yup, he was on record as saying he hated allegory (though i would agree it can be read into it, but that comes from the reader rather than the writer, i would think)

As for any inner meaning or ‘message,’ it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical…. I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. — J.R.R. Tolkien (foreword to the 2nd edition of tlotr)

Keep It Real wrote:IIRC Tom was like "get lost hobbit folk, Goldberry's coming home and needs help with her work" - or somesuch...mind you it was a long time ago...

The Hobbitses stayed the night, all had bad dreams and then Tom Bombadil told them stories. There’s something altogether weird about this guy who seems to have lived for an inordinately long time and decides to set up right next to some barrows. AND he and she are the only ones the wights never hassle. AND the impression is she’s some sort of nymph or sprite, so I dunno what she’s doing living in the auld duffer’s house. ANNND Tom puts on the ring and nothing at all happens to him. Creepy. Creepy guy.

He can't help being a product of his time....intended or not

Instead, Tolkien talks of ways in which events in a story are “applicable” to events in our own lives and our own world. Such an applicable connection is also an allegorical connection.

he just didn't make it obvious

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blo ... -very-much

Fallible wrote:

Keep It Real wrote:IIRC Tom was like "get lost hobbit folk, Goldberry's coming home and needs help with her work" - or somesuch...mind you it was a long time ago...

The Hobbitses stayed the night, all had bad dreams and then Tom Bombadil told them stories. There’s something altogether weird about this guy who seems to have lived for an inordinately long time and decides to set up right next to some barrows. AND he and she are the only ones the wights never hassle. AND the impression is she’s some sort of nymph or sprite, so I dunno what she’s doing living in the auld duffer’s house. ANNND Tom puts on the ring and nothing at all happens to him. Creepy. Creepy guy.

There was also a suggestion that he could look after the ring instead of the whole mount doom thing, only he might lose interest in the project of, oh, I dunno, maintaining goodness in middle earth, and carelessly misplace it somewhere in his stomping ground. The implication of this of course is that he's such an inimitable badass that he's capable of keeping sauron and the hordes of mordor at bay single handed no problemo forever more, if only it wasn't for his laissez-faire modus operandi.

Macdoc wrote:He can't help being a product of his time....intended or not

Instead, Tolkien talks of ways in which events in a story are “applicable” to events in our own lives and our own world. Such an applicable connection is also an allegorical connection.

he just didn't make it obvious

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blo ... -very-much

So it’s not that “much of it is an allegory of the war between the east and the west”, it’s that he unintentionally wrote a story in which the events are applicable to events in our own lives. But didn’t make it obvious. Despite the fact that he directly states that it is not an allegory.

Incidentally, your quote is not from Tolkien. It’s from Joseph Pearce, “Senior Contributor to the Imaginative Conservative...Director of Publishing at the Augustine Institute”, which apparently

...serves the formation of Catholics for the New Evangelization. Through our academic and parish programs, we equip Catholics intellectually, spiritually, and pastorally to renew the Church and transform the world for Christ.

His piece is an attempt to claim that LotR is a Christian text, and that the allegory is of Christianity, not “the war between the east and west”, and when he calls LotR an allegory, he means it in the broadest sense possible - “anything which speaks of another thing” - according to which everything is an allegory. Sources are important.

Keep It Real wrote:

Fallible wrote:

Keep It Real wrote:IIRC Tom was like "get lost hobbit folk, Goldberry's coming home and needs help with her work" - or somesuch...mind you it was a long time ago...

The Hobbitses stayed the night, all had bad dreams and then Tom Bombadil told them stories. There’s something altogether weird about this guy who seems to have lived for an inordinately long time and decides to set up right next to some barrows. AND he and she are the only ones the wights never hassle. AND the impression is she’s some sort of nymph or sprite, so I dunno what she’s doing living in the auld duffer’s house. ANNND Tom puts on the ring and nothing at all happens to him. Creepy. Creepy guy.

There was also a suggestion that he could look after the ring instead of the whole mount doom thing, only he might lose interest in the project of, oh, I dunno, maintaining goodness in middle earth, and carelessly misplace it somewhere in his stomping ground. The implication of this of course is that he's such an inimitable badass that he's capable of keeping sauron and the hordes of mordor at bay single handed no problemo forever more, if only it wasn't for his laissez-faire modus operandi.

He kind of exists outside of, and somehow above, the story and comes across as pretty much indifferent to all the shenanigans going on. Morally ambiguous, I reckon.

Watched a little found footage film called The Blackwell Ghost the other day. Only an hour long, so short and sweet. A good sense of dread and I stopped it a few times because I was a little creeped out - always a good sign. Simple story, but done well and without any special pretentions or attempts to make it fancier than it is.

Recommended for the parents.

I think we’ve seen that one. Is it the one where the guy goes to stay in the house while the owner is away?

That's the one. With his girlfriend. And there's a manhole in the basement.

Yep. We liked that one. There are sequels too, but we haven’t seen those yet.

Yeah, I'm checking those out as soon as I find them. I like the short format. It's what made The Museum Project good - no padding.

Indeed. Did you find the sequels? I have been looking at wolves in person for 2 hours.

Watched Little Shop Of Horrors (1986) for the first time in decades. Can still see why it ruined me for pretty much all other musicals.

I watched Tolkien 50 mins but I cant stand it any more, its like Harry Potter without magic and teen girls.

Fallible wrote:Indeed. Did you find the sequels? I have been looking at wolves in person for 2 hours.

Not yet. I found a way to watch it online, but I seriously doubt it's legal.

Watched Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. I really don't see what's all the fuss about this movie, it was kind of dull.

"The First Purge" now this is an American movie, hell yeah

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6133466

my kinda movie....unlikely true story with a good cast.

aban57 wrote:Watched Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. I really don't see what's all the fuss about this movie, it was kind of dull.

IIRC, this movie was nearly universally panned.

Macdoc wrote:

my kinda movie....unlikely true story with a good cast.

I watched it in the afternoon, historic videos in the end was amazing.