Tolkien might have savoured the irony that some of his closest readers could one day yearn to Make Mordor Great Again. — TNS
“I’M a big Lord of the Rings guy,” JD Vance once told a podcaster. The running mate of former and perhaps future president Donald Trump went on to explain that “a lot of my conservative worldview was influenced by Tolkien.”
It’s always a good idea to re-read the classics, and JRR Tolkien’s trilogy is certainly among them. One mark of great literature is that you discover new things with every reading, and at any stage of life. This time, though, I’m finding that experience harrowing. This is 2024, after all, one week before a history-bending American presidential election.
