Then, of course, given the times we live in, there are the Woke bunch. The duckspeakers are pissed about the fact that a man born in the 19th Century and writing in the mid-20th failed to give us strong, independent women and to represent ethnic minorities, different social classes and LGBTQ+ people. Never mind that the most powerful character we see in the book is a woman (Galadriel) and that the two most heroic acts in the book are performed by a woman and a member of a minority race: Eowyn facing and destroying the Witch-King, and Sam defeating Shelob before rescuing Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Forget that the Company of the Ring is ethnically diverse (Maiar, Human, Elf, Dwarf and Hobbit) and socially mixed, containing one demigod (Gandalf), a King (Aragorn), a Prince (Legolas), three aristocrats (Boromir, Merry and Pippin), two of the bourgeoisie (Frodo and Gimli) and good old working class Samwise! That won’t do. Because nobody’s Black (though Gimlis’ skin tone is never mentioned) and nobody’s gay (although nobody’s quite sure about Legolas and Gimli…).