Art!

[Lalwendë]

For all our discussions where we try and pin down the answers to questions like "but what did he mean?" isn't Tolkien's whole legendarium just one huge, complex and beautiful work of Art?

I would contend that there isn't one deeper meaning to it all, the evidence being that every reader finds different meanings in it, and some find none at all, they just like the way it looks, like Gimli when he saw the Glittering Caves of Aglarond.

I don't think even Tolkien could pin it all down to 'mean something'. He flatly denied it was allegorical in any way, and came up with umpteen ideas about this enigmatic 'meaning'. Maybe it's a symptom of the modern world that we're all Utilitarians and everything must have purpose, rather than just exist as a purely decorative and pleasurable object? Critics try and work out what the Mona Lisa is all about; isn't it just a beautiful portrait?

Of course, this line of thought risks cutting all scope for discussion dead, but it shouldn't. Maybe we should, instead of trying to find some useful purpose to Tolkien's work, just sit back and discuss the sheer poetry of it all?

What do you think?