Good and Evil in The Lord Ofthe Rings

Auden, W. H.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8705.1968.tb02218.x

Critical Quarterly

1968

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8705.1968.tb02218.x

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Good and Evil in The Lord Ofthe Rings

W. H. Auden¹

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2016

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“… 4. See, for example, Auden (1968); Muller (2008); Grayson et al (2009); Buzan (2010); Davies (2010); Hall (2011); Dixit (2012); McKevitt (2012); Rowley and Weldes (2012). …”

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The nuclear taboo, Battlestar Galactica, and the real world: Illustrations from a science-fiction universe

2016

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The nuclear age has been characterized by an emerging and now well-established norm of nuclear non-use, the ‘nuclear taboo’. In the realistic and naturalistic setting of the science-fiction TV series Battlestar Galactica, however, nuclear weapons are used frequently and at times massively. Claiming that science fiction can function as an illuminating ‘mirror’ for international relations scholarship and that we can learn something from ‘second-order’ (fictional) worlds, this article explores potential in-show reasons that render the absence of a nuclear taboo plausible within the universe of Battlestar Galactica. We turn to the central pillars of the nuclear taboo in the real world and find them reversed in the show: nuclear weapons are (depicted as) ‘clean’, international institutions are absent, and the enemy is socially constructed as a ‘radical other’, thus rendering the possibility, if not likelihood, of nuclear war plausible. With these insights, we return to our world and argue that, particularly during the years of the George W Bush presidency, the erosion tendencies of the nuclear taboo were indeed quite serious: technological progress and growing political inclination expedited plans to develop usable nuclear weapons, arms control regimes came under considerable strain, and opponents were portrayed as ‘unjust enemies’ or ‘rogues’.

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“… 4. See, for example, Auden (1968); Muller (2008); Grayson et al (2009); Buzan (2010); Davies (2010); Hall (2011); Dixit (2012); McKevitt (2012); Rowley and Weldes (2012). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The nuclear taboo, Battlestar Galactica, and the real world: Illustrations from a science-fiction universe

2016

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Good and Evil in The Lord Ofthe Rings

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

The nuclear taboo, Battlestar Galactica, and the real world: Illustrations from a science-fiction universe

The nuclear taboo, Battlestar Galactica, and the real world: Illustrations from a science-fiction universe

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