Discussion Tolkien himself explains what to do if someone brings up a plothole

I think he makes a good point. As a VERY fledgling author, I'm starting to get a glimmering of this plothole problem. My mark of a really good book, I don't know about anyone else, is that I want to read it again and again. The byproduct of this unfortunately is that I begin to see flaws in plots or protagonists acting out of character, etc.

If you get something VERY, VERY popular, like Lord of the Rings, then you will have people who absolutely pore over the pages, storyline, etc. and inevitably something won't make sense.

I think it is very poor form to do this to a book that you liked. Especially if you enjoyed it.

Obviously the writer should have a good set of beta-readers and an editor who can filter out as much of the contrariness or holes of your story as possible, but in the end it really comes down to: Did you enjoy the book? Not, could you find no holes in the book storyline?

 

Not what I expected

 

I agree, not what I expected, I would have thought the great man would at least try to think of some eloquent and logical explanation that makes sense (I certainly would), rather than silencing his fans, but the YouTuber who posted this video has provided some explanations that make sense:

 

Most people disagree with my particular sentiment on this subject I have found.

Each to his own. If pointing out plot holes is a homage to the story, then great. A friend of mine used to ask me to go through his stories and help him find discrepancies and it felt very unnatural to me. The irony is that he disagreed with pretty much all of my points anyways and then didn't change anything.

I imagine Tolkien is thinking something like "Okay big guy, YOU write an international best selling Fantasy Series with zero plot holes."