It produces bad scholarship - I don't think I've read such self-referrent readings, no attempt at situating Tolkien within a school of thought, a distinct disavowal of Tolkien's Catholicism except where it lends a positive sheen to the texts - and glaring blind spots.

Its also just very odd, the way all citations resort to Tolkien's intentions as final word - this is not how texts function on ANY level, this is something so basic and foundational to any kind of literary criticism/reading? Like, this is formalism on steroids but its not even *good* formalism