Revised and Expanded Edition of the Letters

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

It's honestly fascinating to me how whenever someone points out that Tolkien may have said, done or written something that jars with progressive values (or even, as in this case, the lived experience of many readers) people either go up in flames or casually shrug it off. Why not discuss his shortcomings as well as his merits?

Certainly we can. But so furiously? What strikes me is the high dudgeon, the wrath that comes through the text to the point you can hear the violent hammering on the keys.

Surely this is the sort of thing to be discussed dispassionately? What I am hearing here, as so often these days, is an echo of the Pharisee in Luke, "God, I thank thee, that I am not as this publican;" there seems to be a great deal of dopamine released when loudly hanging scarlet letters.