Mieville's thoughts...

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

In Tolkien, the reader is intended to be consoled by the idea that systemic problems come from outside agitators, and that decent people happy with the way things were will win in the end.

Hmm. I would say that this is half-accurate. It misses another aspect of Tolkien's works that is nearly universal: the people happy with the way things were may win in the end, but always at a considerable cost. And never do things go back to being the way they were, not permanently. Even the Shire, restored, did not last, nor did the realm of Gondor. Eventually both changed and faded until they no longer existed, like the Elves. Perhaps there is consolation to be taken in thinking that decent people will win in the end — sometimes, a person needs that hope to hang onto when the world around them seems to be going crazy and falling apart — but there's a big difference between pie-eyed optimism and hope that one can restore peace and stability to one's life, even if that life is changed.

I've read a lot of Moorcock's work, and after you've read Elric, you've read the best of what he repeats over and over in his other books, IMHO. I have long wondered what happened to him, personally, that gives him such an unrelentlingly dark, depressing, and cynical world-view, because that's what comes out most strongly in his work. The gods of Chaos have cursed mere mortals, so that everything we try to do to bring order and peace and purpose to our lives is ultimately futile, because even after we die (usually in some horrible, dismal fashion), the gods will just take us, plunk us back on the game board of the world, and start it all over again.

Just my two cents, as always.