/lit/ - Literature

>>14654780
>hidden meanings
"hidden" to people unfamiliar with history or mythology maybe.
I think people have too vague an understanding of allegory, and use it inappropriately. For me, allegory is like those masonic or occultic pictures, the ones that don't look like normal artwork (pic related). In artwork of this type, you're not seeing historical events. The birds don't represent literal birds, the pillars don't represent literal pillars, same with the tree, the eye, etc. THAT is what allegory means when they say "hidden meaning". It's hidden and the only way it makes sense is if you have the "key". And in this case, the "key" is verbally transmitted by other members of the club.
LotR isn't written like that. Elves, orcs and dragons don't have a hidden meaning that you have to join a secret society to learn precisely what that meaning is. You just have to read publicly available books, history books, mythology books, religious books, etc. It's not hidden. It might be unknown to ignorant people that don't like to read, but it's not deliberately obscured behind esoteric babble that only 32nd degree cult masters understand.