Aiwendil
I think Saucepan Man is probably right in that the 'revised' Sil discussion has gone as far as it can - We do disagree on our ideas of 'Art' because for me a work of art is the expression of certain ideas by a particular artist. Our understandings of what, exactly, Tolkien's 'art' was 'for' or what it 'means' also seems to differ. I can't for the life of me see a 'coherent' Sil, constructed from bits & pieces of different stories written over a period of 50 odd years, giving any insight into the artist himself or the creative process involved.
And in a way this brings us to
Saucepan Man's 'Jungian Gauntlet'.
Aiwendil & the others involved in the RS project seem to be thinking in terms of an 'Archetypal' Middle Earth, which has some kind of 'objective' existence in some other kind of 'reality', which Tolkien himself was attempting to set out in as perfect a form as he could - he got 'flashes' of the truth here & there, but not in every story he wrote, so its simply a matter of studying the texts, finding the 'true' parts, whether they are in Bolt, QN, QS, LotR, Hobbit, or 'Myths Transformed, & putting those 'true' parts together & constructing
the truth about this alternate world. If we could do that, they seem to think (unless I'm completely misunderstanding them - as I've admitted I probably am, because their reasons for doing what they're doing still don't make sense to me) we will end up with a 'truer' vision of Middle Earth than we have so far.
The question is, are we dealing with such a case - does ME have an 'objective' existence of that kind, or are the writings the product of Tolkien's 'personal' unconscious, using Archetypal images & themes? Probably the Legendarium is a combination of the two - at least Tolkien himself believed he was not 'inventing'. But he is not simply 'channeling' tales from an alternate/objective (psychological) 'reality' unquestioningly, as he also states that the in the revision of LotR he deliberately worked to make the story conform to Catholicism. Of course, we don't know how hard he worked to make it conform.
If it is the case that Tolkien was in touch with some archetypal 'other world' then to the extent that we ourselves are able to tap into that archetypal (& if that 'reality' is truly Archetypal, we should be able to) then we would have a sense of what was 'true' & what was not, & so we could produce a 'true' account of the History of that World. But... We are then throwing out Tolkien the artist. He becomes simply a pioneer, the 'first' explorer of that world. We would then be in the position of following him & 'colonising' this 'New World', confirming some of his 'discoveries' & rejecting others as false or mistaken. Yet H-I would have us think in terms of
all the different versions/accounts of that world as being in some sense
equally valid, coming from different people at different times, each with their own value system & agenda.
So far so good. But if this is the approach we are to take, then it is entirely possible that another 'explorer' of Middle Earth, you, I, or those involved in the RS project, could disprove one of the 'pioneer' Tolkien's discoveries, show one of his accounts to be wrong, & we would have to accept this explorer's account over Tolkien's, as being a 'truer' account. So 'canonicity' goes out the window, as we replace that idea with one of 'true' or 'false'. In that case, a work of Fanfic which contradicted Tolkien's writings would not,
should not , be automatically rejected, as the writer may be right & Tolkien wrong. And then we will get factions arising, denominations forming, heresy trials & possibly writers as well as texts being consigned to the flames
Or we can see the Legendarium, unfinished & incomplete as it is (much though we
might wish it wasn't - & personally, I like the fact that it isn't complete, or set in stone
) as the work of one individual artist, attempting to share his
unique vision with us, & simply accept the vision itself, without concerning ourselves overmuch with what inspired the vision. Whether the 'world' Tolkien saw & presented to us as Middle Earth is 'another reality' (whther an 'inner' or an 'outer' reality is not really the issue) & is as he has depicted it (when he was 'successful') or whether it is merely
this 'reality', our own, mundane world, seen 'through enchanted eyes', is in the end beside the point. The
vision itself is what enchants, not the world it is a vision of.
So 'canon' comes second to enchantment, & the vision is more important than what is 'actually' seen. But that 'vision' is the vision of a single artist, & it encompasses what that artist has been able to include, at different times, from different 'angles' with many differing reasons over his long life, for what he chose to look at, & how he was able to see it.
As to my fanfic 'game', its difficult to play alone, but the more I think about the implications of it, the more intriguing it seems, I must admit.