It might be a reference to the epic scope of Tolkien's stories in the context of modernism. Twentieth century literature really decreased our collective attention spans, as guys like Hemingway and Fitzgerald started writing shorter, less detailed stories while Tolkien was writing his 1000+ page epic. That's my short explanation, but since I don't know the context, I could be way off.

I think it means a great deal more that just attention spans. Much of our collective Western culture has become crass, crude, and shallow. We no longer have the capacity for subtlety, subtext, symbolism, and deep meaning. It doesn;t even have to pertain to heavy works like Lord of the Rings. A comedian standing on stage is more likely to elicit from crude humor than clever jokes.

I dunno but it's pretty snappy.

I would compare it to the situation of Tolkien's friend Lewis. Lewis' great, life-long dream was to become a successful narrative poet. Narrative poetry is the long, epic stuff like "Paradise Lost" and "The Faery Queene." That was the sort of thing Lewis loved to read, and the stuff he wanted to write.

But during his lifetime, the market for that kind of poetry disappeared entirely. Lewis was reduced to saying what he really wanted to say (the non-scholarly stuff) in short poems, essays and novels.

Tolkien was less flexible than Lewis. He wanted to write epic, and by golly he wrote an epic. But it was hard work sustaining the creative effort, finding a publisher, and then finding an audience in a world that preferred short forms (or, in longer forms, simpler themes).

Maybe it means that those of us that like to start at the beginning and enjoy the journey are cursed by media that is filled with punch lines & climactic moments.

Remember the Olympics this year? Every prime time segment would have only the last 3 seconds of victory. Then move to the next victory and only show 3 seconds of that...

I would imagine that an epic temperament would enjoy the 12 years of training prior to the 3 seconds of victory.

I think #10 hits it. Snappy bits makes me think "sound bites." Epic temperament makes me think both grand narratives and also detailed explanations. Our culture wants the quick, easily memorable sound bite (whether as entertainment or in answer to a question) rather than something more textured that requires thought and sustained attention like a nuanced, careful answer or a sweeping narrative.

Neil Postman's wonderful book Amusing Ourselves to Death; Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business explores this issue in a marvelously thorough and enjoyable manner. He puts forth the notion that while we were ever-vigilant against Orwell's dark vision of 1984 we failed to recognize that we were sit-comming our way smack into Huxley's Brave New World, where "there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one...the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance...we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy". If you can still find a copy of this superb book (it was written in 1985 and is out of print) I highly recommend it...