Abby Epplett, Historian

The Men in my illustrations for Part 2 look drastically different from the Men of Part 1. While the first group of Men is perceived as white or European-coded by modern readers, the second group is perceived as non-white or people of color. A major concern, even controversy, for critics of Tolkien’s work is that the text contains racist material, to which I agree, or that the text itself is inherently racist, which I would argue against. This ground has been trod over multiple times with a plethora of essays arguing for both sides. Many of these arguments struggle to separate the perspectives of fictional, in-universe characters from the perspective of the fictional version of Tolkien acting as a translator from the perspective of real-world Tolkien writing the book, and after writing that convoluted sentence, I can see why. While I do not have a PhD in Tolkien studies, I have completed plenty of research in related fields where I do have higher level degrees.

The history of animation is a common enough topic that multiple excellent articles and books already exist. My introduction focuses specifically on themes that will arise during the creation of the hypothetical animated musical, including the art of the ancient world and medieval period, parallels between world religions, the influence of animation on other media, the erasure of non-white and working-class figures from history, censorship, and the evolution of animation from hand-drawn to computer animated. Using a moving image to tell a story came long before the advent of animation. Pottery in Ancient Greece and later Ancient Rome depicted gods, heroes, and everyday life, often with multiple scenes from the same story. Medieval churches told stories to a population with a low literacy rate through the use of icons, stained glass, and illumination on manuscripts. This visual storytelling was not limited to Christianity, as practitioners of Hinduism and Buddhism created art...