[alatar]

This post may or may not make a point, obscure or otherwise; be warned.

• Anyone with access to time-travel technology please take a laptop back to the good Professor, one preferably with speak/write and word processing software installed. Ever think what we would have today if we weren't limited by the physical writing process?

• Maybe, after devoting much of his life to Middle Earth, Tolkien wanted to get away from fulfilling the insatiable fan requests and simply just write greeting card text.

• Do we truly want more, or is it that we just want that feeling back that we had when we first read LotR, when we were innocent and Middle Earth was brand new? Is this feeling nothing more than the adrenaline rush that we got when we first walked across Middle Earth with Frodo? Does that not mean that the amount of text that is or could have been provided meaningless as it would never bring back that chemical rush of the 'first time?' Surely if the appendices or the Silmarillion were rubbish, we would lose all hope and possibly move on, but they weren't and so we got strung along a bit longer than usual, letting the addiction/desire gain a better foothold on our hearts. I think that, even if we knew what Beren had for breakfast on the morning that he lost his hand, it still wouldn't be enough.