by Adam Linton » July 3rd, 2005, 10:34 pm
A thoughtful engagement with this issue can be found in Patrick Curry's Defending Middle-earth. Check the index for "race, racism." One scholar, whom Curry cites, puts it well, I think, affirming that the appearance of racism in TLotR is deceptive "not only because in his non-fictional writings several times repudiated racist ideas, but because...in his sub-creation the whole intellectual underpinning of racism is absent." (p. 42)
See also Tom Shippey's work, especially J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century for dealing with other such dismissive (and inaccurate) labelings of Tolkien (i.e., "fascist," "classist," etc., etc.)
By the way, I find that such labeling is often used as a quick excuse by those who don't want to have to do the work of engaging with a piece of writing on its own terms.
we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream