One thing that occurs
fairly regularly is a piece showing how a certain piece of fiction or
another is racist or sexist or something else offensive and should
thus be cast aside. Most of this recent spate of accusations depend
upon reinterpreting some pieces of symbology from a perspective of
modern context rather than using the more ancient attitudes. This is
not to say that pieces of fiction which are deliberately racist don’t
exist. They most certainly do. If you have to work hard to find the
symbols and metaphors that prove your assertion that a work is
racist, then it is most likely you are seeing what you want to see.
For the purposes of this essay, I’m going to focus on Lord of the
Rings. It has often been suggested that Lord of the Rings is racist
and sexist. These interpretations are largely fueled by modern eyes
and context and make little sense within the context of Tolkien’s
life.
In the first place,
trying to apply specific meanings and messages to Tolkien’s works
is especially problematic since Tolkien himself believed in
applicability and the idea that one story could applicable to many
different perspectives. He basically believed that meaning was the
province of the reader rather than the author. He most certainly had
his own opinions about what lessons the book could teach him and what
metaphors existed within it, but in general he felt that a good peace
of fiction was like a Rorschach Test that reflected the thoughts of
the audience and helped make clear what was on the mind of the person
reading it. Basically, if you go into a story expecting to find signs
of prejudice and bigotry, then you will find it. With that said, I’m
going to address some of the specific concerns people have had about
the Lord of the Rings which they say proves the bigotry within it.
Another couple of
theories I’ve heard recently from a Cracked video is that the
Hobbits represent pagans. They noted that the Hobbits had very
simplistic and naïve views of the world and pointed out that
willpower was repeatedly noted as important throughout the books and
that the hobbits were notably lacking in it. This fails to note that
this simple way of life is one that Tolkien seemed to consider the
most ideal and most natural. It was very much based on the way of
life of the English farmer. Even the numerous Hobbit meals are based
on the real life meal schedules used by such farmers.
Their argument that the
Hobbits lack the will to deal with evil in general or the Ring in
specific is undermined by the fact that Hobbits consistently deal
with the Ring’s temptations better than any other race
in the setting. Smeagol, otherwise known as Gollum, takes the Ring in
an act of murder and keeps it for hundreds of years and even though
he was foully corrupted into a scuttling thing, he kept some level of resistance to the Ring's influence even until near the end. Bilbo
held the Ring for more than sixty years and was able to give it up
with some difficulty. Frodo bore the Ring when it was at its most
active and though it drove him insane and took over in the end, he
recovered quickly once the Ring was taken. As for Samwise, well
Samwise pretty much says “no thank you” and then easily dismisses
it where as everyone else in the story was immediately compelled to
keep and use it. Another instance showing the sheer willpower of
Hobbits lies in the fact that Pippin is able to come out of his brush
with Sauron’s mind with no lasting damage to his mind and that
Merry is able to muster the will to walk into Minas Tirith himself
after helping to defeat the Witch King whereas most Men would have
died on the spot from the Black Breath. None of the Hobbits of the
story show anything less than tremendous willpower.
It is noted in several
cases throughout the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings that if
the Hobbit way of life were more generally accepted then the world
would be a happier place. The Hobbits are given the place of being
the people that bring simple common sense and practical perspective
to the Fellowship. They cut through all the thousands of years of
tradition and politics and lay bare the root facts of the matter. In
the end they are accounted as being the most highly respected heroes
of the age. This is not the way one would portray a society that they
mean to be perceived as naïve and simplistic.
Another idea was that the
Dwarves represented Jews and it was pointed out that they were
greedy, vindictive and secretive about their culture, which are all
traits that had been associated with Jews in the past within Europe.
However, this is another case of ignoring ancient precedent. Jews
became seen as greedy, vindictive and spiteful because Christians
were forbidden from being moneylenders and thus Jews filled that
niche within Christian societies. Many Christians in the Middle Ages
would only deal with Jews through the small number that acted as
moneylenders. Given that moneylenders of every religion tend to
either be seen as stingy and greedy the source of the unfair Jewish
stereotype is clear.
The Dwarves of Middle
Earth are inspired partially by the Nordic myths with the Nibelungen
Saga standing out among them. Nordic Dwarves have had the nature of
being vindictive, spiteful and greedy as part of their character for
centuries before that reputation was first given to the Jews. There
is also the fact that Dwarves of Middle Earth are consistently
portrayed as stout and powerful warriors, which is not part of the
ancient bigoted views on Jews, which were often seen as cowardly and
sinister.
Furthermore, some point
out that Elves appear to have this elevated status of perfection.
They are these immortal and perfectly attractive people that treat
all the other races in a kindly but condescending manner marking them
as the benevolent superior race. This is ignoring the way Elves are
portrayed in Middle Earth.
When Frodo and Sam meet
Galadriel she admits that she does not understand the concept of
magic or why Men and Hobbits would use that word to describe both the
art of the Elves and the deceits of the Enemy. This is very much the
perspective of someone who has grown up knowing and being educated in
regards to a specific concept and simply assuming everybody else
understands it as well. She has the intellectual knowledge that other
races know less of the way of the world than Elves, but her confusion
over the concept of magic is similar to the way we feel when someone
is surprised that Europe is not a country. This would be somewhat a
case of bigotry and condescension except for the fact that Galadriel
rather casually admits that she doesn’t understand. Not to mention
the fact that she is talking to Frodo and even Samwise as equals
rather than condescending to them.
Beyond that there is the
fact that the sorrows of the Elves are largely self-inflicted. The
Elves have a rather bloody history complete with acts of genocide
referred to as the Kinslayings where Elves of one sort committed
wholesale slaughter upon Elves of another sort, often helpless
populations. Some of the Sons of Feanor and Feanor himself are often
shown to be as evil as Morgoth in their own way. Two of them even
became so corrupted that the Silmarils burned then when they caught
up with them.
As to the matter of skin
color, this is also not so clear cut as most people assume. The
classic art and the actors chosen for the movies are generally paler
than the impression I get from the reading. The Rohirrim are
certainly pale, but Aragorn himself is described in contradictory
manners including “weather-beaten,” which would imply that he was
darker skinned due to exposure to the elements, and “pale stern”
which seems counter to that. My own personal imagination of Aragorn
was that he was darker complexioned but it is clear that the Dunadan
have a wide range of complexions. In addition, the Black Numenoreans,
those that allied with Sauron, were of the branch that were typically
fair-haired and light-eyed while those that stayed true were
dark-haired and grey-eyed. Making the Black Numenoreans more often
pale than dark despite their name.
As to other races, the
Breefolk were related in someway to the Dunlendings meaning they were
likely somewhat darker skinned than shown, though they had been north
for quite a long time. Dwarves are also supposed to be
darker-complexioned. As to Hobbits, the most common sort, Harfoots,
are literally described as being brown-skinned and Tolkien always
identified Samwise Gamgee as the true hero of the story and he is the
one described as the darkest complexioned. There were also a number
of swarthy men from allied nations that went to aid Gondor's defense.
As such, there were dark-skinned and light-skinned individuals on
both sides of the good and evil divide.
There were, of course,
the Southrons, Haradrim and Easterlings which many take to be
representations of Arabs and Africans, though I tend feel that
Easterlings would relate more toward Eastern Europe and Russia.
Regardless, some people seem to think that this implies a
condemnation of these peoples. However the only in depth commentary
on the Southrons we have comes from Sam's pondering over the death of
young Southron shortly after the Hobbits were taken captive by Faramir's rangers.
“He wondered what the
man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil at
heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his
home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace.”
- Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbits
For that matter, some of
Tolkien's writings from later in his life suggest that he was looking
into writing about the exploits of the Blue Wizards to the East. It
was previously assumed that they failed in their mission in a similar
manner to Saruman, turning evil, or Radagast, remaining good but
straying from the task. It may instead have been that they were key
to undermining Sauron's efforts in the East and thus making it
possible for Gandalf's gambits to pay off in Lord of the Rings. This
would have featured a lot of peoples that are
more or less unknown in the stories.
Now,
as to racism in Middle Earth, the stories are full of it, just not in
the way that the accusers assume it is. There is, of course, the
never ending feud between the Elves and the Dwarves. Someone who
reads the The Hobbit
and The Lord of the Rings
and comes to the semi common accusation that the Elves are shown to
be incapable of evil would assume that the feud is entirely the fault
of the greedy and vindictive Dwarves. However, some Elves would hunt
the Dwarves like animals. Elf Lords and Ladies have cheated Dwarven
artisans from whom they commissioned works of art. The Dwarves were
not blameless, of course, they had their own crimes against the
Elves. Of course, the stories of the aggrieved Elves and aggrieved
Dwarves spread and each side ignored the malcontents of their own
side of the issue.
However,
when it comes to Elves and racism there is nothing like what goes on
within their own ranks. The Noldor who followed the Sons of Feanor
felt no problem at all about committing acts of genocide referred to
as the Kinslayings. First there was the slaying at Alqualonde when
the Teleri chose to refuse the Noldor the use of their ships. It is
said that the Noldor drew their swords and the Teleri their bows and
a pitched battle began which might have been in the favor of the
Teleri until Fingon arrived and assumed the Teleri had attacked
Feanor and stepped in to the aid resulting in the overwhelming
victory of Feanor's forces. Eventually, the Sons of Feanor would sack
the land of Doriath in search of a Silmaril causing the second
Kinslaying. The Third Kinslaying came when the Sons of Feanor pursued
the survivors of the Second and killed all the refugees save only
Elwing and her children Elros and Elrond. (Yes, you read that right,
Elrond is a survivor of an act of genocide committed by Elves upon
other Elves).
For
a milder form of inter-Elven racism then you can look to the terms
Calaquendi and Moriquendi. Calaquendi means “People of the Light”
and refers to those Elves who have lived in Aman and thus seen and
lived within the Light of Valinor. Meanwhile Moriquendi “People of
the Darkness” and refers to those Elves that refused to travel into
the West. The Noldor were the only Calaquendi that came back to
Middle Earth, excepting Galadriel who was Noldor but had Teleri
heritage as well (notably, Galadriel did not take part in any of the
Kinslayings). As shown above the Noldor following Feanor committed
their first Kinslaying against another tribe of the Calaquendi, they
were even more dismissive of the Elves of Middle Earth.
The
Sindar were not much better. They objected to being referred to as
Moriquendi, prompting the Noldor to come up with a separate term,
Umanyar meaning “those not of Aman.” However, their reasoning for
the offense was that they didn't like to be lumped in with the likes
of the Sylvan Elves or those Elves that remained even further East,
tribes that do not appear within the written works of Tolkien. After
all, the Sindar had lived in the presence of one of Melian, the maia
who married their king, Thingol, who himself had been to the West. An
example of Sindarin attitude toward the Moriquendi can be found in
Thranduil who showed up in the Greenwood (Mirkwood) and established
himself as king supported by his close Sindarin followers. By
contrast, Galadriel and Celeborn moved to Lothlorien to offer their
protection to the Sylvan Elves there and outright refused to take on
royal title because they were unwilling to set themselves above the
Sylvan Elves.
The
Elves, of course, also extended their prejudice towards Men whom they
often considered lesser. This was mostly the Sindar as the Noldor
simply did not regard Men at all for the most part and the Sylvan and
other Moriquendi tended to be isolationist in general distrusting
everybody and staying out of affairs unless forced into matters. A
good example of this is the task that Thingol set to Beren for
earning his daughter's hand in marriage. The quest was meant to kill
him without getting any blood on Thingol's hands and likely would
have done so if it were not for his daughter's actions. Beyond that,
the Elves tended to praise Men based on how loyal they were, as if
they were subordinates to the Elves.
Which
brings the matter to the High Men, who treated the so called Low Men.
Low Men of various sorts often had reputations for making deals with
the Enemy and were often treated poorly as a result. This resulted in
Low Men often making deals with the Enemy. Later on the Numenoreans
would set up colonies along the coasts of Middle Earth as well as
lands to the South and other lands far away. In fact, it was
descendants of these Numenoreans that eventually came to Sauron's
side and pushed the men of those realms into Sauron's service.
There
was also numerous instances of racism among the Low Men, especially
as time passed and the High Men became increasingly rare. For
example, the Rohirrim had long oppressed the Dunlendings who were the
natives of part of the region that Gondor magnanimously granted them.
In addition, the Rohirrim would hunt the Woses as if they were
beasts. The Stewards of Gondor and the Men of that realm felt
themselves superior to the rest of the world by the nature of their
continued guardianship over the borders of Mordor.
In
the wake of the fall of Arnor, the Dunadan of that realm were left
homeless and they kept themselves secret, trusting only the Elves, in
order to avoid the spies of the enemy. This secrecy and distrust
resulted in giving them a dark reputation with the Breefolk who would
stay well apart from them as much as possible and give them
pejorative names such “Strider.”
Everybody,
of course, was rather dismissive of Hobbits. Nobody thinks much of
them or their deeds. For example, Tolkien recorded that the Shire
sent archers to the final defense of Arnor and that they gave a
rather good account of themselves. This fact, however, is not
remembered by the rest of the world and is only barely remembered by
the Hobbits themselves. Meanwhile, the Hobbits consider outsiders to
be rather ridiculous and unimportant themselves.
Now,
I think it should be noted that up to this point I've only discussed
incidents of racism within the heroic races of the setting. There is,
of course, racism among the Orcs. They're just bubbling over with it.
They hate each other and speak of other races as “scum”,
“upstarts” and “rebels”. Barring the presence of a strong
leader, they are prone to turn on each other as much as on other
races. Tolkien had multiple possible origins for the orcs. The most
well-known being that they are corrupted and tortured elves but he
also accounted that they may have been fragments of the spirit of
Morgoth or else maiar like Gandalf, Sauron and Saruman. He even noted
that all three options might be possible as it is shown through the
birth of Luthien that a maia who takes mortal form can produce
children. As such, the orcs might be demons, might be corrupted
elves, might be pieces of Morgoth or might be a mix of all three.
Regardless, they are a caricature of of other beings, broken and
miserable.
Some
people think that the orcs represent a specific ethnicity of people,
but the most credible theory I have heard regarding the possible
inspiration for orcs comes from Tolkien’s experiences in trench
warfare and his encountering people on both sides of the war who
reveled in war. In this interpretation, orcs don’t represent a
specific ethnicity but rather represent those men and women who
thrive on the cruelty and savagery of war and are quite willing to
engage in any of a number of brutal activities when ordered to do so.
Thus these are the brutes of all races condensed into one thing.
Tolkien
did respond to a statement by someone regarding the thought that Orcs
were an irredeemable evil. His statement was that if there was
nothing for Orcs to contribute to the world then Eru would not allow
them to exist and denied the idea that anything could be
irredeemable. (Though I can no longer find that quote) However, the
redemption of the orcs is certainly beyond the extent of the
narrative of the story. My personal opinion is that Men and the
remaining Elves and Orcs blended into one whole sometime between the
end of the Third Age and the modern time, if you accept Tolkien's
thought that the modern age would be the Seventh. This possibly
included Hobbits. Dwarves I am not certain of. Tolkien has stated
that from a genetic stand point Elves and Men are the same species
only differing in the manner of their spirit and it seems that the
Hobbits are branch of the line of Men in some ways. If the Orcs have
Elvish blood then they would likewise be able to mingle with the
other species and there were even hints of that process already
occurring in The Lord of the Rings
via Saruman's plots.
In
any case, these incidents of racism never proved justified and they
are often sources of the great sorrows that plague the Middle Earth.
This is why the Elves of The Lord of the Rings are so melancholy and
stand-offish within the time period of The Lord of the Rings. The
Elves that remain are those that have seen their own actions destroy
everything they ever loved. As much as they would love to blame
Morgoth and Sauron for everything, they are well aware that most of
their troubles were brought on themselves. The remaining Elves are
largely those that have gotten past their prejudices and some
succumbed to begin with. They show a resistance and awareness of
committing evil because they are damn well aware of how easily they
or their kin can be tempted by pride and wrath to become that evil.
Saruman
likewise managed to use the generations of Rohirrim mistreatment of
Dunlendings in order to raise large numbers of the hill folk to serve
as cannon fodder in his war against the Riders. Without the Rohirrim
racism, their troubles would have been much less than they were. This
repeated again with the troubles between Elves and Dwarves, the
distrust between Dunadan and Breefolk, the dismissal of Hobbits and
the dismissal by Hobbits of the outer lands have all caused at least
as much disruption to the efforts of the Free People of Middle Earth
as the machinations of Sauron and Morgoth. Most likely they are even
more responsible. However, given that Dwarves, Dunadan, Men and
Hobbits are not immortal, they more frequently forget the mistakes of
the past, again making it seem as if the Elves are more inherently
good then the others.
Tolkien
himself detested racist practices. Over the course of his life he
spoke out against apartheid and Hitler. Among other things when a
German publisher asked him to sign a statement that he was of pure
Aryan descent, he stated “Personally
I should be inclined to refuse to give any Bestätigung
(although it happens
that I can), and let a German translation go hang. In any case I
should object strongly to any such declaration appearing in print. I
do not regard the (probable) absence of all Jewish blood as
necessarily honourable; and I have many Jewish friends, and should
regret giving any colour to the notion that I subscribed to the
wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine."
There is further an unsent
letter in which he would have told his publishers “I
regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch.
I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am
aware noone (sic) of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy,
or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are
enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I
regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people."
Racism
causes nothing but sorrow and unnecessary pain and suffering within
Middle Earth. It is as ubiquitous in that world as it is in our
world. The “heroic” peoples of Middle Earth are largely those
that have recognized or else come to recognize the shame of their
behaviors. Such as the bulk of the Elves, Theoden's efforts to
correct the ways of the Rohirrim and the efforts of Legolas and Gimli
after the War. No doubt the cycle would continue down the line,
especially if you accept the idea of the Middle Earth Legendarium
being set in a potential past of our own planet.
Then there is the matter
of the limited number of women characters in the stories and how that
shows a definite sexism. This is somewhat true for The Hobbit, which
has absolutely no female characters aside from a mention of Lobelia
Sackville-Baggins, and superficially appears so in Lord of the Rings
which has only a handful of female characters. However, this says
more about the time period the book was written in than it does about
the intended message of the book. At the time Lord of the Rings, The
Hobbit and The Silmarillion were written it was assumed that warrior
women were very rare in history and that most would not have been
involved in such wild adventures as he was writing about. Actually in
the context of the time period it was written, the novels of Tolkien
were incredibly progressive, enough so that some women have noted
that their parents didn’t want them reading the book in their
childhood lest they got ideas.
The women that do appear
and how they appear within the storyline are far more significant
than the number of women that appear. Contrary to the standards of
the time, Tolkien’s women are not the sort of do-nothing damsels in
distress, prizes waiting at the end of the finish line or passively
helpful goddesses that were expected. Tolkien’s women by and large
do stuff.
Theoden’s niece, Eowyn,
is a favorite female character for people to point to as an example
of a progressive woman fighting against the expectations of
patriarchal society that insisted on keeping women safe and having
men do the dangerous bits. They point to how she was told to stay
home with the women and children as the men went off to war. This
attitude betrays ignorance of certain medieval military and
governmental practices.
Eowyn is not directed to
stay at home with the women and children, she is given the
responsibility of leading the garrison that remains behind to protect
the home front from anybody who would want to take advantage of the
fact that the bulk of the military is away. This is not a dismissal,
this is a charge of honor and respect. The sort of post she’s given
is the kind one gives to a trusted and capable general. Those given
the assignment to guard the home front are almost never portrayed as
enjoying the assignment and almost always shown to prefer to be on
the front lines, but it is considered an honorable and prestigious
charge.
In addition, it had
always been considered unwise to send all the members of the royal
bloodline out on the same military engagement. In crude paralance,
Eomer is the heir and Eowyn is the spare. You don’t put both in
danger if you can help it. The expectation of the war was that, even
in the case of victory, there would be a large number of casualties.
Theoden was hoping to secure both the royal line and establish an
effective ruler in the case that both he and Eomer perished in the
war.
This appointment and
Theoden’s treatment of her is significant in the fact that nobody
bats an eye. It is just done. Nobody gives even the slightest outcry
at the idea that a woman is being given the military and governing
role on the home front. Far from showing this as a society that
considers women inferior, this reveals a society that is fine with
accepting a woman as a general and ruler. Given the reaction, I don’t
doubt that there were indeed women among the riders that arrived on
the Pelennor Fields. People noting that the numbers were listed as
Men rather than Men and Women should note that “Mann” was
originally a gender neutral term similar to “person” or
“someone.” In Old English, wēr would
refer to a male human while wīfmann
were female humans. The use of Man to refer to male humans only began
after the Norman conquest and had almost eclipsed the old use by the
end of the 13th
Century. As a scholar of Old English, Tolkien would have known this
and the character of his writing fits the use of “Man” as a
gender neutral term which can refer to men or women.
The most direct thing
that Eowyn is fighting against is her own depression and self-hatred.
She had been subjected to Wormtongue’s advances and seeing her
great people reduced to ill-educated dullards and cowards who let
orcs and wizards do whatever they wanted in their lands. She wasn’t
seeking to prove that she could fight. She was seeking a quick end to
a life she felt was unbearable. Her abandonment of the post to
protect the home front is a show that she has lost all faith in the
power of her people to survive the onslaught of Sauron. Her suicidal
thoughts were the reason that Aragorn had so much trouble healing her
and the impression I got from the epilogue is that after she marries
Faramir and serves as an active official in Aragorn’s kingdom, she
still deals with her depression for the rest of her life.
Galadriel is another
example of a very active female character in a role that is a
significant departure from the standards of the time. Among other
things is the fact that Tolkien took some flack for having female
Elves at all. Apparently there was an impression at the time that
Elves already represented the perfect feminine wisdom and power and
thus that it was redundant to make them feminine in body. I suppose
the idea was that being male in body made it acceptable for them to
take part in adventures while representing the feminine perfection,
but this is an idea that seems more than a little bit psychotic and
is something I rather hope I have wrong.
Recognized as the second
in power of all the Noldor after Feanor, she also possessed much
greater wisdom and intelligence than he did. She was a great friend
of the maia Melian and is rumored to have been taught by her as well.
It is out right said that only Sauron himself could have broken the
protections her power placed on Lothlorien and it is her power that
was the key to the eventual destruction of Dol Guldur. While she
boasted being able to look into Sauron's mind, Sauron could begin to
pierce hers. Saruman and even Elrond found her enigmatic and hard to
read. Possibly Gandalf had some insight into her thoughts since he
was accounted to be the wisest of the maiar, but it is hard to say.
She certainly held him in high esteem and had initially desired him
to lead the White Council from the beginning.
Galadriel had minimal
significance during the First Age as she had not taken any of the
oaths in pursuit of Morgoth. Nor did she take part in any of the
major battles and certainly did not take part in the Kinslayings. She
did not believe it was within the power of the Eldar to overthrow
Morgoth and was more or less proven correct when the Valar sent a
host of Maiar to overthrow him. Her significance is much greater
during the Second Age when she had a heavy hand in exposing the
schemes of Sauron including advising Celebrimbor to hide the Three
Elven Rings. Regardless, Galadriel was a major power of the Second
and Third Ages and people mostly listened to her when she spoke. The
one exception being that Saruman ended up the leader of the White
Council against her advice.
And this discussion of
Galadriel and Eowyn doesn't even begin to touch on the single most
bad ass character in the whole of the Legendarium: Luthien Tinuviel.
Among other things, Luthien broke Sauron in a Jack Bauer
interrogation sequence where she basically threatened to feed him to
a dog (granted the greatest dog to ever live) until he freed Beren
and gave them the keys to Morgoth's fortress. She then later
enchanted Morgoth when he saw through her disguise (her disguise as a
vampire, to be specific). This is roughly like making Cthulhu cry and
then conning Nyarlathotep. Luthien may not be the most powerful of
the people in the history of the world, but the lady got things done,
and she got things done with style. Nobody else had her initiative,
drive and cleverness.
Unfortunately, this has
not stopped people from spotting bigotry in his books. Some of this
would be due to the environment he grew up in. A person cannot
eliminate a flaw in themselves that they cannot see. Tolkien was a
staunch opponent of racism where he saw it and casually treated women
with the same respect he treated men, but we all have prejudices
we're unaware of. In other cases it would be people seeing things in
the words that Tolkien did not put there and indeed lacked the
context to have been able to put it there deliberately. Beyond the
incidental products of a culture which Tolkien was unaware of and the
efforts of the willfully offended, the more sinister matter are those
that appropriate the work for their own purposes.
Words on a piece of paper
can not defend themselves. They cannot explain what the author truly
meant to say. They cannot correct someone when the message that they
take away is entirely counter to the message that was intended to be
given. Tolkien knew this, which was why he disliked the idea of
allegory and preferred the idea of what he called applicability. He
knew that most of the meaning of a story or any other piece of art
came out of the audience, not the author. None of this helps when
people do take up the writings of Tolkien and use his words to
support their own bigotry.
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