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the John the Baptist Technique – sending other characters ahead to announce and prepare us for how to think of another character...so when people like Gandalf, Aragorn, and Elrond speak of Sauron in tones of dread and grave worry
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John the Baptist Technique. That's a good way of putting it.
The reader can also observe the reactions of those two characters in the story who have a more personal encounter with Sauron, Gollum and Pippin. Connecting this idea with the visual concept of "the least seen monster is the scariest" Tolkien uses a written way of coming into contact with the "monster" but actually seeing little of him.
Gollum is the only character that we meet, aside from Elrond and the Mouth of Sauron no doubt, who has actually seen Sauron in the flesh. Gollum's experiences are shown through him licking his fingers as if remembering old tortures, various shudderings and cringings, and one physical description. Four fingers on the Black Hand, but they are enough! Through these old memories the reader has a degree of personal contact with Sauron, and it was clearly a terrible experience for poor Gollum. We get a glimpse of this terrible and powerful being, but only a glimpse.
There is also the fresh and vivid memories of Pippin after he looked into the Stone. Pippin did not see Sauron in the flesh, but had a meeting of the minds. It nearly broke him. One wonders what would have happened if another being of great power had not been there to help. The description that Pippin gives is vague, but powerful. Sauron apparently had a horrible...something. My guess would be glare or eye, but it is more moving because Pippin could not bring himself to speak it. Again this is the barest glimpse of the monster lurking in the shadows, but that is all we need, and all the author wishes to convey.
It could be said that Sauron appeared in the LOTR in the form of the Ring itself, and that's probably true. However, the Ring was not really the center of his being and intelligence.
And I was going for discussing the whole "old movie monster that we don't ever see" effect in the story.
