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Well, If we're to debate whether or not the reader must accept Tolkien's meaning, or is frre to interpret the text in their own way, we have to have a clear understanding of what Tolkien did mean, before we can debate anything.
The next question, for me, is 'was Tolkien right'?. To the extent that he was 'right'/correct in his statements, including his statements about Truth & Joy, then that would not be an area for argument - we can only validly argue about interpretations, not about facts. We can't argue about 2+2=4, & say its all down to interpretation whether the answer is 3, 4,5,6 or 78,9374.
So, we have to seperate the 'facts' from the interpretations - ours, Tolkiens or anyone else's. If we can't agree what constitutes facts & what constitutes opinions, its difficult to debate what role/responsibility the reader has in relation to the text.
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