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They say it doesn't have the "reality" that true literature has.
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I'm not sure what they mean by that, but the Lord of the Rings is a very, sometimes harshly, realistic book. If it wasn't so realistic, then it probably would've taken the cheap way out and had everybody live "happily ever after." It's a world for us to escape to, but it's still a world, with all of the problems and realities thereof. Frodo was wounded and changed by his days as a Ringbearer, and couldn't go home again. He was too much a different person. Case in point:
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It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.
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VERY realistic. Frodo didn't go to Mount Doom, destroy the Ring, skip back and settle down in Bag End. No, Tolkien decided to be (gasp!) realistic, to the point of forfeiting "and they lived happily ever after, to the end of their days." I only hope that at the end of my story, I can bring myself to be that realistic. It's a hard thing to bring to a book, realism. People can say many things about the Lord of the Rings, and they do. But one thing that I think is ludicrous to say is that it is unrealistic.
Fantasy means different things to different people. For me, it brings me back to a day that I would've thrived in. I'm a very naturalistic person in a day where nature is threatened, a lady who craves chivalry in a day where it is all but dead, a would-be shieldmaiden in a day where guns are the weapon of choice. (I hate guns. Swords make for a more honorable battle.) It is also a connection to my parents, who are both avid readers, and especially my mother, who is a huge fantasy fan. (Dad's more into sci-fi, which, Kalessin, I agree should be duly differentiated from fantasy.) It is a brilliant triumph of the human mind and creative spirit, to be able to create an entirely new world, and it awes me and inspires me to see these worlds unfold before me. Also, I think that before the backdrops of fantasy worlds, we can see the aspects of humanity that unite us all more clearly. Sometimes we seem so disconnected from our neighbours, especially today in a world where you could practically stay in your house all day and not see another soul without suffering much, that it's very important for us to see that no matter who or where or in what circumstances we are, we are all people, all united in at least some things. That's what fantasy is to me.
~*~Orual~*~