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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LightPhoenix" data-source="post: 1308961" data-attributes="member: 115">I don't know how much worthwhile discussion I'll be able to add to the conversation, since my major was Biochemistry, not English, but I'll try anyway.For one, there is an identifiable villian - Self.  I read somewhere (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that the big story types are something like Man versus Man, Man versus Nature, and Man versus Self.  In the case of LotR is main enemy in the books isn't Sauron (Man) or the travel itself (Nature) but the danger that the One Ring posed to the Self.  Numerous times through the books we see characters powerful and weak struggling to resist their own impulses and desires.  Some succeed, and some fail. Secondly, I'm in the camp that believes Tolkien at times rambled a bit too much, if you read the book like a novel, which I believe the majority of people do, despite what people here would like to think.  If read as a world history, much in the vein of Silmirillion, then the book takes a different tone where gaffs are lessened if not removed. I would like to rebutt the anti-deus ex machina arguments though.  Given his other works, it is obvious that there is indeed a discreet divine entity that can affect changes on the world.  However, the books should also be judged on their own merit.  In which case, the idea of a tangible deity is in fact marginally hinted at.  And thus, many of the fortuitous acts in LotR are an instance of deus ex machina.  In fact, IIRC Tolkein barely even broaches the subject of belief systems of various characters.</blockquote>

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