"just a book" or "a descriptive treatise on an imaginary ecosphere " ?

[Gwaihir the Windlord]

I get so depressed after I read LOTR because the elves are going away. I wish every day that ME exists.

Perhaps taking it a little too far, I think... [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] I fully realise that Tolkien's writings are just a story, albeit an incredible one -- a full chronology of an invented world. It certainly is life-changing and life-touching to a certain extent, of course (Beren's Bible analogy is a good one; Meela, although you may be an atheist, try and have some understanding of what the Bible actually is and of its significance before you disregard its importance).

Actually believing it is another matter. Most unhealthy... I can imagine that would be very depressing, as well. The real world is what produced the story, what produced all stories. The world we do in fact live in, after all. Tolkien's mythology is believable alright, and I won't deny my love of it any more that you (as I said, that's why I'm here), but I still recognise it as a clever work of fiction.

Perhaps this is the line that galpsi took, in which case I sympathise with him.