<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Dread Horseman
Posts: 745</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: Principles of editing the Silmarillion
For my part I must confess that the level of detail and the technical nature of the current FoG endeavor are far over my head. Since you asked, lindil, I will say on a more general level that I favor your suggestion to loosen the stringency of the project's current set of standards.
At the risk of adding another layer to the "principles", I suggest that you guys consider drafting some sort of short, succinct mission statement. I've seen a few disconnected posts that approach this sort of thing, but perhaps it might be better to crystalize the project's goals, ambitions, and priorities into a few sentences to use to guide the principles and the work itself (forgive me if such a thing already exists and I've overlooked it in this wealth of ideas and information).
My understanding of the real roots of the project (expressed way back in the Mists of Time, perhaps even before this forum was split off from Book Forum discussions) was to have a Silmarillion that expanded on the published Silmarillion to include much more of JRRT's unfinished works, and perhaps (though seemingly more as a secondary goal) corrected errors or bad editorial choices made by CT.
Viewed in this light, the ultimate goal of the Silmarillion Project would seem to be to produce the most readable version possible -- something to be enjoyed as a collection of stories and (as I dimly recall one hopeful wish) read to one's children. I think the Project must accept the reality that its efforts to synthesize new versions of the Tales from incomplete manuscripts inevitably enter into the realm of "fanfic" to a greater or lesser degree. I admire the expressed goal to alter as little as possible from the base texts, but I think a more important principle is to produce something that looks and feels like The Silmarillion and not like a cut-and-pasted HoME. In other words, there may be areas where a little creative work needs to be done. I'm not suggesting writing a new ending to the UT Tuor story or anything, merely a relaxing of the standards in the interest of producing an aesthetically pleasing whole.
That's my two cents (which may be worth even less). I'll recede into the shadows now and continue my interested but ill-informed lurking....
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