David Brin's criticisms

[Raynor]

Come on now, you forgot these good bits:

While there is an argument for the reactionary nature of the books, they are certainly deeply conservative and strongly anti-urban, which is what leads some to associate them with a kind of Wagnerish hitlerism.

Wake me when LotR becomes required reading for the Skinheads.

Evil is never really defined

Indeed; I complained about this too, I can't see who is evil in LotR due to all those nursery rhymes.

The great epics dignified death, but they did not ignore it, and it is one of the reasons why they are superior to the artificial romances of which Lord of the Rings is merely one of the most recent.

This fellow must have read the books with a lot of attention too, if he came to the conclusion that death is ignored (hint: it is the main theme).

If I find this nostalgia for a "vanished" landscape a bit strange it is probably because as I write I can look from my window over twenty miles of superb countryside to the sea and a sparsely populated coast. This county, like many others, has seemingly limitless landscapes of great beauty and variety, unspoiled by excessive tourism or the uglier forms of industry. Elsewhere big cities have certainly destroyed the surrounding countryside but rapid transport now makes it possible for a Londoner to spend the time they would have needed to get to Box Hill forty years ago in getting to Northumberland.

I am starting to like this chap. It never dawned to me that we can happily destroy our surroundings because, hey.... we can always take the train to the yet untarnished places. Talk about cognitive liberation...

And he goes on for four pages. And, evidently, one can always substantiate one's claims by putting silly cartoonish images from LotR (likely of the 1980 vintage), because, you know, that is how Tolkien envisioned his world. I wonder if target practicing on such funny articles will become the favorite Sunday sport of the the Downs. Mirth section, here we come