Friday, June 18, 2010

Concentrating the mind. On...Middle Earth.

Quite apart from the issue of the rights and wrongs of capital punishment, I must confess to a strange fascination with how the condemned spend their last moments:

The meal included steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7-Up, all prepared and served at the Utah State Prison, where the execution took place, about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City. After being moved to an observation cell on Wednesday night, Mr. Gardner spent his time sleeping, reading and watching the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the Utah Department of Corrections said on its Web site.


Now, I'm quite an admirer of both the book and film versions of The Lord of the Rings, but I'm trying to imagine what it would feel like to watch all three films knowing they were the last films I'd ever watch before dying in a hail of bullets.

I'm not sure there's a word for that feeling.

Even in German.

3 comments:

Dale said...

I was about to write a long-ish comment but I decided to make it into a short-ish blog post instead.

Executive summary: this is awful.

Franklin Noll said...

Both the book and film versions of LOTR have a discussion between Gandalf and Frodo over justice and death that might ring true. It goes something like: "Many who live deserve death, but many who die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Then do not be so eager to deal out death in judgement. Not even the wisest can know all ends." Makes you think.

JCWood said...

Nice to hear from you, Frank!

Thanks for reminding me of that scene. In the film it's in the Mines of Moria, I believe.

Can't recall whether they changed that. Which suggests to me that it's time that I re-read the books....

Hope all's well.