Article note: It's such a good (fictional) example.
It's also such a classic "almost no one checked the references, and the person who propagated it misunderstood what they read." scenario.
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.