User blog comment:CutieOwl/who is your fave fellowship member?/@comment-4769743-20120330003108/@comment-1728211-20120404115821

RE: Thorn. An excess of white characters is a regrettable characteristic of much fantasy based on western myth. People automatically prefer heroes like themselves and villains unlike themselves and it is the myths of white men, about white men, that were for centuries the only ones that the "classicists" deemed worthy of study. It should be noted that more recent fantasy series, including Feist and Wurts's Oriental Empire trilogy and diverse ASOIAF feature characters across the moral spectrum from all races, aided in no small part by an increased diversity of literature of global myths. Particularly notable is Le Guin's Polynesian-inspired Earthsea, where the ethnic diversity of the isles of Earthsea was designed to reflect that of Earth. For more inversions of the idea that certain groups, symbols, concepts etc are automatically good, see Mike Moorcock, creator of antiheroic albinos and, contraversially, a book where all of the heroes are German and all of the villains are British in an attempt to expose the hypocrisy of the then-popular war films.

RE: LotrNERD. I like your list. You made good choices. With regard to Sam, are you looking for words such as "stamina" or "resolve"?

With regards to the debate, Tolkien rather thought that Lewis's approach to religion in Narnia was a little heavy-handed in parts. In creating LOTR, Tolkien was taking part in what he saw as a quasi-religious act of "sub-creating" a new world. As such, nothing in LOTR is an exact reflection of something in our world but Tolkien would often hint at, foreshadow or be inspired by historical events.

To summarise, Lewis held up Narnia as a mirror to our current world, which in spite of its problems was still to him a good place. Tolkien used Middle-earth to explore history, faith and linguistics. And of course, to tell a very good story.