Ancestors

Toot

Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-09-02 at 17:15

OK! I'm at ~13,000 words and I've got loads more to say about environmentalist themes in the #LordOfTheRings. I really think this could be a book!

Today I looked at building with living nature. Real world indigenous peoples such as the Khasis in India use living trees as bridges. The elves of Lothlorien live in a city in the branches in the trees. Nonfiction, fiction; these are both visions of a world in which we live more in harmony with the world.

[#]lotr #sustainability #writing #solarpunk

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Descendants

Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-09-08 at 16:50

Thinking about #conservation and the Elves in the #LordOfTheRings The elves want to preserve things as they were in the elder days. They don't really have a vision for future - some hope to use the power of the three to heal the world, but the wisest, like Galadriel, assume that their time is coming to an end even if Frodo succeeds in his quest.

In the real world, the environmental movement brings together people with many different motivations, and different degrees of hope for the future.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-09-10 at 13:22

I went looking for a recent long-odds climate struggle and found the #StopLine3Pipeline protests.

I had forgotten Tim Walz was governor of Minnesota during the protests.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-09-29 at 19:25

Have you heard of the Te Urewaera Act of 2014? It's a pretty cool law from the Māori that recognized a New Zealand forest as its own legal entity.

"The key principles of the new Act are:

• Te Urewera ceases to be a national park and is vested in itself as its own legal entity; and

• Te Urewera will own itself in perpetuity with the Board to speak as its voice to provide governance and management in accordance with the principles of the Act"

https://www.environmentguide.org.nz/regional/te-urewera-act/

[#]Nature #PersonhoodOfNature

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-13 at 22:55

I want to find a real-world equivalent to the Ents breaking Isengard.

I am tempted to draw parralels to incidents of eco-sabotage, but the comparison is imperfect. The ents are a nation, for one thing. The fight in Isengard is more of a seige of an army than an incident of monkey-wrenching.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-14 at 00:21

Here's an interesting example of state violence against mining infrastructure.

How Brazil is taking the fight to destructive illegal mining

https://www.ft.com/content/5eb64108-3181-4352-804e-aca76e1be505

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-14 at 13:45

I spent much of my early career thinking about peacebuilding. But in this book, I can only reference in a few paragraphs what I spent years trying to learn about nonviolent civil resistance.

It makes sense. It's a book about Tolkien and trees, not arguments on the impact and efficacy of nonviolence.

It just feels like I'm exercising a ghost limb.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-17 at 14:53

What a line from Tolkien. I actually teared up a little in reading it. I think about the things we lose daily.

"Well, cheers and all that to you dearest son. We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is this comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water."

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/j-r-r-tolkien-from-a-letter-to-christopher-tolkien

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-17 at 15:23

I have a pretty good excerpt of my book on Tolkien themes and the modern environmentalist movement. I'm mixing together the Ents destroying Isengard with the Brazillian government breaking up illegal mining infrastructure in the Amazon. I'm going to publish it soon - hope you folks are interested.

[#]Tolkien #ClimateCrisis

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-19 at 14:21

There's a generation-long restoration project in Qianyanzhou. This auto-translated article probably has some errors, but the poetry of the language comes through.

"A piece of copper on a sunny day, a bag of pus on a rainy day. Looking from a distance, it's all yellow, looking closely, it's all water and soil."

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1684292712024495264&wfr=spider&for=pc

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-19 at 14:21

"A proverb that was circulated in Qianyanzhou at that time revealed the harsh environment at that time. Soil erosion in the hilly areas of Qianyanzhou was becoming increasingly serious, and the fertile red soil was washed away, resulting in a decline in crop yields."

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-27 at 13:23

20,000 words. ✊

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-27 at 19:36

I've finished part 2 of my book on environmental themes in the Lord of the Rings. Next up... the role of hope and despair.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-29 at 21:37

In addition to being gorgeous, funny, and devastatingly intelligent, my beautiful partner @mara is a talented editor. She's helping me polish my pitch sample, which I'll be sending to publishers (and maybe sharing with you lovely people.)

Feels like this is happening.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-03 at 20:58

What do #Ents have to do with illegal miners in the Amazon rainforest? What do water protectors share with Hobbits traversing the wastes of Mordor? "Where the Roots are long" is an upcoming book (by me!) which explores environmentalist themes in the Lord of the Rings and how they resonate in the modern movement to address the climate crisis.

Read an excerpt: https://derek.caelin.cloud/where-the-roots-are-long/

[#]LordOfTheRings #writing #books #bookstodon #ClimateCrisis

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-03 at 21:08

☝️ FYI above message: @dynamic @Br3nda @Virginicus @Zumbador @RhinosWorryMe

Tagging you because you engaged with me on this topic before.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-06 at 12:33

‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.

‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-06 at 14:02

“He turned to the Company. ‘We must do without hope,’ he said. ‘At least we may yet be avenged. Let us gird ourselves and weep no more! Come! We have a long road, and much to do.”

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-06 at 14:18

The third section of my book is going to talk about the role of hope in climate action - how do people keep moving when...

/waves hand at the situation.

The big takeaway, for me, is that hope is not a prerequisite for action in LoTR. It is a reward.

Sam gives up hope on the slopes of Orodruin, but resolves to carry on regardless. Faramir fights even though "it is long since we had any hope". Gandalf gambles everything on a what is admittedly "a fool's hope".

They act, even so.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-06 at 14:23

The big difference between Denethor and the Company is actually not whether they have hope. Most of the company agree that it is unlikely that they will succeed.

Denethor is different because he loses hope, and decides to give up. Not only does he decide to kill himself - he is willing to bring down others who depend on him. He tries to kill Faramir. He gives up on the defense of Minas Tirith, where he could have been helpful to rally his people against despair.

Giving up hurts other people.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-06 at 14:25

Rebecca Solnit has some great things to say here:

"So, what do we do when the world is ending? The same things that so many of the giants on whose shoulders we stand did when their worlds were ending. We choose to face our despair—to walk toward it and through it—choose to take action, choose to build movements. We do it because we don't know how it ends, because there are possibilities out there that we simply can't see from here."

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-06 at 14:25

"We do it because every person organized and campaign won and fraction of a degree of global warming prevented will save lives. Because movements that believe are far more powerful than movements that don't. And, yes, we fight because fighting is one of the ways we get to nurture our courage and generosity and hope and all those other fundamentally human traits that we treasure most—because our lives will be infinitely richer in that struggle than outside of it."

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Written by Zumbador on 2024-09-02 at 17:24

@derek

That sounds like a fascinating topic. Tolkien's obvious love of the natural world is one of my favorite things about The Lord of the Rings.

There are counter examples too, his villains are all polluters, even the smaller ones in the Scouring of the Shire.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-09-02 at 17:31

@Zumbador yes!

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Written by Rhinos Worry Me on 2024-09-02 at 19:10

@derek @Zumbador

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-09-02 at 19:26

@RhinosWorryMe @Zumbador I haven't seen that quote before, thanks for sharing.

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Written by Potato ENTHUSIAST on 2024-09-29 at 19:32

@derek

Similar for the Whanganui river. (te awa tupua).

There's a call for all whales to be declared persons.

Heck, if we can do this for corporations, we can do it for the whales.

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Written by dynamic_hubzilla on 2024-10-13 at 23:03

@Derek Caelin 🌱

Land protectors protesting pipelines?

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-13 at 23:04

@dynamic It's a good example, but the anology breaks down because the ents were violent and destroying infrastructure. It feels odd to make a 1:1 comparison for nonviolent protestors, or even for people who commit sabotage.

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Written by dynamic_hubzilla on 2024-10-13 at 23:06

@Derek Caelin 🌱

What is the difference between destroying infrastructure and sabotage?

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Written by dynamic_hubzilla on 2024-10-13 at 23:08

@dynamic_hubzilla @Derek Caelin 🌱

And do the efforts need to have been successful?

[#]^http://sweetcrudemovie.com/

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-13 at 23:08

@dynamic Thanks for sharing! I'll take a look.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-13 at 23:34

@dynamic

the Niger Delta Avengers are an interesting case. They attacked oil infrastructure. Interestingly, they wanted to have a greater portion of the wealth from oil platforms go to host communities. It was an economic issue (although obviously economics are relevant when you have oil facilities poisoning the local environment).

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nigerias-delta-avengers-threaten-oil-installation-attacks-2021-06-26/

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-13 at 23:08

@dynamic In the case of some sabotage events I've found, the damage is temporary. The ents completed destroyed Isengard and returned it to forest.

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Written by dynamic_hubzilla on 2024-10-14 at 00:33

@Derek Caelin 🌱 Sounds interesting.  Paywall, though : (

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-14 at 00:33

@dynamic Reuters link: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-cracks-down-wildcat-miners-amazon-shift-their-operations-2023-12-28/

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Written by dynamic_hubzilla on 2024-10-14 at 13:41

@Derek Caelin 🌱

Thank you.  Rather impressive.  

Is government sanctioned violence generally in scope for what you are talking about?  I wonder if there are other examples among far left governments.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-10-14 at 13:46

@dynamic I think so. This analogy isn't perfect either, but I'm beginning to realize that I can let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

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Written by Potato ENTHUSIAST on 2024-11-04 at 00:23

@derek @dynamic @Virginicus @Zumbador @RhinosWorryMe

this thread strayed a long way from Te Urewera

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-04 at 01:13

@Br3nda ah, sorry. Te Urewara shows up in a chapter on the rights (and personhood) of nature.

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Written by Potato ENTHUSIAST on 2024-11-04 at 04:27

@derek

something to consider. LOTR in new zealand is very colonial. the idea that NZ was another england, a second britain, was strong in the colonisation as indigenous people were opressed, their language banned, their places renamed. The same is the vibe of marketing places in NZ as a shire, intensely british style literature into a land that already has it's own other mythology .

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Written by Potato ENTHUSIAST on 2024-11-04 at 04:29

@derek basically, tread carefully in that space, as there is a lot of harm, pain, and violence still under that British colonisation, holding up these foreign colonial ideas as better than what Maori already had.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-04 at 12:18

@Br3nda thank you, I will try to be sensitive to this concern.

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Written by Ben Fulton on 2024-11-03 at 22:53

@derek Tolkien idealizes a pastoral existence which today only our elites can really aspire to. Will you be considering how middle-earth would fare with five billion hobbits? 🙂

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-11-03 at 23:15

@benfulton Something that surprised me to learn is that Tolkien didn't consider the Shire to be an ideal that we should strive for.

"...Hobbits are not a Utopian vision," he wrote, "or recommended as an ideal in their own or any age. They, as all peoples and their situations, are an historical accident - as the Elves point out to Frodo - and an impermanent one in the long view."

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Written by Virginicus on 2024-09-08 at 20:14

@derek Have you read Matthew Dickerson? “Ents, Elves, and Eriador” has a lot of good stuff on environmentalism.

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-09-08 at 21:28

@Virginicus Oooh! Thanks!

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Written by Derek Caelin is writing a book on 2024-09-12 at 13:09

@Virginicus Thanks for the recommendation, I'm reading the book now.

It's really impressive. Dickerson and Evans did academically what I hope for a general audience. I see some things I know, and I'm learning a ton.

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