Well, all we can say is that Tolkien
accessed Middle earth
through his imagination, not that it is all
only imagination. I can't see that its a more 'rational' or logical approach to state that there are millions of
different Middle earths out there, each existing in the mind of one of Tolkien's readers.
Quote:
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How, then, are we to know which Middle-earth is the right one?
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How can we know which Atlantis is the right one?
Those 'searching' for Atlantis - whether its physical remains in this world or as some kind of 'imaginative' place/state - don't believe they're all searching for a different place - as far as they're concerned there's only one Atlantis which they are using the text/s to find. So, did Plato invent Atlantis, or did he merely use the already existing idea of Atlantis as a useful metaphor?
Your approach fails to answer what for me is the central question - why do we respond as we do to Middle earth, why do some of us feel it to be 'real', where does that sense of longing for it arise? Your position would seem to be that if we do respond to it in that we we're over-reacting (at the very least), or even that we're not responding in a sufficiently 'sane' & detatched way, that' there's something 'wrong' with us that we take a collection of texts so seriously.
Perhaps.
But for me that explanation doesn't work, because in my experience the more intensely people experience Middle earth, the more 'real' it is to them, the nicer people they are, & I can't explain how something that isn't 'real' can have a REAL, practical, & most importantly
beneficial effect on people.