davem wrote:
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So, any interpretation of Tolkien's work that doesn't produce that feeling of Joy, is WRONG. Because, under all the sadness & suffering & loss in his work, there is Joy, the striving for it & the sense of overwhelming grief when it seems beyond reach. All the struggles of all the characters in the book are struggles to find Joy, & all our struggles in this world are the same.
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What kind of an interpretative regime are we establishing with this? It seems to be utterly and inescapably subjective ("Hmmm, does this 'feel' like it's joyful? OK good, it does, therefore it's right!") -- which renders such subjectivity as the arbiter for other people's truth. What's more, it seems to me at least that this way lies, unavoidably, some kind of priestly-class of reader who is more 'able' or 'attuned' to this intuitive moment of 'Joy' -- and therefore more in touch with the 'rightness' or 'Truth' or whatever occasioned by the text.