As timeless as some works of art may be, they are still created within a particular time period, so they show signs of that period. That’s why adaptations of books into film are rarely, if ever, 100% faithful to the original work. The new presentation is modified for its contemporary audience. Some critics of The Lord of the Rings claim that the literary work implies outdated ideas about ethnic or racial groups through the way certain races of creatures in the book are described and characterized. Some have even gone as far as to call Tolkien himself a racist. And The Lord of the Rings is not the only work that has been accused of these things. 

In this episode we ask: Is The Lord of the Rings racist? How do we find value in literature that expresses the outdated views of the age of the author? All that and more on this edition of the podcast.

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