Excellent points - Mr Underhill, I am compelled to reply in haste and admiration [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
All of your eminently sensible and rational factors by which banning (Tolkien or other) authors might be justified seem to bring us to the 'does (or can) art reflect or create reality, or both' conundrum.
My understanding is that currently it seems a causal connection cannot exactly be proved (ie. does Grand Theft Auto encourage violent car crime etc.), but at the same time cannot entirely be denied (sorry, the only rather feeble example I can think of at this time in the morning is the spate of playground injuries following the advent of Power Rangers [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img], I am sure there are more profound illustrations).
Stephen King's attempt at self-censorship, along with Kubrick's long injuction against the release of 'A Clockwork Orange' in the UK after its initial showing, suggest that the creators felt that such works can have an effect.
Then again, perhaps it is merely the desensitizing of imagery or theme, rather than a 'will to action', of such and similar works, which has a subtle effect over time. Even if the lines between fantasy and reality remain intact in the minds of an audience, the threshold of acceptability or discomfort can be gradually shifted by familiarity. I remember watching 'The Exorcist' at the cinema a couple of years ago, and the younger members of the audience, having waited impatiently for the supposedly 'shocking' scenes and ignored all the important narrative and scene-scetting, then expressed disappointment at the special effects [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img].
Which brings me to my half-remembered soundbite about the worldwide popularity of Tolkien (and the Book that beat him to first place) ...
If concern about the effect of books is what leads to their suppression, then surely those most successful books, embedded in popular culture across generations, must already have had the most powerful and insidious effect. The cultural world in which we live today must be to some degree a product of the works of Tolkien and the other chart-toppers, far more than any of the allegedly subversive works read by a few thousand chattering liberals.
This is obvious in one way ... but whilst it's easy to empirically demonstrate in some cases - such as as the countless stock phrases implanted into common language by Shakespeare - how does a presumably pervasive influence like Tolkien, the author of the most popular fiction in the 20th century (unless you count the entire range of Star Trek spin-off books, judging by my local bookstore [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]) manifest itself?
Or, in other words, is the banning of fantasy genre books an attempt to shut a Pandora's Box that Tolkien himself opened?
Peace.
Kalessin
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