traveling north

Russ Allbery · 06 Jun 2010, 02:25 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: rra at stanford.edu (Russ Allbery)
Date: Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:25:35 -0700
Subject: (urth) traveling north
In-Reply-To: <4C0B0474.4030600 at io.com> (Jeff Wilson's message of "Sat, 05 Jun
	2010 21:14:12 -0500")
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	<07e417fccdd43f81f01ae6443657010a.squirrel at brunians.org>
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Message-ID: <87d3w499sw.fsf at windlord.stanford.edu>

Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> writes:
> On 6/5/2010 7:34 PM, brunians at brunians.org wrote:

>> He'd whine loudly.

> In the interview he said he disliked allegory wherever he smelled
> it. But that didn't stop him from producing some, however
> unintentionally.

By Tolkien's definition of allegory, which emphasizes authorial intention,
unintentional allegory isn't allegory.

    But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always
    have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.
    I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability
    to the thought and experience of readers.  I think that many confuse
    'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of
    the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.

(From the introduction to LotR.)

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra at stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

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