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I actually quite like mystery, but only if I believe that there is substance behind the veil. It is pretense I can't tolerate-especially in literature.
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I can't agree that there's no substance behind Tolkien's noble characters; you just have to look for it carefully and read between the lines. He didn't emphasise the moments when we're supposed to be watching out for the people behind the veil because he wasn't a scriptwriter for a second-rate situation comedy.
As for pretence: to be a leader, social or military is to have others follow one's example, for good or ill. If it's all right for people to go revealing their personal weaknesses and those of their society to the enemy, then I suppose it's all right for the leaders to make public their feelings and motivations. Pretence is a necessary evil when it comes to holding together a threatened society. As I've said before, the likes of Morwen and Turin behave in a way that we'd recognise and everything they do ends in disaster.