Quote:
Originally posted by Tar Elenion:
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I have actually read The Hobbit more than LotR. It many ways I enjoy it more than LotR. I wish JRRT had been able to complete a fuller version of it. JRRT himself had problems with it:</STRONG>
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So, I think we all agree that
The Hobbit is a fine book. Your quotes of the Great One confirm what I've heard of him as a perfectionist. [i]The Hobbit[i/] is wonderful for all the reasons that I and others have said, and I feel he's being much too hard on himself. It isn't the masterpiece that
Rings is perhaps, but that the way of masterpieces.
As for
The Silmarillion, I think C. Tolkien did a commendable job of turning what he had into a complete work that was true to what his father had actually written in sufficiently finished and publishsable form. The problem I have with the other published works is that they aren't complete stories, but studies of the various ideas of one man. So, even as they suggest many great and richer things than
The Silmarillion, your still left choosing among various alternatives, after flipping through pages of annotation.
The Silmarillion provides a beautiful vision and scenes to stroll through, not glimpses of a Legendarium which hardly exists in a coherent form.
"Finality" is like pregnancy is finality, even if just "sort of", which is sort of an oxymoron. Aren't you either final or not. In any case, I often wanter if his own temerity or his father's wishes prevented C. Tolkien from putting it all together into something really maximizing the potential, and establishing full consistency with his father's work. He seems to have the writing skills.
Oh well. Now, I'm really going to stop. No more posting. Sorry Galadriel. You're great. Ban you, Babe. I don't think so.
[ February 18, 2002: Message edited by: Man-of-the-Wold ]