#he's one of the most beloved authors of all time he genuinely doesn't need defending

[fluentisonus]

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#okay this isn't very coherent and I'll delete it in a bit but: #hh I’d forgotten how much I dislike a whole chunk of tolkien's fanbase #and how they're absolutely determined to see him and all his work as perfect and pure and past criticism #please learn to criticize things you like! please realize these things have flaws! #denying at all turns that tolkien can be racist and classist and antisemetic and conservative isn't doing anything helpful #he's a white guy from the 20th century writing fantasy he's not some moral bastion. just treat him like a normal person #he can be progressive in some ways and still bigoted in others it's not an all or nothing game #like god I'm enjoying lord of the rings but if I have to see one more person saying stuff lik #'he's not racist! all the evil people from the south and east and being described as having darker skin and racial features is a coicidence #or like 'he can't be antisemetic! he wrote a nasty letter to the nazis once'. I will scream #please learn some nuance and critical thinking skills #you (like me) can have a deep emotional attachment to tolkien's work and still acknowledge all of these things. #I promise it's possible #he's one of the most beloved authors of all time he genuinely doesn't need defending #anyways. this is not all his fans I've seen just as many totally reasonable people #but the others fill me with visceral frustration #thoughts #tolkien