Cut'n'paste

Modem still grieving me for file transfers, intermittently.

Comment on pinkeffigy last thread:

There is much to be said about Tolkein, Lewis, and the Inkblots. There are a few biographies on either fellow, and a couple books about the Inkblots.

Tolkein was virulently Catholic, and this is one of the things that led him to argue with Lewis (we are told).

Also, it is worth noting that Tolkeins stories (or really, his one big story) was / were in composition his whole life, and is probably much less affected by contemporary history or politics than most people assume. Interestingly, in his notes (or maybe a letter?), the author relates how he deliberately kept any mention of God out of the story, not because it was not a story for believers, but precisely because it was. The 'epic struggle' and (more importantly) the moral and ethical choices (viz self-sacrifice) are the important lesson, not whether the Messiah came to the Elves in the Second Age (or some rot).. There is no allegory between the War of the Rings and .. I don't know what. Frodo is not the Christ. Tolkein disliked the way Lewis did Narnia, and he demeaned the thin allegory of Aslan. (It's another thing that they fought about, apparently)

And finally, this is the Third Age, the Age of Man. All of the events of all of Tolkein's story take place millenia before anything in Usher's chronolgy.