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Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age
. . . . Both of these exercises are fulfilling and will get you a little closer to Tolkien's head. . . .
But it's only when you realize that both these strains were somehow tangled up in the soul of a single man, that you get to the heart of what is going on. . . .
As an historian, the next thing I want to do is bang on the table and demand to know where this dichotomy comes from in Tolkien.
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This is the point at which I will simply retire from commenting, as I don't think one needs to resort to biographical construction to understand how a text can reflect a cultural dilemma or dichotomy. People have a difficult enough time understanding their fellow family members, friends, and others in their community--let alone internet posts and posters--to say nothing of the difficulty in reconstructing a person from literary remains.
Of course, others are welcome to discussing it.
