Editing J. R. R. Tolkien (section)

==About his writing==
Tolkien liked to take his sweet time with things, establishing the environment, and the people in the general environs, to which end he'd go off on tangents. This can either be a blessing (bringing up details about the world he has created and helping immerse yourself in it) or a hindrance (bringing the story to a standstill) depending on how you view it or where you are in the story. Characterisation for non hobbits is usually fairly simplistic mythic archetypes. Aragorn does not fret much over daddy issues nor is Gimli consumed by existential angst. Even with the Hobbits the characterization while more fleshed out is usually direct and laid plain.

These characters do have inner worlds, and they do psychologically react to what is going on around them in ways informed by their cultural and personal histories, to the point that they are not one or two dimensional characters, but they are also equally not products of a style of storytelling that exalts personal psychodrama to a degree beyond Shakespeare. 

Tolkien did not write to preach or expound his beliefs. He did so because he wanted to tell stories based around the worldbuilding that was his hobby. In his own words...

:''“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.”'' 

A few of his opinions, preferences and worldviews did get worked in and are presented - broad environmentalism, a love for the English countryside, a disdain for militarism and rampant industrialisation and some old fashioned monarchism - but not to the point where you can call it propaganda by any reasonable definition. If you had to rank him on the propaganda-o-meter with one being ''Dan the Dog Finds a Frog'' and ten being ''Atlas Shrugged'' he's a three, tops.