[Quempel]

/delurk/

After reading this thread more than a few times I thought I would chime in.

I believe that Tolkien himself is the only expert on ME. Since he is no longer with us, other's have tried to take up the helm of ME. Are those new writings legitimate ME stories? In my opinion no, they are the new authors take on ME. Only Tolkien would know his own mind on ME. However, this does not mean a new author could not take what is already written by Tolkien and write new, and dare I say, better stories on ME or the mythology of ME. Should we discount new writings on and about ME, no. But should we say they are official Tolkien stories, no, Tolkien did not write them, they would be official John Smith stories on ME.

This can be said of the movies also. PJ and co. did not write the stories, but they made great movies of what their own interpretation of the stories. Could another director and co. make worse movies, yes (RB comes to mind), but could another director make better movies about the same story, yes. Could someone besides PJ make a better Hobbit, maybe, maybe not. But the bottom line is Tolkien is still the composer, PJ is just directing the players to his interpretation of the story. Does it make PJ's interpretation better or worse than what Tolkien original work that is totally up to the audience to decide.


/lurk/