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I hope I'm alive long enough to see the development of a historical perspective on Tolkien and his Legendarium. Perhaps fifty years from now, events will have occurred that will make Tolkien appear (1) dated {I doubt it}, (2) prophetic {I expect it}, (3) the most important modernist of the last four centuries {wouldn't that be fun?}; (4,5,6,7.....) and all kinds of other possibilities. A third world war (War of the Ring)? The passing of democratic forms of government (Scouring of the Shire, Return of a King, Lord over all Mordor)? The eclipse of Western culture (Eriador a wasteland)? So perhaps all that can be said has been said .... for now .... but let some great new cataclysmic (or not so) event shake the current paradigm to its roots, and see what there is then to say about the man.
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