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Because, except for some present, there is a vague, general understanding that when you say you are writing something canonical (I heartily prefer the term "canon-friendly", myself) that you have loosely translated the longer phrase, "No jedis, star ships, Tarzan or Kings Kong; I'm gonna try my best to make it really blend in. Maybe you'll even wonder if the Professor had a hand in it." And most folk have a vague understanding that that's what you kinda sorta mean, and those who are interested in reading 'Something That Might Remind The Reader Of Tolkien' will decide whether or not to check your stuff out.
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Aha. Well, I do think, personally, that if you exclude (the) Tarzan and the Jedis, it doesn't make it necessarily canon/canonical/canon-friendly (Whatever term you choose to use..)
Anyway, why should we try to make people believe that Tolkien had a hand in it? What kind of goal is that? Tolkien is not here, so he cannot possibly have had a hand in it. Everyone knows he isn't alive today. So I don't honestly see a point in trying to pretend that he has had a hand in it, when he has certainly not.
As I said before, my previous post, I expressed some of the reasons why I don't believe in creating canon/canonical texts. (It looks kind of silly to quote your own posts (# 381), so I wont..
) But I still stand by those reasons.
Anyway, as badly as my question about putting so much effort into making ones writing canonical was formulated, I must correct it:
Why do you (Not all, but some) put so much effort into making your writings canonical?
I am changing this for one reason, and that is; I don't believe in making so called canonical texts, because I don't possess the spirit that Tolkien possessed. I'm happy when I write RPG posts that are
based on Tolkien's works. I sit down, clear my head and I try to figure out what I'm going to write. Suddenly (often after sitting a long time staring into the air, that is) I figure it out. I plan it; what my character thinks, what my character is going to do, what feelings he/she is going to express towards the situation he/she is facing and so forth. I already know that I'm not Tolkien (Can you believe that?
), so I don't even bother to think about what Tolkien would write here. My posts are mine, but they are based on the world Tolkien gave to us, to me. I'm perfectly happy about doing this, so I do not see a reason to follow everything so slavishly. (Maybe I'm happy about this because I do it for the fun of it, and I don't care about those who are possibly reading it?) As long as I take responsibility for my posts, I don't see the point in why I should make them so that people could think that Tolkien have had a hand in it. I am, however, willing to
edit my posts.
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When reading
HerenIstarion's little story, I think it reflects very well our differences, when we talk about whether this or that is in the spirit of Tolkien. We touch one aspect of his life, and are convinced that this is where his spirit came from. Then again, another may claim that another aspect is which drove him to write. We can argue and argue until we go insane, and never agree. But then again, I must ask, since I don't see it myself, why
you (
) try to write in the spirit of Tolkien? Can't we just leave Tolkien's spirit alone? (I've also said something about this in my previous post, heh..)
I don't think we need one to tell us what is right and what is wrong when it comes to Tolkien's spirit and his perspective on things. I think we just have to be aware that we are fully responsible for the posts we make, and therefore since our RPGs (meaning among them, at this site,) are
based on Tolkien's world and his works,
we must follow the rules, which apply to the site. I cannot recall anything saying that we should write in the spirit of Tolkien. It should be consistent to his world, yes, but his spirit is not mentioned. If making canon/canonical/canon friendly texts (which I don't believe in the least is possible, bwahahah), of course Tolkien's spirit should be one of the writer's concerns. However, as previously stated in previous post, we can try to imitate, we can try to make a potions that will give us full insight about everything and we can even convince ourselves that we are making a canonical text, but
none of us are truly following the spirit of Tolkien, because
none of us have the answer, or rather; none of us can define what lays within the word spirit, and definitely not what lays within the spirit of Tolkien.
Nova
EDIT: Cross-posted with Bęthberry