Tolkien-founder of new religion?

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by VanimaEdhel

And I don't think Tolkien would necessarily be disappointed or annoyed. Based on my readings regarding his reaction to people's obsession with his books - especially in reaction to how some of us American's treated them - he seemed to look on with a fair bit of amusement.

On the contrary, there are Letters that show he found the "American thing" deplorable and worrisome. He had a rather dim view of Americans in general (see Letter 76). But Letter 328 (Autumn 1971) is most telling:

The horrors of the American scene I will pass over, though they have given me great distress and labour. (They arise in an entirely different mental climate and soil, polluted and impoverished to a degree only paralleled by the lunatic destruction of the physical lands which Americans inhabit).

There you have it, the three words Tolkien had reserved for Americans as a general population: polluted, impoverished, and lunatic. Trouble is, I see his point.

Granted, some (but not all) of this seems to be about the Ace Books piracy issue. But I also recall reading that he was quite distressed about the "Frodo Lives" type of thing found in American subways, etc.