Why is it so difficult? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

FlimFlamSam · 08-04-2011, 01:17 PM

Galadriel55 spoke: [You can see that The Sil was unfinished, but, personally, I never had the feeling that JRRT "didn't want to finish it". He didn't want to complete it until he was sure everthing was right, true, but that's different from what you say.]
No, it was his lifelong hobby.
One he did not want to "finish".

Even when re-writing things from Lord of the Rings to better fit into his Silmarillion. Same as he did for The Hobbit to better fit with Lord of the Rings. "Until everything was right" is highly subjective.
He just plain liked to tinker, even with "completed" things.

Galadriel55 spoke: [Maybe you can try phrasing your thoughts differently, so that we'll see that we're wrong?]
All right. So I'll dismiss the long-standing covert letter campaign to Tolkien groups and their heads (and fans) alluding to his Silmarillion and complaining that readers wouldn't like it according to the publisher; along with letters to the publisher itself.

Or other little side-notes in things like The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle or The Adventures of Tom Bombadil trying to generate interest in fans for his mass of jumbled notes and half completed and often contrary tales he called The Silmarillion, where the general public believed it to be complete and ready for publication and simply shunned by the publishing company. Not to mention public appearances where the same was done.

It was simple martyr syndrome. A much more agreeable situation to him, especially as he was a self-admitted heavy-duty procrastinator (not only in writing but in his academic professorship duties as well--see the multitude of admitted instances in Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien); and he received a ready excuse of sympathy from fans for enduring a long-suffered rebuke.

08-04-2011, 01:17 PM	#11
FlimFlamSam Pile O'Bones Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 25	Tinker tinker tinker Galadriel55 spoke: [You can see that The Sil was unfinished, but, personally, I never had the feeling that JRRT "didn't want to finish it". He didn't want to complete it until he was sure everthing was right, true, but that's different from what you say.] No, it was his lifelong hobby. One he did not want to "finish". Even when re-writing things from Lord of the Rings to better fit into his Silmarillion. Same as he did for The Hobbit to better fit with Lord of the Rings. "Until everything was right" is highly subjective. He just plain liked to tinker, even with "completed" things. Galadriel55 spoke: [Maybe you can try phrasing your thoughts differently, so that we'll see that we're wrong?] All right. So I'll dismiss the long-standing covert letter campaign to Tolkien groups and their heads (and fans) alluding to his Silmarillion and complaining that readers wouldn't like it according to the publisher; along with letters to the publisher itself. Or other little side-notes in things like The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle or The Adventures of Tom Bombadil trying to generate interest in fans for his mass of jumbled notes and half completed and often contrary tales he called The Silmarillion, where the general public believed it to be complete and ready for publication and simply shunned by the publishing company. Not to mention public appearances where the same was done. It was simple martyr syndrome. A much more agreeable situation to him, especially as he was a self-admitted heavy-duty procrastinator (not only in writing but in his academic professorship duties as well--see the multitude of admitted instances in Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien); and he received a ready excuse of sympathy from fans for enduring a long-suffered rebuke.