Quote:
Originally Posted by TheLostPilgrim
If only Tolkien had been immortal...Imagine what could've come from his mind... [...] Although, it seems his mind was always changing, even on small issues, and perhaps he would've never reached any definitive conclusion even if given 100 years...He might have always been tinkering with it, never truly "satisfied" with it, always finding some new idea or twist on a story or new angle on a character.
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You touch on something interesting there - the artist and his struggle to be wholly satisfied with the art. As above, there were many things in even
The Hobbit that he wished to revise, and it took him twelve years to write
The Lord of the Rings. Though stretched with many other jobs and tasks, he did, after all, have several decades to write and finish
The Silmarillion. Imagine what he could've done with the luxury of being a writer by exclusive profession as some are afforded today.
Having just spent over 120 hours recording and producing a relatively simple album for my local church choir, I can identify with the concept. After you create a foundation - a draft, a demo, or a rough sketch - you could spend an endless amount of time editing and perfecting every little word, note, or line. If you want the art to be finalized in such a way that other people can enjoy your work, you eventually have to let it go.
Originally after completing The Lord of the Rings in 1949, he tried to convince George Allen & Unwin to publish
The Silmarillion and
The Lord of the Rings together. I wonder how close to completion it was in his own mind at the time. Even though they baulked, he must've had some short/midterm timeline in mind for completion and publication, don't you think? They waited 12 years for a completed sequel; I don't suspect he would've asked them to wait another 10 years for the Elvish history companion volume which he wanted available simultaneously.
And yet he lived 23 more years and didn't finish.