I’m always baffled every time I’m reminded that Tolkien served in WWI rather than WWII. You’d think that the fantasy epic about defeating the big bad and his army of acceptable targets would be written by someone who fought against Hitler, rather than by someone who served in the meat grinder that destroyed a generation to the benefit of no one in particular, but you would be wrong.

Tolkien hated allegory so much he made sure to fight in WWI and not WWII so that when he wrote that epic war against evil fantasy series he was planning since he could talk no one could credibly accuse him of just writing his own life story. That is what true commitment to art is about.