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Bear with me while I digress.
The last five years have been my most intense period of interest in Tolkien. I first read LotR nearly 30 years ago & after about seven years, in which I read TH, The Sil, UT every year (& BoLT 1&2 once) I drifted into fairly regular readings of LotR & TH & TS & UT occaisionally, along with regular listenings to the BBC adaptation.
It was, ironically, the appearance of the movies which inspired me to get into Tolkien seriously, since when I've read HoM-e through & collected 60+ volumes of 'Tolkieniana', been to Oxonmooot & stood by Tolkien's grave 3 times, spent 5 days at an international Tolkien conference in Birmingham, joined the Down's & met someone who's changed my life.
Whether my interest will continue at this level I've no idea. I'll never not be a lover of Tolkien's work, but I suspect that as the general interest fades (& hence the books & conferences disappears) I'll drift back into my 'simpler' approach, which I think I really preferred in a way. You can analyse things to death.
So, my feeling is that Tolkien will become increasingly accepted in academic circles as a 'serious' writer as the years pass, but I'll probably drift back to TH & LotR every year or so, along with the BBC series, & the rest of the collection will probably find its way onto a bookcase in a back room to be taken down occasionally to check some obscure 'fact'.
I'm looking forward to it, in a way.....
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