[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I don't think the idea is filthy my friend

Fair enough: it's hard to express the concept of an idea that deliberately misunderstands the nuances of a situation or statement in order to get some cheap laughs or make its originator look clever. The image that sprang to mind was of the puerile tittering of a bunch of schoolboys reading LoTR and nudging each other whenever the word "gay" is used. I've nothing against homosexual relationships in literature, but I do object to everything having to be brought round to sex all the time. It's a little obsessive to say the least.

I thought that all reasonably well-read people did understand the master-valet relationship. After all it would be somewhat difficult to understand most of P.G. Wodehouse's work without it. The references I'm constantly finding to a gay relationship between Sam and Frodo would, however, appear to suggest otherwise. Clearly the culture of equality has at least got us so far as to be unable to understand recent social history even if we're still as unequal as ever.