Helen and Esty,
I hate to cut into this great discussion, but just wanted to suggest one more title that looks at Tolkien from a slightly different vantage---Patrick Curry, Defending Middle-earth, Tolkien: Myth and Modernity.
He says that LotR is a powerful statement about the central conflict of the modern world: the struggle of community, nature and spirit against the modern union of state-power, capital, and technology. You may or may not agree with him, but it's interesting reading.
[ April 10, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]
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