http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-1-67-1653.jsp
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Poor Tolkien.
Literary types dismiss him as anti-modern even though the psychological foundations of his tale are modern through and through.
Lefties of the perpetual language correction school deride him as a racist and sexist who wrote in a copy of the high style, citing, again and again and yes, again, the dark *southrons* and few female characters as evidence.
Even though the greatest evil comes from the fair skinned races and the most powerful and wisest being is female.
Counter-authoritarians criticize him as a booster for hierarchy and classism. Even though the greatest hero of the story comes from the least hierarchical of Middle Earth's people.
And nearly everyone who longs to be taken seriously declares the entire affair to be a simple minded morality tale in which totally evil bad confronts completely virtuous good.
Even though the hero fails utterly and the situation is *saved*, to the extent that it is, by the most conflicted, tortured and ambiguous character of the epic.
This isn't to say that criticisms can't be made. But they should be crafted from the actual work and not some phantasm.
DRM