I sense that most readers of Tolkien are minimally interested in the frame tale aspect and believe more in the imaginative reality of Minas Tirith than of the Red Book.

Drout contends that Noldorin racism is a major theme of The Silmarillion... The origins of racism in envy and felt inadequacy are illuminated by what Drout points out in a droll footnote: the Noldor, who, compared to the Vanyar, are mid-tier Eldar, are somewhat like mid-tier academics who are the most ardent in defense of existing hierarchies.

Especially noteworthy is the pattern of “illness and recovery” that Drout discerns, as Frodo, from the attack at Amon Sûl to the final trauma at the Sammath Naur to the celebration at the Field of Cormallen, that he undergoes multiple processes of wounding, healing, and restoration. Drout emphasizes the reiterated reassurance given by Frodo’s companions and healers, reminding him that he is still there, the world is still there, and that the world can be lived in. That this pattern is repeated so many times in the story augments its psychological meaning.

Towers appear through Tolkien’s work, “not intrinsically good or evil, but rather ideas given form, representations of power” (17). All towers eventually become ruins, and ruins simultaneously signal irretrievable loss but commemorate the afterimage of what once had been.

the second time with a more specific comment that mildly disagreed with something that I had said (and I think he is right, too).