Let me begin here by saying that I mean no offense to any particular contributor here. I haven't had a good rant in some time, and I find here an opportunity.
I have been posting in the Canonicity Slapdown thread (nearly identical to this one in terms of fluff and frippery), but I have to say that the amount of noise being generated on this topic is certainly annoying and nearly fatal. In the other thread I have attempted to post my opinions with some lucidity, but now I'm throwing down the gauntlet.
With no attempts to read between the lines or find nuances of influencein some obscure turn of phrase in
Letters, I want a sound, authoritative reponse to the following. I will verbally flog anyone who responds to this post with an "I think..." or an "I feel..." Give me facts.
On the topic of Authorial Intent, I posted the following on the other thread:
Quote:
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I remember reading somewhere...that The Good Professor's main, or at least initial intention in writing LOTR was (I paraphrase) to see if it was possible for him to keep readers' interest with a story considerably longer than that of The Hobbit...Secondarily, I believe it was noted by Tolkien in yet another reference which escapes me that he essentially created the corpus of Middle-Earthian history and literature as a place in which his invented languages could "live." -- his linguistic sandbox, if you will.
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Now will someone please
QUOTE Tolkien and (1) remind me where these references are, and (2) demonstrate that there was something other than these purposes INTENDED by the author, in his own words, with references. Until you can do that (and I am not well-read enough to deny that such references exist), don't pretend to be discussing authorial intent. Anything else is either guesswork or indirect necromancy.
On the subject of reader interpretation, suffice it to say that there are as many identical points of view on "what Tolkien means to me" as there are idenitcal snowflakes. It appears to me that verbage (rhymes with garbage) is being multiplied
ad nauseum (with yours truly only adding to the weight of bandwidth) with ideas and whole conversations being repeated until the whole looks like a time-exposure photograph of a dog chasing its tail. Again, I truly mean no offense, but dadgummit, every reader is going to bring something different to this party, and judging one or another opinion as "mainstream" or "crazy" is not going to change the minds of those so inclined. It seems futile to say the least.
It has been said that insanity is "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Not only is the same thing being said over and over with no discernable result, but a new thread has been started which is paralleling the same stuff yet again. In my opinion, which I'm sure will be debated hereafter
, this is a thread which should have been closed a year ago.
But then again, I got a really good rant out of it, so maybe it *does* serve a purpose.
Flame away! And have
fun with it!