J.R.R
Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is one of the few works of any medium or
genre that sit at the top of both popular and critical opinion. While Tolkien’s
narrative, in and of itself, would put the work in the company of the greatest
works of fantasy, what, in my opinion, really sets it as above and beyond the
greatest masterpiece of the genre is the body of literary theory that acted as
a foundation for the work. While Tolkien is unquestionably the most imitated
fantasy writer in history, few if any, of the thousands of books published each
year seriously explore, never mind advance upon, the theoretical framework that
holds the novel together. Many modern readers (and I suspect many modern
fantasy writers) are not even aware that Tolkien wrote any literary theory.
Because of this, I decided to do my part to spread awareness of this most
overlooked part of Tolkien’s corpus by writing about one of my favorite of his
theoretical ideas: the notion of Applicability.
