[jallanite]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Yes, it's real. Deeply real. Not literal, but real.

That sounds like what a religious nut might say, and perhaps refer to Truth with a capital T.

I say it is fantasy fiction.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

If we didn't see Tolkien's works in particular as "real", would they be worthy of the time and effort spent on discussion, here and elsewhere? Would they have caused such polarization among readers regarding adaptations, if the individual's sense of the books' "reality" was not so deep?

Who do you mean by we? One find just as much debate over Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories or the Doctor Who stories, or James Branch Cabell’s fantasy, or Star Trek, or Star Wars, and various other works and series.

I am quite ready to discuss any of these, but I and many others do not consider these works real.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Thank you, but that difference does not mean that the effect for readers is any less profound or meaningful. Maybe you and others here don't read AiW that way, but then, there are many people who do not appreciate or accept the concept of 'reality' which you propose for your experience of LotR.

I quite agree. I also found the recent Alice in Wonderland film quite silly, as did many others. Although many did not.

I do not understand the concept that any book is only appreciated because it is real. Not literal but real is a statement that doesn’t compute as far as my mind works. Part of the joy of reading a fantasy work for me is that it is not real.