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Ouch.
But really, Bb -- bringing the Bible into it is a bit unfair and likely to pull this thread irretrievably off course.
Maybe you're right that I should have kept my mouth shut in the first place, but now that I have it open, I may as well insert my foot. I can think of a few LotR "interpretations" that seem fairly pat to me:
It's a tale of Good vs. Evil.
There is an organizing providential force at work in Middle-earth.
Gandalf is wise.
Sam is loyal.
These may seem so simple and obvious as to be essentially worthless, but I think we could carry on like this until we have a base of interpretations about the text which are "true" for all but the most misguided and terminally contentious. If you can't do that, then nothing means anything. I can take any text and literally make it mean anything that I like.
I am "free" to interpret Sam as faithless and Gandalf as a fool, just as I am "free" to think that up is down or that the earth is flat. But in this case, freedom is just another word for nothing left to talk about (apologies to Kris Kristofferson).
Stories mean something.
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