On: Tolkien’s Mythic Plan for England

[goto11]

> Mordor makes one think of trenches and devilish factories.

Tolkien hates you now!

But seriously, he was open about how WWI influenced his writing. I think his rant against allegories is more about direct allegorical reading like "Mordor is supposed to symbolize WWI trenches etc."

[eredengrin → goto11]

I totally agree here. I think there's a difference between recognizing where Tolkien's inspiration came from vs saying that an element which took inspiration from elsewhere was necessarily meant to specifically represent that thing in his work.