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Originally Posted by Legate
I just think there are moments when one could leave his knowledge, and that's just what fantasy is for, and that's what, I believe, the Professor meant with the "trips to Faërie".
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Sure, and hey, I'm obviously a big fan of the Silmarillion and so on. And I maybe could have picked a better word than nonsense. But what I meant by taking the myths and superstitions for what they are, is that while they might be good enjoyable stories if you can suspend your disbelief, they are also contradicted by a strong set of real life evidence and indicaments, and are therefore simply not true, and one should be aware of that. Sure, while reading a novel you might allow yourself to drift away from modern knowledge, and that's perfectly fine and harmless. One might say Tolkien is like a great illusionist, who makes his lovely assistant disappear in plain sight, leaving the audience gasping for breath. Although they know it must be a trick, the effect it leaves is as if it truly were magic, just like Tolkien has us believing that Finarfin still rules the Noldor in Túna. While reading, we want to believe in the stories as if they were real and Tolkien makes this easy indeed. And I thank him for that.
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Originally Posted by Legate
Somebody just may want to forget that Elves don't exist but wants to imagine that just behind the trees in front of him, there is one hiding there. Isn't this, after all, what we are all sort of prone to doing here?
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Agreed.
What bugs me though in other walks of life is that people only see what they want to see, believe what they want to believe. When it's more convenient to believe in myths and fantasies than actual empirical evidence or just plain common sense (if there is such a thing), they do so, and when politics comes into the mix, this can be very dangerous. Therefore I say, don't shy away from the truth and see things are they truly are. For me it doesn't take anything away from a beautiful sunset knowing that it isn't in fact Arien retreating behind the walls of night. Indeed it just adds another dimension to my enjoyment of it, as
Nogrod says. As does Arien.