Mark A Mandel <mam at theworld.com> writes: > [David Rodemaker?] > #> I can't think of medium-to-large 'sized' concept from Christianity > #> that I cannot find without difficulty in LOTR. > > [Baralier] > #And I can find Judaic concepts in Christian Myths. I can find Druidic > #concepts in Christian Myths. I can find Wiccan concepts in Christian > #Myths. I can find Buddhist concepts in Christian Myths. > # > #This does not make Christianity Pagan or Buddhist any more than > #finding Christian concepts in LotR makes it a "Christian" work. > > W.r.t. allegory, Tolkien said somewhere that there is a world of > difference between what a reader reads into a work and what the writer > wrote into it. Allegory, remember, is *by definition* intentional. So even if you can find all the layers of parallels that allegory gives rise to, if it's clearly not the author's intention, it's not an allegory. And Tolkien expressed his deep and abiding dislike for allegory pretty clearly. -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net / http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info