All this talk of darkness and light has reminded me of
Lal's post on the
Coolection Grows thread about how
davem helped her
recover her lost One Ring when she lost it by lighting a burning bush in the dark .
It seems to me that much of this criticism is a journalistic tempest in a teapot or hot air bent on inflating their own balloon. Journalists and scholars alike make their mark by raising hackles, by setting their ideas up as new and exciting, by making ripples in the water. The more we respond to them, whether it be Victoria Cohen or Germaine Greer or whoever, the more we simply reward their efforts. Better to ignore them, let their balloons slowly sink back to earth and find other fans to torment.
You know, it was not only or merely for its fantasy elements that Tolkien's work was dismissed in some quarters, but also for his plot, his adherance to nineteenth century kinds of realistic detail, his concept of characterisation. And that is also to miss how many of the chattering classes defended him. One need think only of W. H. Auden, who Tolkien had taught, to recall that those who appreciated language recognised the mithril in Tolkien's work. So, as far as Shippey goes, it's all a bit of transference of energy among air particles.
Now, there's some mixed metaphors instead of allegory.
