Writers and Tolkien

[Meela]

I've been writing fantasy all my life, so Tolkien hasn't affected me that much, nor has he inspired me to begin writing. But he did inspire me to go deeper into histories, languages, etc., and also to not be afraid to use existing works as a basis for my story.

I've also observed that those who are able to highly appreciate Tolkien's writing (that is, people who don't say "Tolkien's books are stooopid) happen to have, er, above average intelligence (or higher) - and therefore, the capacity to come up with great writing themselves

I appreciate this statement, but I wish to make a small, unimportant observation regarding myself.
I may be highly intelligent, but only in certain ways. I have great trouble with 'deep thinking', which is why I am abandoning all attempts to integrate myself into the books forum. Also, I don't like Tolkien's work enough to wish to over-analyse it in the way they do in that forum. So I suppose I don't really appreciate Tolkien's work that much. Or I do, I certainly appreciate them, but not perhaps in the way others do that allows them the staus of a highly intelligent person. If you take my meaning on that very muddled paragraph.
But regardless of my below average intelligence, I not only regard myself as a good, if not very good, writer, but I have been told by people who know what good writing is that I am a good writer.

So I am sort of an exception to the statement.