[Child of the 7th Age]

Sir Kohran -

This is a great thread topic. It is something that has bothered me as well.

There are many sides of this coin but some particularly stand out. First, there was Tolkien's inability to finish things. He was always dithering with his story....putting a poke here, a tweek there, and even starting some things over from scratch. According to Carpenter, there were several things that prevented Tolkien from finishing a story to his own satistfaction. Carpenter says Tolkien was overwhelmed with both personal and academic demands and, as a result, did not have enough time to do things in the "perfect" way he wanted to. (Remember that in addition to the books you listed, Tolkien wrote and edited a number of texts, essays etc. as a medievalist, which were part of his duties as a professor. Indeed, he spoke of "pressure" to spend less time on myths and more in scholarly pursuits.)

Carpenter also criticized Tolkien as being someone who put off projects and, as a consequence, never finished anything. (Boy, do I sympathize!) He also said that Tolkien loved the mystic allure of the unfinished picture. He preferred to have unexplanable mountains hanging in the distant mist. The last thing JRRT wanted to do was to tie everything down, cross every "T", and dot every "I". It would take away all the mystery.

If manuscripts aren't finished, then it is obviously hard to send them in to the publsher so all this has to be a factor. The other side of the coin is the publisher's attitude. We all know how JRRT struggled to get the Silm published in his lifetime. Part of the problem was that he couldn't get a clear cut "yes" from any publisher. Perhaps, if there had been a clear cut "yes", this would have made a difference in enabling him to finish things up and get them into print.

Basically, what I've been saying up till now are the "truisms" that are constantly repeated whenever someone talks about why Tolkien didn't put more into print. What's harder for me to tell is how many of these truisms are actually "true". One of the things that struck me lately is how heavily we are influenced by Carpenter's portrayal in his bio. Carpenter says many things that are more opinion than fact. They are not clearly documented because, almost by their nature, such things can not be proven. Two examples of this would be comments Carpenter made on the Tolkien marriage and another would be the whole question of whether JRRT did not finish things because of "procrastination" or some innate deep-seated desire not to see his projects end. I think a lot more can be said and considered here than I've seen discussed in print, and I would be very curious to see how other Downers view this question.

My gut feeling is that we have"bought into" Carpenter's stereotypes to a greater extent than we should. But if we don't buy into what he has said, then where do we start?

Really, an intriguing question. Thanks, Sir Kohran.