6.8 KiB
The Frodo Box Experiment
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Author: u/None *
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URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DOI7TQK4BomhcZxOoJ2m3jD_ozk37ZF7MrAR4jQ-eO8/edit?usp=sharing
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Score: 66
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Created: 2014-02-12T04:07:50
Post:
Comments:
u/None [+10] (a minute later)
Rather hastily done, but I couldn't resist. Inspired by this and this. Let me know how you think it can be improved.
u/Alphanos [+9] The Bright Powers (4 hours later)
A number of times you use Lothlorien where I suspect you meant Rivendell =).
u/None [+3] (10 hours later)
Ugh, you're right. Haven't read the books in so long...I'm sure I deviated from canon in a number of small ways that would drive Lotr fans crazy.
u/PeridexisErrant [+2] put aside fear for courage, and death for life (4 days later)
Meh, by the time Sauron is not just competent but a hypercompetent Power there's not much to salvage. The whole setting - let alone story - only makes sense in the tradition of heroic epics and mythology, which is what Tolkien was writing. In a more modern 'serious fantasy' tradition, it just wouldn't work under the weight of the cliches (many of which it codified, yes).
u/BT_Uytya [+2] The Laundry (18 hours later)
Maybe it's because I'm not a native speaker, but I found part about winning Elrond confusing.
What exactly Frodo's words should accomplish? What "now
LothlorienRivendell was not seen as already lost but had to be decided to sacrifice" even means? Also, wouldn't someone find this abrupt change of topic (from unreliability of source to the fate of Rivendell) suspicious?
u/None [+2] (18 hours later)
No, it's just badly worded. I'll fix that....
u/BT_Uytya [+2] The Laundry (19 hours later)
By the way, that's what I would do, were I Frodo.
Apparently, Elrond doesn't like to think about painful things, prone to procrastination and takes pleasure in an escapism. Also, elven rings are mostly free from Sauron's influence, and are responsible for preservation of Elven lands in their current half-utopian state.
Something like that probably will do:
"You don't have to rely on my words only. Use Vilya to tell whether I am lying, or something — I dont' know about what Vilya can or cannot do, but I sure we are able to invent some way to check my words and shield the wearer of Vilya from the influence of One. We should think about it later, maybe next month, because firstly we should attend to much more urgent matters. The defense of Gondor is important, whether I am lying or not."
What about long-term? I should, now and again, hint at beautiful future that is to come, provided Sauron is defeated, leaving Three Elven rings intact and free. That will bite off Elrond's attention; if done right, elf will spend more and more time daydreaming, letting his guard down.
u/None [+2] (a day later)
Wow, I forgot Vilya even existed. Elrond doesn't seem to do much, does he? Galadriel makes a much stronger impression.
u/Limro [+3] (12 hours later)
This is, most indeed, at VERY good read! Recommendable!
u/BT_Uytya [+3] The Laundry (17 hours later)
...and now I am fairly confident that having Ring stolen by Isildur was Sauron's plan all along.
u/None [+4] (a day later)
Actually, my original plan was for Frodo to deduce the ring was created by aliens. No lie.
u/Pluvialis [+2] Second Age Sauron (14 hours later)
I'm glad you had a crack at writing this!
u/Liberticus [+2] (a day later)
I really enjoyed this. Will you continue writing the story?
u/None [+2] (a day later)
I thought a scene where Frodo has to confront a ringed Galadriel could be cool, though I don't really know what the point would be.
u/None [+2] (a day later)
Thanks everyone for the kind words and many upvotes.
u/None [+3] (a day later)
This was great, thanks for writing it.
A few comments: If the Ring makes its wearer practically omniscient and unbeatable like Frodo in this story then why did all the previous wearers lost it at some point? This should be explained somehow. Frodo isn't very extraordinary and Sauron seems to be better at instrumental rationality so if the Ring really is that good then Sauron shouldn't have been able to lost it in the first place. Is it because the Ring still can't control everything and some things are just up to chance, or the Ring has predestined everything and Frodo just happened to be the best candidate to wear it for a long period of time, or the Ring is lying even to Frodo in this story, the Ring is nothing like it told to Frodo and the ring-wearing immortality is not a foregone conclusion?
u/DeliaEris [+1] Fully General Idealist (a day later)
The previous wearers weren't ambitious enough to hold the Ring's loyalty.
u/None [+2] (a day later)
The idea was that the Ring overrides the wearer's original ambitions, so that can't be it.
Also: what does it say about rationality fiction that it encourages rationalists to rationalize contradictory fiction accounts?
u/None [+3] (4 days later)
If reality actually were a different way, it would be irrational not to accept it. Sometimes your priors and arbitrarily chosen axioms are wrong. If we put two apples next to two apples and every time there are then five apples, then at some point we better start believing 2+2=5.
u/None [+1] (4 days later)
Yeah, but you should also recognize when you're confused and doubt the details of the story you're hearing.
u/None [+1] (2 days later)
That just sharing a certain meme space instantly doesn't make them perfectly rational?
u/None [+1] (a day later)
Yep. That's why I thought the Ring should be some kind of alien artifact working toward some inscrutable purpose. And Frodo was going to figure it out right as it was too late for him to do anything about it, but it was hard to write and I was getting tired.
u/Suitov [+1] The Culture (2 days later)
Many many years since I've read the LOTR books, and I don't plan to reread 'em or see the films, but I enjoyed this possibly more than the LOTR omake in HPMOR. This was less author-tracty and more evil-schemey, I think.
u/Evilness42 [+1] And even myth is long forgotten... (7 days later)
Please write a sequel. I would buy this book, if it was not free on the internet and incomplete.