Editing J. R. R. Tolkien (section)

=== Race ===
{{Main|Tolkien and race}}

Tolkien's [[Middle-earth]] fantasy writings have been said to embody outmoded attitudes to [[Race (human categorization)|race]].<ref name="Yatt">{{cite news |last=Yatt |first=John |date=2 December 2002 |title=Wraiths and Race |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/dec/02/jrrtolkien.lordoftherings |url-status=live |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826185122/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/dec/02/jrrtolkien.lordoftherings |archive-date=26 August 2013}}</ref> However, scholars have noted that he was influenced by Victorian attitudes to race and to a literary tradition of monsters, and that he was [[Anti-racism|anti-racist]] both in peacetime and during the two World Wars. With the late 19th-century background of [[eugenics]] and a fear of moral decline, some critics believed that the mention of [[Miscegenation|race mixing]] in ''The Lord of the Rings'' embodied [[scientific racism]].<ref name="Rogers 2000">{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=William N. II |chapter=Gagool and Gollum: Exemplars of Degeneration in ''King Solomon's Mines'' and ''The Hobbit'' |last2=Underwood |first2=Michael R. |title=J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-313-30845-1 |editor-last1=Clark |editor-first1=George |editor-first2=Daniel |editor-last2=Timmons |pages=121–132 |access-date=3 March 2021 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkienhislit0000unse/page/120/mode/2up?q=Gagool}}</ref> Other commentators thought that Tolkien's description of the [[orc]]s was modelled on wartime propaganda caricatures of the Japanese.<ref name="Ibata Chicago Tribune 2003">{{cite news |last=Ibata |first=David |date=12 January 2003 |title='Lord' of racism? Critics view trilogy as discriminatory |work=[[The Chicago Tribune]] |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/chi-030112epringsrace-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308060753/https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/chi-030112epringsrace-story.html |archive-date=8 March 2021}}</ref> Critics have noted, too, that the work embodies a [[Geography of Middle-earth#Moral geography|moral geography]], with good in the West, evil in the East.<ref name="Magoun 2006">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2006 |title=South, The |encyclopedia=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |last=Magoun |first=John F. G. |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |pages=622–623 |isbn=1-135-88034-4}}</ref> Against this, Tolkien strongly opposed [[Nazi racial theories]], as seen in a 1938 letter he wrote to his publisher, while in the Second World War he vigorously opposed [[Anti-German sentiment|anti-German]] propaganda.<ref name="Rearick 2004">{{cite journal |last=Rearick |first=Anderson |date=2004 |title=Why is the Only Good Orc a Dead Orc? The Dark Face of Racism Examined in Tolkien's World |journal=[[Modern Fiction Studies]] |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=866–867 |doi=10.1353/mfs.2005.0008 |jstor=26286382 |s2cid=162647975 |issn = 0026-7724 }}</ref><ref name="Power 2018">{{cite news |last=Power |first=Ed |date=27 November 2018 |title=JRR Tolkien's orcs are no more racist than George Lucas's Stormtroopers |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/jrr-tolkiens-orcs-no-racist-george-lucass-stormtroopers/ |url-status=live |access-date=20 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127224728/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/jrr-tolkiens-orcs-no-racist-george-lucass-stormtroopers/ |archive-date=27 January 2021}}</ref> His Middle-earth has been described as definitely polycultural and polylingual, while scholars have noted that attacks on Tolkien based on ''The Lord of the Rings'' often omit relevant evidence from the text.<ref name="Straubhaar 2004">{{cite book |last=Straubhaar |first=Sandra Ballif |chapter=Myth, Late Roman History, and Multiculturalism in Tolkien's Middle-Earth |title=Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: a Reader |title-link=Tolkien and the Invention of Myth |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8131-2301-1 |editor-last=Chance |editor-first=Jane |editor-link=Jane Chance |pages=101–117 |author-link=Sandra Ballif Straubhaar}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lobdell |first=Jared |title=The World of the Rings |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-87548-303-0 |page=116 |author-link=Jared Lobdell}}</ref> A spokesman for [[HarperCollins]], publisher of the trilogy, said: "A number of academics have commented on Tolkien's work and this is the first time anybody has ever seen these issues in it. Of course, if you look hard enough at many great epics, you can extrapolate what you like, particularly if you have academic kudos behind you."<ref>{{cite web |last=Bhatia |first=Shyam |date=8 January 2003 |title=The Lord of the Rings rooted in racism |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jan/08lord.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101103144856/http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jan/08lord.htm |archive-date=3 November 2010 |access-date=4 December 2010 |publisher=Rediff India Abroad}}</ref>