[Boromir88]

After reading Raynor's post, I wasn't expecting too much 'Enlightment' (yes that's an intended pun) from this guy. So I kind of skimmed through the article a bit, to get a few chuckles...

Tolkien himself calls them tragic figures and dwells on their background.

Dwells on their background? Besides 3 being 'great lords of Numenor' thats all we know about the Ringwraiths prior to receiving the Rings. In fact Tolkien left their identity unknown to emphasize their thraldom to Sauron. I wonder where he got the idea that Tolkien 'dwelled' on their background or that they were 'decent men?'

identifying with a side that's 100% good. You can revel as they utterly annihilate foes who deserve to be exterminated because they are 100% distilled evil.

Funny, doesn't Tolkien say he does not believe in absolute Evil? And I think from this thread, there is a consensus that there is no absolute good either? And maybe he missed some of these remarks from Tolkien:

Some reviewers have called the whole thing simple-minded, just a plain fight between Good and Evil, with all the good just good, and the bad just bad. Pardonable, perhaps (though at least Boromir has been overlooked) in people in a hurry, and with only fragment to read, and, of course, without the earlier written but unpublished Elvish histories. But the Elves are not wholly good or in the right…In their way the Men of Gondor were similar: a withering people whose only ‘hallows’ were their tombs. But in any case this is a tale about a war, and if war is allowed (at least as a topic and a setting) it is not much good complaining that all the people on one side are against those on the other. Not that I have made even this issue quite so simple: there are Saruman, and Denethor, and Boromir; and there are treacheries and strife even among the Orcs.~Letter dated 25 September 1954

The snootiest and most relentlessly aristocratic characters in LOTR stand off in the wings. For example preachy, secretive and patronizing Elrond and Galadriel, coaxing maximum effort while letting others do the fighting for them.

And yet these two were quite influential and important in 'fighting the long defeat.' Perhaps 'Dr. Brin' missed the part where Mirkwood and Lorien are repelling assaults of their own? Perhaps he missed the part where Celeborn leads an army to defeat the forces of Dol Guldur and Galadriel trashes the place?

And that is all I really cared to read. I wouldn't put too much stock into this Doctor tumhalad.