Yes, Tolkien is Wonderful, but...

[Nerwen]

Interestingly, this Maugham secenario in a way was prophetic of The Name of the Rose- although there Eco, an established Literatus, was shoving two fingers at those of his colleagues who claimed detective stories were inherently lightweight and unintellectual.

Yes, I seem to recall an awful lot of people insisted they only read The Name of the Rose for the philosophy...

But this hostility to 'fantasy' erupted when the LR was first published, long before the clones appeared.

True, but I believe "magical realism" is a fairly recent term, and by the time it appeared there was quite a good reason why a lot of people were suspicious of anything labelled "fantasy".

Anyway, the "magical realism" label was one of the great triumphs of marketing: "Fantasy? How can people read that junk? Now let me get back to this wonderful novel about psychic powers and supernatural beings."