Before the thread is closed and ensconced in Rath Dinen, I shall slip in (at least) one more post. Squatter and Mister Underhill have clarified a few things for me, and here be the results.
On the writer of the story:
Quote:
Tolkien Letter 192
"The writer of the story (by which I do not mean myself), 'that one ever-present Person who is never absent and never named' (as one critic has said). See Vol. I p. 65.
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(The debate whether that particular 'Writer' is 'dead' is an entirely different one, but one can easily surmise Tolkien's position in said debate.)
I believe the first quote above sheds light on the following statements:
Quote:
Tolkien Letter 92
What happens to the Ents I don’t yet know. It will probably work out very differently from this plan when it really gets written, as the thing seems to write itself once I get going, as if the truth comes out then, only imperfectly glimpsed in the preliminary sketch…
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What is this truth that Tolkien is expecting? Is it simply the story line, or does it have other aspects?
Quote:
Tolkien Letter 208
As for 'message': I have none really, if by that is meant the conscious purpose in writing The Lord Of The Rings, of preaching, or of delivering myself of a vision of truth specially revealed to me! I was primarily writing an exciting story in an atmosphere and background such as I find personally attractive. But in such a process inevitably one's own taste, ideas, and beliefs get taken up.
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TO me, this letter smacks of excess modesty-- or perhaps it is better described as humility, intentionally stepping back and releasing control in order to allow for something else:
Quote:
Tolkien Letter 89
…’eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the hightest function of fairy-stories to produce.) And I was there let to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth*…
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*(Tolkien’s capitalization, not mine.)
Tolkien describes this process as a triple interaction: the human writer writes the story; the reader reads the story, and perceives through the story a glimpse of the Truth (of which Truth Tolkien does not claim himself to be the author.) Therefore in this process there are three parties involved, not two.
He gives further clarification here in letter 328. The reader, the writer, and the source of illumination are related thus:
Quote:
Tolkien Letter 328
You speak of ‘a sanity and sanctity’ in The L.R. ‘which is a power in itself’. I was deeply moved. Nothing of the kind has been said to me before. But by a strange chance, just as I was beginning this letter, I had one from a man, who classified himself as ‘an unbeliever, or at best a man of belatedly and dimly dawning religious feeling… but you, ‘ he said, ‘create a world in which some sort of faith seems to be everywhere without a visible source, like light from an invisible lamp.’ I can only answer: ‘Of his own sanity no man can securely judge. If sanctity inhabits his work or as a pervading light illumines it then it does not come from him but through him. And neither of you would perceive it in these terms unless it was with you also. Otherwise you would see and feel nothing, or (if some other spirit was present) you would be filled with contempt, nausea, hatred. “Leaves out of the elf-country, gah!” “Lembas—dust and ashes, we don’t eat that.”
Of course the L.R. does not belong to me. It has been brought forth and now must go its appointed way in the world, though naturally I take a deep interest in its fortunes, as a parent would of a child.
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