I think it’s something like that—it’s a critique of the idea that a hero accretes followers, and the followers didn’t have anything else they wanted to do with their lives.
It may also be a critique of the idea of wanting to be an individual in a fairly loose context when sometimes it’s necessary to get more involved to do what’s important.
Humans accumulate followers. It’s disconcerting to realise just how easy it is to accumulate followers—even from those who’d make quite good leaders themselves—just by telling people to do things and looking vaguely like you know where you’re going. This is some sort of human universal.
Fair point. On the other hand, Sam Gamgee following Frodo is probably an oversimplification of the process, and Hermione:MOR is a good counterbalancing image.
I think it’s something like that—it’s a critique of the idea that a hero accretes followers, and the followers didn’t have anything else they wanted to do with their lives.
It may also be a critique of the idea of wanting to be an individual in a fairly loose context when sometimes it’s necessary to get more involved to do what’s important.
Humans accumulate followers. It’s disconcerting to realise just how easy it is to accumulate followers—even from those who’d make quite good leaders themselves—just by telling people to do things and looking vaguely like you know where you’re going. This is some sort of human universal.
Fair point. On the other hand, Sam Gamgee following Frodo is probably an oversimplification of the process, and Hermione:MOR is a good counterbalancing image.