Annoying Unbelievers

[The Saucepan Man]

Funnily enough, each of those questions has given rise to fairly long threads in this forum. So I would not describe them as dumb. The very fact that people are engaged enough to raise them suggests to me that they have some interest in the concepts involved.

I accept that those who make a point of their dislike of Tolkien's works in order to attack those who like them are displaying rather immature and (to coin an oft used phrase on this thread) "stupid" behaviour. All the more so if they have never bothered to read them. However, I do think that it is important to recognise that there are those for whom Tolkien simply holds no appeal, for perfectly valid reasons. That, in itself, most certainly does not make them ignorant, undiscerning, unintelligent or in any other way "stupid".