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I just stumbled upon an essay by Gene Wolfe on J. R. R. Tolien's Lord of the Rings, titled The Best Introduction to the Mountains.
In this excellent essay, Wolfe -- an expert wordsmith himself -- argues that the allure of Tolkien's work is that of a simpler life with clear-cut, equal to all, rules. In his conclusion he writes:
We might have a society in which the laws were few and just, simple, permanent, and familiar to everyone -- a society in which everyone stood shoulder-to-shoulder because everyone lived by the same changeless rules, and everyone knew what those rules were.
It is fitting, I think, that by reading his essay I learned more of Gene Wolfe than I had of J. R. R. Tolkien.
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