Smith of Wootton Major in Middle Earth?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by lmp

Same author; different technique? I suppose so, but I doubt that technique is at the heart of it.

It could have something to do with it. I've been thinking how different the worlds of Smith and LotR etc are. To get to Middle Earth or Valinor all we have to do is pick up the books and we are there straight away, there is in fact a Straight Path for us. But to get to Smith's Faery we have to first travel through his world. And that in itself is a world unlike our own where bakers make fabulous cakes for the luckiest of the children at the party. Smith's Faery is harder to get to and harder to hold on to because it is one step removed from us.

That's like our dreams, too. To get to them we have to step into sleep, another world away from our conscious thoughts. Sometimes this is a good thing when we have bad dreams, but it can leave us feeling like we can't quite touch something wonderful when we have vivid dreams of places we have never been to or see people we will never talk to or meet.