Good digging! That's not the specific letter I had in mind, but it will do. Here is the passage I was thinking of, from Letter 131 to Milton Waldman (p. 146 in my paperback edition):
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I have not used 'magic' consistently, and indeed the Elven-queen Galadriel is obliged to reonstrate with the Hobbits on their confused use of the word [ie magic] both for the devices and operations of the Enemy,and for those of the Elves. I have not, because there is not a word for the latter (since all human stories have suffered the same confusion). But the Elves are there (in my tales) to demonstrate the difference. Their 'magic' is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations: more effortless, more quick, more complete (product, and vision in unflawed correspondence). And its object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous re-forming of Creation. The 'Elves' are 'immortal' , at least as far as this world goes: and hence are concerned rather with the griefs and burdens of deathlessness in time and change, than with death. The Enemy in successive forms is always 'naturally' concerned with sheer Domination, and so the Lord of magic and machines; but the problem: that this freightful evil can and does arise from an apparently good root, the desire to benefit the world and others--speedily and according to the benefactor's own plans--is a recurrent motive.
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And so, Ms Telcontar, I pass the challenge on to you.
10-20-2003, 01:39 PM
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