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Tolkien took seventeen (17!!) years to create The Lord of the Rings If you read HoME Part 6, The Return of the Shadow, you'll see what exhaustive process it was. It's almost as if he wrote three or four different novels, each time taking certain aspects of characters and descriptions, blending, discarding, building up and tearing away, until each person and place gradually evolved into the beloved tale we know today. And during all this time he was continuing his teaching duties and research, and dealing with a World War, to boot.
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I think that's what made all the difference, that he took his time on it. He didn't crank it out so that he would be able to crank out another in a few years to make the magabucks.
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The reason Tolkien wasn't under the kind of time pressure that professional writers are under today is that he wasn't a professional writer. He was a professor and a philologist; writing was a (very important) hobby.
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Very well said.
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As for the clear distinction between good and evil, I think it is something that the modern sensibility lacks, and thus rejects.
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This is a concept that causes certain people to get very NASTY if you point it out to them in writing analysis. *shudder*
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The Western world has become too disillusioned
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What?! You mean there is such a thing as being too disillusioned?!!! I know a certain American Literature professor who you would probably not get along with. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
And what's wrong with Elves and Dragons?