The Last Ringbearer is good fun. But I wouldn't recommend it for its moral sophistication.
People seem to miss that Tolkien's rejection of moral ambiguity was not just some lacuna. It was the point. In his world it is usually not hard to know what it is the right thing to do, bit it can be very hard to do it.
Tolkien, the Catholic, wants us to forgive others (e.g. Gollum) when they fail this difficult moral test, but still resolve to pass it ourselves rather than evade it by making excuses about complexity and ambiguity.
You might not agree with that philosophy, but it is still a serious message that pervades the story, and lends it much of its beauty.
> In his world it is usually not hard to know what it is the right thing to do, bit it can be very hard to do it.
Yes, that is indeed one of the major themes of the book. Related to that, I love how Gandalf says (quoting from memory here, might not be word-perfect): "We cannot choose which times we live in, but we can choose what do with the times that are given us."
People seem to miss that Tolkien's rejection of moral ambiguity was not just some lacuna. It was the point. In his world it is usually not hard to know what it is the right thing to do, bit it can be very hard to do it.
Tolkien, the Catholic, wants us to forgive others (e.g. Gollum) when they fail this difficult moral test, but still resolve to pass it ourselves rather than evade it by making excuses about complexity and ambiguity.
You might not agree with that philosophy, but it is still a serious message that pervades the story, and lends it much of its beauty.