A word by any other name ...

[davem]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

Oh my. Are my eyes deceiving me or is davem arguing for the primacy of the reader's individual experience over the authority of the author?

No - he's merely pointing out that it happens. One struggles against it. The 'Tele*****' thing is a good example. We all have to supress the smirk first time, because we inevitably make the 'connection'. No difference with a reader seeing 'Nazgul' for the first time & thinking 'Nazi'. Its just the way the mind works. To then run off with the idea that LotR is an allegory of WWII (or that Celeborn was the M-e equivalent of Hugh Heffner) is where the reader would go wrong.