Bad Writing? No.

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 163060

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <rdoliver30 at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> Then again, noise on the frequencies is nothing new.  Tolkien used to 
> swear up and down that people were not supposed to equate Sauron and 
> Hitler.  But the message he sent, probably unintentionally, said 
> otherwise to lots of folks.
> 
> 

People equated Sauron with Hitler because of when the books were 
written and because he was still on their minds. No matter how many
people made that connection it was still a misreading. Sauron is a 
Satan analog, sort of. Tolkien had a direct Satan analog and Sauron 
was his chief minion. Melkor was long gone from the scene by the 
time of the LOTR and Sauron had taken over the franchise after Melkor's
departure. It is a natural mistake to make I suppose but if
you have read much about Tolkien and World War 1 it is easy to see 
that much of the story is drawn from his experience in that war. But
it would also be a mistake to think it is an analog of WW1. All authors
draw from their experience. LOTR is not an analogy of anything 
except, perhaps, northern European legend.

The ease with which that mistake was made and the apparent correctness
of it should serve as warning to all who try to interpret Rowling and 
other authors. The ruling ring was so obviously the atomic bomb to 
the legions of Tolkien's baby boomer readers (this one included) that 
no other interpretation was possible. The bomb was our generation's
nightmare though. Tolkien's generation had a far older nightmare.

Ken