Procurando por uma citação específica de Tolkien sobre o benefício de permitir o sofrimento no mundo

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Eu me lembro de ler algo nos escritos de Tolkien que resumem perfeitamente sua resposta ao Problema do Mal (no contexto de seu mundo imaginado, de qualquer forma): se Deus (ou Eru) é perfeitamente bom, por que ele permite o mal (Melkor)? existir em sua criação?

A resposta de Tolkien foi, parafraseando (obviamente; se eu pudesse citá-lo diretamente eu não estaria perguntando), que a existência de sofrimento torna a história do mundo mais pungente e bonita do que teria sido.

O que é essa citação e onde ela aparece? Ela tem me incomodado há muito tempo, e eu a referenciei algumas vezes em respostas sem ser capaz de lembrar quais eram as palavras exatas ( ou onde encontrá-los).

Note que estou procurando uma citação específica, que (espero) eu conheço quando a vir. Quaisquer citações de Tolkien que tratem da Teodicéia na Terra-média são bem-vindas, mas eu estou apenas dando o carrapato àquele que estou procurando.

Para poupar algum tempo, eis algumas que acredito que não são as que eu quero:

And it seemed at last that there were two musics progressing at one time before the seat of Ilúvatar, and they were utterly at variance. The one was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came. The other had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern.

The Silmarillion I Ainulindalë

Then Ilúvatar spoke, and he said: 'Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Ilúvatar, those things that ye have sung, I will show them forth, that ye may see what ye have done. And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.'

The Silmarillion I Ainulindalë

    
por Jason Baker 06.01.2016 / 06:17

2 respostas

No As Cartas de J.R.R. Tolkien , Tolkien na verdade expressa em várias instâncias que para o mundo de O Senhor dos Anéis e O Hobbit ele não acredita nos 'absolutos' de qualquer um deles. mal ou bem.

Especificamente, ele não acredita em um mal absoluto (carta 183 a W.H. Auden):

In my story I do not deal in Absolute Evil. I do not think there is such a thing, since that is Zero. I do not think that at any rate any 'rational being' is wholly evil. Satan fell. In my myth Morgoth fell before Creation of the physical world. In my story Sauron represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible. He had gone the way of all tyrants: beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of the Earth. But he went further than human tyrants in pride and the lust for domination, being in origin an immortal (angelic) spirit.

e ele também não acredita em absoluto bem (carta 154 a Naomi Mitchison):

Some reviewers have called the whole thing simple-minded, just a plain fight between Good and Evil, with all the good just good, and the bad just bad.

...

[Besides], in this 'mythology' all the 'angelic' powers concerned with this world were capable of many degrees of error and failing, between the absolute Satanic rebellion and evil of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron, and the fainéance of some of the other higher powers or 'gods'. The 'wizards' were not exempt. Indeed, being incarnate, they were more likely to stray, or err. Gandalf alone fully passes the tests, on a moral plane anyway (he makes mistakes of judgement). Since in the view of this tale and mythology, Power, when it dominates or seeks to dominate other wills and minds (except by the assent of their reason) is evil, these 'wizards' were incarnated in the life-forms of Middle-earth, and so suffered the pains both of mind and body.

E quanto ao "porquê", ele escreve isso para C.S. Lewis (também documentado no mesmo livro como carta 113), onde ele expressa sua própria opinião pessoal sobre o que significa sofrer:

It is one of the mysteries of pain that it is, for the sufferer, an opportunity for good, a path of ascent however hard. But it remains an ‘evil’, and it must dismay any conscience to have caused it carelessly, or in excess, let alone wilfully.

    
06.01.2016 / 07:19

Pode ser esse aqui?

But at that last word of Fëanor: that at the least the Noldor should do deeds to live in song for ever, he raised his head, as one that hears a voice far off, and he said: ‘So shall it be! Dear-bought those songs shall be accounted, and yet shall be well-bought. For the price could be no other. Thus even as Eru spoke to us shall beauty not before conceived be brought into Eä, and evil yet be good to have been.’

But Mandos said: 'And yet remain evil. To me shall Fëanor come soon.’

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, "Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor"

    
19.09.2018 / 12:35