Note: If you wish to receive, via e-mail, (1) my weekly newsletter or (2) daily copies of these posts, notify me at [email protected] and indicate which you would like. I promise not to share your e-mail address with anyone. To unsubscribe, send me a follow-up email.
Monday
I received the following note from a Stanford student studying both computer science and English. As Kartik Chandra notes,
It’s not often that there are Better Living Through Beowulf type moments in the world of software… but just as you have a thesis that literature can save American politics, I have a thesis that literature can save the American tech industry.
Kartik’s example is an instance of how we can draw on literature’s powerful images to negotiate challenges. Just as engineers sometimes get their best ideas from studying nature—hummingbirds and helicopters, otters and wetsuits —so literature can lead to creative thinking in other areas. Kartik elaborates:
The context is that the music recording industry association (the RIAA) recently had their lawyers demand that a piece of software called “youtube-dl” be taken down from the internet. The “youtube-dl” software lets you download YouTube videos for offline viewing, and the record industry argued that this was a violation of copyright law (I guess because they don’t want people downloading music for free). This caused a lot of drama! In response, the software authors’ legal counsel wrote a scathing letter. Here is the allusion, which is used to argue that the software is not maliciously circumventing any copyright protection measure:
To borrow an analogy from literature, travelers come upon a door that has writing in a foreign language. When translated, the writing says “say ‘friend’ and enter.” The travelers say “friend” and the door opens. As with the writing on that door, YouTube presents instructions on accessing video streams to everyone who comes asking for it.
The allusion, Tolkien fans will recognize, is from the inscription over the gates leading into Khazad-dûm or the mines of Moria in Fellowship of the Ring. The travelers are initially at a loss:
“What does the writing say?” asked Frodo, who was trying to decipher the inscription on the arch. “I thought I knew the elf-letters but I cannot read these.”
“The words are in the elven-tongue of the West of Middle-earth in the Elder Days,” answered Gandalf. “But they do not say anything of importance to us. They say only: The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. And underneath small and faint is written: I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs.“
“What does it mean by speak, friend, and enter?” asked Merry.
“That is plain enough,” said Gimli. “If you are a friend, speak the password, and the doors will open, and you can enter.”
Then Gandalf figures it out:
With a suddenness that startled them all the wizard sprang to his feet. He was laughing! “I have it!” he cried. “Of course, of course! Absurdly simple, like most riddles when you see the answer.”
Picking up his staff he stood before the rock and said in a clear voice: Mellon!
The star shone out briefly and faded again. Then silently a great doorway was outlined, though not a crack or joint had been visible before. Slowly it divided in the middle and swung outwards inch by inch, until both doors lay back against the wall. Through the opening a shadowy stair could be seen climbing steeply up; but beyond the lower steps the darkness was deeper than the night. The Company stared in wonder.
“I was wrong after all,” said Gandalf, “and Gimli too. Merry, of all people, was on the right track. The opening word was inscribed on the archway all the time! The translation should have been: Say “Friend” and enter. I had only to speak the Elvish word for friend and the doors opened. Quite simple. Too simple for a learned lore-master in these suspicious days. Those were happier times. Now let us go!”
Once a literary allusion gets made, then my mind naturally starts seeking out other applications. For instance, the world of the internet may have wondrous underground passages that allow us to travel faster than we otherwise could manage, but they are also inhabited by horrific balrogs that can take down even the wisest wizard. And then there are the trolls that run rampant through the caves.
Lothlórien may await us on the other side. But we have to get there safely first.