> Tolkien's trilogy is full of the most obnoxious sexism, racism, toxic
> neonationalism and class snobbery, sure. But the trilogy is unwittingly
> radicalized by its geopolitical moment. By mapping out the seismic clash
> of WW II in allegorical terms, Tolkien redeems himself -- he taps into
> the post-WW II wave of democratization and labor militance, before it was
> crushed by the Cold War. (Not that he ever realized or could know this,
> of course).
Tolkien himself was utterly opposed to reading any kind of analogy to then- current events into his works. I, for one, will follow his advice.