the timing of my post just a smidgen, but it's the honest truth.
pity. I suppose since the Independant isn't owned by Murdoch.. the chances of Hari getting caught up in this phone hacking deal are slim to non existent.
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