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Comment by johnchristopher | Hacker News Reader

> Contrast to Lord of the Rings' assault on marriage, where wearing the ring makes you invisible and slowly fade into nothingness, "like butter being scraped over too much bread".

Wait, what ? Eh...

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Well, I think that's ostensible, as any reading of the author's biography can attest.

I couldn't disagree more. You can easily twist his letters to his son to create this narrative. If you read it as a whole his message isn't at all anti-marriage, he was a devout Christian who believed wholeheartedly in marriage. His message was that marriage takes sacrifice, faith, and a conscious effort (in his opinion specifically on the side of the man). It's a bit Kierkegaardian.

Yeah, I agree. There’s no way it was intended as a criticism of marriage.

I think that might mean we agree. I guess I should have said I thought it ostensibly false.

Whoops, I totally misinterpreted that! Apologies.

Well, when it's put like that ^^.

It's just that I never thought about it in that way, that outlook took me by surprise :).

I read the Howard Carter biography more than 25 years ago and I don't remember much about that aspect, I was more geeking about lotr at that time than Tolkien's opinions.

Gollum is what really sells me on LotR being about marraige. He's a caricature of a woman hungry for commitment. I've seen the "gollum look" a few times in real life, and they captured it pretty damn accurately in the movies (more monstrous ofc)...

I'm not sure if you are trolling, but these comments are telling us far more about you than they are about LotR, Tolkien or women.

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