XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox   
   From: the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm   
      
   In article  in   
   rec.arts.books.tolkien, Jamie Andrews  wrote:   
   >In rec.arts.books.tolkien the softrat  wrote:   
   >> The only post-Chaucerian   
   >> English of which there is a record of Tolkien reading is Spenser,   
   >> Shakespeare, Milton, and 20th century science fiction/fantasy, and   
   >> apparently he didn't like the Shakespeare or the Milton.   
   >   
   >     He professed an admiration of Auden's poetry, though it's   
   >hard (for me) to tell whether this was just out of politeness   
   >due to Auden's effusive praise of LOTR.   
      
   Maybe. But Lewis was equally a booster, and Tolkien had no problem   
   saying he didn't like the Narnia stories. So I think "I'll cut him   
   some slack because he praises my work" doesn't really explain why   
   Tolkien said he liked Auden's poetry.   
      
   Surely the simplest and most likely explanation is that he said he   
   liked it because he liked it?   
      
   (follow-ups trimmed)   
      
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