[Lith]

Martin sometimes reminds me of one of those type of paintings with a lot going on (usually a house or a castle absolutely stuffed with characters all doing interesting things), and all of it put in painstaking detail, a slightly distorted but interesting mirror of reality.

Tolkien reminds me more of... painting parallel seems to be missing. But it feels as though it breathes more, and is both more frustrating and mysterious and awe-ful, and old. It moves at a slower pace, when the world generally moved at a slower pace.