THE HOBBIT is an allegory for gay aging

The title hero is a fussy middle-aged lifelong bachelor who lives in a fabulous house with a great view. He is obsessed with his antique china, his doilies, and his books, and keeping everything clean and cozy. He is persuaded by an elderly queen to leave his security to go on "an adventure" with an all-male group of joking rough-and-tumble types. The handsomest among these is obsessed with prestige, and is stalked by a nasty muscle Mary with whom he shared a traumatic and unfortunate past. After an unpleasant encounter with some trolls, the rough-and-tumble types drag our hero to the lowest depths imaginable, where he is trapped into playing word games in the dark with the oldest, ugliest, most predatory nasty queen of them all. But our hero only leaves these lowest depths when he has discovered he has become completely invisible.

• Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

• There was only one woman in it, and I'm not sure if Elves are women.

• Not bad, OP.

• [quote]He is persuaded by an elderly queen to leave his security Just because Gandalf is played by a gay actor does not necessarily mean Gandalf is gay.

  Frodo

• It's really not.

• Bilbo risks his life for jewellry, All he needs is some earrings and a caftan.

• Plus he never married or had a kid.

• I love it.

• He's happy and rich and he's got a hot little nephew too.

• “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”

  %20J.R.R.%20Tolkien

• But there is another category, Mr. J.R.R.: unconscious allegory, whereby the repressed autobiographic yearnings of the author squeeze themselves into his ale-soaked fretful dreams of the road not taken.

• r10: Trust the tale, not the teller. In other words: just because authors says you can't read their work in a certain way does not mean you can't. They are not allowed to control interpretations of their work after they publish it--that's a central tenet in all literary criticism (academic or otherwise).

• Love it, OP! And yes, R10, I've always wondered about Prof. Tolkien's subconscious. Sam's deep and intense love for Frodo is just not normal heterosexual behavior.

  Tolkien Geek

• [quote]“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.” Tolkien is even longwinded and boring in one-paragraph chunks.

• There is a standard interpretation that the LOTR (not the Hobbit) is a Catholic allegory despite what JRR Tolkien may have said at one point. Tolkien was an English Catholic, an orphan, raised pretty much by the priests at the Oratory Church in Birmingham. Which made him an outsider in England. I like OP's interpretation. In Tolkien's mythology Bilbo becomes an important figure, doing translations from the Elvish which transmits ancient Middle Earth history and ultimately going off with the Elves to the Western Lands and eternal life, as did Frodo and Sam, as wearers of the Ring.

• Tolkien may have disliked allegory, but it's virtually impossible to read LOTR and not think of his time in the trenches during WWI. There are direct parallels in many of the books' scenes to his own wartime experiences. Having said that, there's not a hint of gay subtext in any of his works. Male bonding, yes; gay, no.

• If so, how fortunate that they cast a looks-much-older-than-his-years lead character.

• That's hilarious, OP. I like your take on it.

• Gollum, the Hisssssssssing Eldergay!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D1cff8QzjDNc%26feature%3Dyoutu.be

  Hissssssssssssssssss%21