Lindil: Greetings. I don't think we've communicated directly till now, though I've read your posts and scanned your amazing project on the Sil with much respect.
Doctor of "what", I wonder? Philosophy? Somehow that may be the best, but what Tolkien gave us seems to go beyond that. Doctor of the Twentieth Century? [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] Sorry. I couldn't help it. Doctor of Subcreation? I kind of like that.
To answer your question more directly, what Tolkien did for me, and for others I think, was to subcreate a world large enough and deep enough to encompass and interpret twentieth century realities back to us in a way that give hope amid all there is to potentially despair about. He gave my world meaning that survives and grows while all other attempts at meaning wither in the cold harsh wind of irrelevance. My own background of Calvinism is such a dying vine - at least for me. If not for Tolkien, I fear to think what fool's teachings I might have latched onto to find hope.
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