[Glenethor]

There are a lot of threads in this thread, and I am just going to give my surface impressions about the question(s).

LoTR is my favourite book. It is the book that, if I was to have to choose one on a desert isle, I would want with me. Yes, Tolkien detested allegory, that much is clear. We can't fit everything into some contemporary slot. It doesn't work. However, he also says that he was influenced by WW I and II in a very personal way. I think that the creative process is often mysterious, and is a form of projection of the inner life of the creator. That is pop psych 101, and the themes, and the descriptions thereof, are not necessarily a function of conscious design.

Anyways, trying to figure out how to measure 'best' will drive you nuts. What is the best music of the 20th century? Britney or the Beatles? Gershwin? Marilyn Manson? I have seen sooooo many arguments over what is the best recorded album ever, and there is never any resolution to those arguments (it's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, btw); So too, one cannot really argue on anything other than on the basis of consensus and since many people have sold zillions of books (Stephen King comes to mind) or zillions of albums (MJ, Britney, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys) I am suspicious of this as the only logical means of measuring 'best' as being 'most popular.' I think Tolkien's work stands alone, it resonates across generations, therefore the messages inherent in the work are universal messages. I have a real problem with moral relativism in certain respects, and I do not now file 'Evil' under 'psychopathology.' WW II had no moral ambiguity, and that is one of the contexts in which LoTR was written.

So, that is one of my criteria of a work of transcendent art: It has to be attractive to a wide range of cultures independent of the generation in which it was created. LoTR has captured the imaginations and hearts of people of all ages (except my father) and is it because it is merely a 'ripping good yarn?' I'd say no.

As for other books this century:

Yeah, Animal Farm, 1984, Lord of the Flies, Brave New World...all books they tried to shove down my throat in high school. It was only after I left high school would I read them, and they altered my perception of the world....and not for the better, either.

I'd also argue that Dune meets my criterion for transcendency, but it too has a very pessimistic view of human nature.

Sorry, that was probably only distantly related to coherent, but the Simpsons is coming on the telly...

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