For some reason, Ursula Le Guin has more 'credibility' among the literary establishment than Tolkien, who is, unfortunately, still stuck the 'genre' category by many who don't enjoy him.
This is a good way of dismissing him, as "genre" works of any kind - history, sci-fi, whatever - are simply not seen as literary by academia. If Tolkien is to be given the literary credibility he, IMO, heartily deserves, it would be more straightforward to have him taken out of the genre, rather than to attempt to persuade the establishment to accept genre literature as 'proper' literature.
Sorry, I'm not sure I've put that as clearly as I could have done, hope I haven't confused the issue further.
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Out went the candle, and we were left darkling
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