Hmm. I guess what I mean is that the critical deconstruction process will only reveal whatever agenda or bias you bring to the process. If you're looking for a particular subtext, you'll find it. Often such critical analysis is conducted without sufficient investigation of the context.

That's not to say that there isn't, say, a racist subtext in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was an ultra-conservative, of course he had racist views. Does that make it a bad book? Many people would argue that is does, and I cannot share their opinion.

You must have been an unusually prejudice-conscious eight-year-old. And red-heads are awesome. ;)

I guess the main problem that I have with subtextual criticism is that it's revealing a symptom, and many people don't seem to realise the difference between that and positive action. From readings, we can determine that much of human society holds racist, sexist and other discriminatory views... but we already knew that. There just doesn't seem to be much point to it.

Incidentally, orcs in LOTR have grey skin. The uruk-hai have black skin in the books as well as the films, and they do all speak Black Speech, but honestly, it seems to me that anyone who sees this:



as a motif for black people is projecting pretty hard.