Aiwendil, Child, thank you for expressing thoughts similar to mine more eloquently than I could have. I too agree that the personal style of an author is being debated here and would like to see more "why did he use this" than "what's wrong with it" being discussed. That does not mean I consider Tolkien's work flawless, but I do not enjoy that particular train of argument.
However, I thank all who have taken the time to express their opinions thoughtfully and well-foundedly, and to explain their reasons for them, even when I do not agree with the conclusions they have made. There is nothing like an opposing opinion to keep my own thoughts from getting stale!
(In thinking about posting here, I realized how important the possibility of turning around the elements of a sentence is to me, in order to be able to emphasize through that choice what I feel important. "I too would like to express my opinion" has quite a different connotation than "I would like to express my opinion too"!)
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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