Middle Earth: The Inside Story... Or is it more?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba

I want to discuss something about how many of us have felt about Middle Earth. Very often I've heard or read people explaining that while reading The Lord of the Rings (especially), they felt 'drawn into' the world. I was no exception. But I wonder, did Tolkien himself feel the same way?

Not being a writer myself, the creative process is somewhat alien to me, and I must confess never having much desire to learn about the mechanics of story telling and the craft of literary creation.
As wondrous as I find the Professor's works, I have never read any of the HOME series, beyond brief glimpses in the local book store, and have no compelling desire to do so.
That said, I think any author of fiction who is at least tolerably good at it, must fall into the world of their story and believe in it themselves; otherwise, how could we readers take it seriously? Personally, I don't feel any more 'drawn' into Tolkien's books than I do for the works of other authors. For me, when reading a book I like, the suspension of disbelief and sense of being there are equal, whether I'm reading The Silmarillion, Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot, or Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study In Scarlet. Tolkien's books are especially dear to me though because I do love the world, the characters, and in particular the incomparably exquisite and powerful liguistic style.
Speaking of Stephen King, he has written fairly extensively of his particular muse and the ways in which it works on him. He makes repeated references to losing one's self in the story, and not having any idea just how it's all going to work out in the end until he arrives there. That sounds similar to some of what I've read of JRRT's comments of how he wrote the books. Just from reading Tolkien's published works, I don't feel any special sense of his connection to the world of his creation, at least, like I've said, nothing more than other writers who know how to grab you and keep you enthralled to the very end.
Perhaps, not having read HOME, I may be at a bit of a disadvantage.
Please excuse any exceptionally uninformed comment or blatant inanity you find here.