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Originally Posted by SPM
Let me get this straight. I would understand what LotR means to me even if I had never read the book? Well, I may be many things, but I'm not psychic.
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You'd understand any 'meaning' you 'found' theat was not Tolkien's intended meaning, because that would be what you had brought to it from your own experience.
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We are, however, getting into semantics here, because "meaning" can be construed in a number of ways. I could say that you are talking about 'message' rather than 'meaning'. Indeed, you have said as much in your last post.
As I said earlier, the difference between us lies in our approach to the question: "What does LotR mean?"
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To think I should have lived to see a
Lawyer be so dismissive of 'semantics'
Well, what do you think it 'means' - 'alone, itself & nameless'? I wasn't referring to the 'message', because, as Tolkien said in the Foreword:
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As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. (my emphasis)
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I think Tolkien was drawing a distinction between an 'inner meaning' & an 'outer' or 'obvious' one. The book has a clear meaning, but it is there on the surface, & he makes no attempt to hide it (or it would be an 'allegory'). Any
other 'meaning' you find in it is down to you, any 'message' you find in it is down to the 'value' it has to
you.