Maybe the word you are looking for is "subtle". Lewis is downright preachy a times and sometimes even goes beyond allegory and just lets Aslan be a mouthpiece f

Maybe the word you are looking for is "subtle". Lewis is downright preachy a times and sometimes even goes beyond allegory and just lets Aslan be a mouthpiece for his own theology and morals. Tolkien is never preachy, so he could even become a cult hit among counterculture hippies which probably didn't share many of his values. (Probably to his own dismay I suspect)