I've just finished reading "The master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov. It is a genuine allegory written during and about, Stalins regime. It is also completely insane and therefore highly recommended.

I grew up on the Lord of the Rings, and I have found many of the sentiments enclosed within its pages to be "applicable" to everyday life.

Poor old tolkien was cursed with being a good writer, capable of creating believable, almost tangible characters out of comparatively wooden mythology.

I had never before, and will never again be able to empathise with or be afraid of an elf or an orc. Gollum is a character who I know well - so well in fact that I can see elements of him in all sorts of people, likewise with frodo, Aragorn... etc...

I say "good old Tolkien", as he managed - without intent or malice - to cause people to ask serious questions, and exercise their minds a bit.

His quote of course (post#1) is the "coup de grace" however, as it ends public bickering and forces people to think for themselves, there being no further room for speculation about his intentions.

Tolkien was pretty fuckin' cool eh?