Maybe the problem is, that guy created such a rich background, you forcefully need a huge imagination and an enormous memory capacity.

Same here... but everytime I dare say that in front of some friends (OMG-rabid -Tolkien-fans), I feel the urge to hid in the darkest place I can possibly find. I'm serious, I can't be sincere, one day that virtue (?) is gonna kill me -_- And that doesn't mean I don't realize how huge and talented Mr. Tolkien was. Damn, he even was a fellow Philology student, so how could I think that about him XP (and I had to read his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ^^u)