*coughs*
To go back to this really quick...
Quote:
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But I will admit there is a point where my own imagination would take over and the professor's opinion would be second. I wonder if there is anyone else who feels this way....
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I'm fairly certain I let my imagination take over, and if Tolkien would be upset by this, then he was just a grumpy old man who smoked too much. A brilliant one, mind you, but grumpy. Even after you put all the copyrights you can on a book or the like, but people can still do whatever they please with the words in it, to a certain extent. Plus you can write as many introductions, forewards, letters, readers guides - and there is a Middle-Earth for Dummies out there! - etc, as you want, but it's all still left up to the reader to decide whether you're just an old windbag who can write a jolly good yarn or not.
Facts
are a different matter, but are they really important if you're not planning to be the author of such things as 'Middle-Earth for Dummies'? Okay,
yes there's a certain thrill at memorizing little tidbits of information, and to have a brain full of wingless Balrogs and pointy-eared elves, but...isn't it just a fantasy world (even if
the fantasy world) and a bunch of books? Is it anyone's, even Tolkien's place to say that it is
his world so we've got to do it
his way?
I do not mean to offend anyone, but anal rententive is perhaps a good, if exaggerated, description. Though after this I might have to learn to be as sneaky as Fordim, that tricksy one...
