‘Canonicity’: the Book or the Reader?

[The Saucepan Man]

But for either the one person or the second person to try to impress their beliefs on how to exegite the text of the manual, is wrong.

But isn't that what Tolkien is doing when he seeks to impress his interpretations of his text on those with whom he is corresponding, bilbo?

He talks about Frodo and Gandalf and Faramir as if they lived down the street. He knows what they would and wouldn't do, what they would and wouldn't say. And he demands the same faith from his correspondents, and rails if they fail to give it

I understand what you are saying, Helen, and, believe me, I am finding the insights which I am gaining from reading his Letters fascinating. But, in telling us how we should view this character or that event, isn't Tolkien restricting our "readerly freedom" to make up our own minds? I suppose not, since we are free to accept or reject his interpretations. But, all the same, do we not risk losing out from "delving too deeply", as bilbo puts it? Does not our very awareness of the author's own (firmly expressed) views on his text risk obscuring our personal vision of the perilous realm, as inspired from our own interpretation of the text?

(This line of thought runs contrary to the reasoning adopted in an earlier post which I made on this topic, but I am pursuing it nevertheless as I think that it is perhaps an issue worth exploring.)