Ive been enjoying this thread even though its starting to get off track a little...
Excellent point Lyra - fairy tales are in the same realm. I would even grant (having picked up this discussion with the local compadres last weekend)Disney having a hard lock (at the time) on the "fantasy" genre at the time - much to JRRT's disgust. And yea, ok I read the stuff too - not as much as sci-fi, but I do. And the good stuff is really pretty good.
Your bringing up Mort d'Arthur makes me think about my first post, which was pretty black and white (pardon the pun), and my friends made me realize that there is a lot of grey area to the fantasy universe. Childs post is succinct to the factors as well - ty for that post! I would still say that JRRT's style of writing spawned a huge (if not the biggest) bubble in the fantasy universe as it is today.
As far as race goes - I just would bring up the point that ME is based on an Anglo-Saxon mythos. ME is definitively derived from western Europe. I think most (all?) myths from any race is centered around the culture from whence it came. A natural assumption for me is that a western European myth would primarily have white characters - duh. Whether JRRT wrote it now or then, the race mix would be the same. Its not racism or xenophia, its merely a unique look and a particular peoples legends and myths. An informative look on his views of race (which reflect of course, not only his opinions but his time) comes in the Letters.
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