The Perils of Pedantry

[Boromir88]

I've thought about this for several years now. Although, I refer to it as a "hobbitish" impulse, and not me being pedantic.

I call it a hobbitish impulse, because this quote from the Prologue to Lord of the Rings sums it up perfectly and sounds better than admitting I was a pedant (former pedant? reformed pendant?):

Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were accurate: they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.

I'm not sure exactly what caused the switch. In general, I wasn't enjoying reading anymore. I had never read The Silmarillion or any of the HoME books. I only treated those as references to scrounge for facts when I wanted to post something on here. So, I made a concerted effort to actually read those books and they're quite different, but I got a lot of joy out of them. I wasn't trying to find some fact to "win" a debate. I don't even think I was posting on the forum, I just read them for my own enjoyment.

I noticed in The Silmarillion "it is said," (or "the Wise say") might be the most commonly used phrase in the book. So, it's kind of hard having a hobbitish impulse of wanting "no contradictions." I think that impulse was the cause of my loss of interest. It was actually a quote from Leonard Nimoy that got me rethinking about how I approached reading Tolkien. (Now that I'm also typing this out, it can probably fit in to Bethberry's thread).

"Canon is only important to certain people because they have to cling to the knowledge of the minutiae. Open your mind! Be a Star Trek fan and open your mind and say 'Where does Star Trek want to take me now.'" - Leonard Nimoy, May 2009

I'm more of a casual Star Trek fan, I watch the TV shows and movies (that is I'm not on any Star Trek forums nor do I visit any of their websites) but I thought his quote was interesting. I like to think now I have a "Nimoy approach" when I'm reading Tolkien. I think about "where is Tolkien trying to take me now?" For example, today, I always thought it was just Sauron vs. Gil-galad and Elendil. Pitch disagreed and I can see where he's coming to that conclusion. So which one of us is right? For myself, it doesn't really matter anymore. We both made our points and it's nice to look at something differently, even if I might disagree.

This change is also why I've loosened about adaptations. I watch movies and shows for different reasons. It's a chance to (hopefully) see something different. If I wanted a Tolkien story I would just read his books. Of course in any adaptation, there are certain expectations that it has similar themes or a same "feel." But these are subjective and going to be different from person-to-person. What I'm generally trying to say (as this is getting long enough and it's approaching time for sleep):

I appreciate the creativity and depth of the fandom. It's truly astonishing. It spans generations and cultures, each of us with different experiences of why we adore the same author. I love the lore and the history, others get inspiration from creating art or writing stories, and others get really interested in Tolkien's languages. That's the neat part to me. We are all so different, but have this one very specific thing in common.