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Originally Posted by davem
Makes me think of Tolkien's comments:
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I have long ceased to invent. I wait till I know what really happened. Or till it writes itself. (Letter 180)
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But as it is - though it seems to have grown out of hand, so that parts seem to me rather revealed through me than by me - its purpose is still largely literary (&, if you don't boggle at the term, didactic). (Letter 153)
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& his comment on a visitor who said:'Of course you don't suppose, do you, that you wrote all that book yourself?'. Tolkien replied:
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'No, I don't suppose so any longer.' I have never since been able to suppose so.(Letter 328)
Maybe the real question should be 'Did Tolkien have free will'?
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If we take him at his word that he was, as he supposed, operating as God's tool or mouthpeice (or scribe) in the prophetic sense (and I, for one, do believe it)-- then it still remains that he had the option to refuse to serve, and the freedom to choose to serve or not to serve. In choosing to serve, he surrendered some of his choices regarding the design of that which he sub-created-- but his choice to surrender was freely made.