The Scourge of The Dark Side...Tolkien and Modernism

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^Fortunately, Tolkien's books are first and foremost an attemt to tell good stories and in this he succeeded in spectacular fashion, I think we can all agree.

There are obviously many part of his books that can be read as a comment on contemporary issues, as in any good work of literature. I have never read any books about Tolkien or any of his letters and I'm sure there are many here who know much more than me about what Tolkien really wanted to convey with his work or at least what pretentious academics think he wanted to say.

I have read Tolkien's books myself however and made my own interpretations, and I think he is quite explicit on what ideals he as a writer represents. "Nostalgia" is not an ideal but he does seem smitten by it nevertheless. Tolkien never comes across as preachy though and his works are not meant to be primerly "a social treatise, or social commentary". There is social commentary in it, and it deserves to be taken seroiusly too, but Tolkien's main objective was the telling of a good tale. And like I said, judging by the almost unrivalled popularity of his works, he certainly succeded with this.

And btw, to accuse Tolkien of racsism is petty, false and reeking of political correctness coupled with a complete lack of historical knowledge. Not saying you did of course.