Fantasy

[davem]

Originally Posted by obloquy

This decision can only be called dishonest if one claims that Tolkien intended his audience to get some idea of the harsh reality of life and war.

Only if he had not gone to such lengths to play up the 'positives' of battle - the honour, self-sacrifice, glory, excitement. That's the point - that Tolkien is showing the light without pointing up the dark as well, so that the depiction of battle become a caricature of reality. I'm asking why Tolkien decided not to give us a balanced depiction of battle, which included the nasty, brutal, inhuman side alongside the poetic/elegiac, & what the effect of that decision is, & whether that depiction is dishonest (which I think it is)