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Old 12-15-2000, 01:36 PM   #1
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This seems like quite an obvious thread and possibly lacking in originality (chances are it's run before and I missed it), but I can't help wondering what Tolkien would be doing today, were he still living (assuming immortality were possible, let's say). Would he have been happy to have left the Middle-earth saga as it was at the end of the Third Age, or would he have kept developing the 'branching acquisitive theme', continuing to produce novels more for his publishers than for his own imaginative satisfaction.

Or is there more to it than that? Perhaps I have presented the question too plainly; what do you think?

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Old 12-16-2000, 06:43 AM   #2
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/onering.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: If Tolkien were still alive today...

He'd be pretty old and not doing much today if he were still alive. Maybe doing a little writing still. But at 108 years old you don't do much. Unless you're an Elf, as you're still young at 108.


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Old 12-16-2000, 04:07 PM   #3
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/onering.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: If Tolkien were still alive today...

I think he would dictate mostly, maybe to CT. Plus being that old he might forget a few things, like the fact that Balrogs can't fly because they don't have wings.
But wasn't he supposed to write a sequel to LotR?

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Old 12-17-2000, 04:52 AM   #4
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/onering.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: If Tolkien were still alive today...

Waitaminute. Someone here told me Balrogs have wings.

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Old 12-17-2000, 08:37 AM   #5
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/onering.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: If Tolkien were still alive today...

Oh no you don't! I just can't allow this arguement to pop up in every thread! Stick to the topic at hand you rascals! <img src=wink.gif ALT="">

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Old 12-17-2000, 03:20 PM   #6
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/onering.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: If Tolkien were still alive today...

Okay, I'm sorry. But I was just trying to giving an example of something Tolkien might be a little fuzzy on, since he is like 108. A better example might be which way he would finally decide to go with on who Gil-Galad's father was.

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Old 12-17-2000, 07:12 PM   #7
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/onering.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: If Tolkien were still alive today...

I think Tolkien would be too old to do much writing himself.
CT has noted in Unfinished Tales that many of his father's later writings were often illegible,and that some contra-
dicted things he had written earlier. But then again,keeping
down all the details of his world is difficult enough for
anyone. If he were still alive though, The Silmarillion would probably be different then the one we know,since he
did not consider it finished at the time of his death.

P.S.- Wasn't Gil-Galad's father Fingon?

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Old 12-18-2000, 09:25 AM   #8
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/onering.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: If Tolkien were still alive...

Were Tolkien alive today, I would hope that he'd have a part in overseeing the production of the LOTR film. It would help ensure that his vision was true to what he intended in the books.

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Old 12-18-2000, 05:52 PM   #9
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Age

OK so the professor would now be 108. That's only 21
years older than my grandfather, who still composes entire piano concertos and writes some of the clearest and wittiest letters I've ever read.

So let's assume that Tolkien was still fully able to write and had resumed full use of his memory... what then? Dictation? I hardly think so. The image of Bilbo in RotK handing his life's works to Frodo together with instructions on how to edit and compile them is of course relevant to Tolkien and probably reflects a lot about his own situation at some point in his life, but I don't buy the idea that old age necessitates dependance on a 'clerk' to finish one's own work really. Presumably CT shared a generous amount of his father's literary responsibilities throughout a large part of his being alive and was therefore the natural and rightful heir of his estate following his death. I like the idea of the two of them working TOGETHER, sharing one another's passions and joining their imaginations to develop and enhance certain areas of the work. It would have to be a world that grew between them and as a result of reader's responses; academic contributions being offered when necessary from fellow professors at Oxford etc; artists throwing in sketches or suggestions for creatures and places; surely in this day and age Tolkien would be having immense difficulty preventing people from trying to shape ME for him, what with all this modern technology and all that. And surely he would have had no recourse but to take what was offered and apply what he liked of it to his and CT's ideas. The possibilities for development nowadays are absolutely VAST, as most of us here probably realise already. I don't think he was anywhere near finished with it, which is one of the reasons I started this thread.

Anyway what was that about a proposed sequel to LotR?
PLease tell me more....

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Old 12-19-2000, 08:00 AM   #10
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Age

I'm glad he isn't alive to see his books being made into movies.

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Old 12-19-2000, 09:09 AM   #11
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Lorien W.

Sad to admit it, but I guess that I sort of agree. <img src=ohwell.gif ALT=":\">

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Old 12-22-2000, 02:00 AM   #12
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Lorien W.

He could have made sure no one screwed the movies up.

But if he were alive today, he probably would have to write several letters to clear up things that he had said in earlier works. Just think of all the things that aren't known in his books. Like balrog wings, the origin of dragon, giants, if trolls turn into stone or not, all the discrepancies in lineages, the list goes on.

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Old 12-22-2000, 07:05 PM   #13
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Letters of explanation

The idea that, if he was alive in this age, Tolkien would be spending all his precious time answering endless questions about detail and trivia and IF this and WHAT IF that, and who is related to who, etc etc is one I find a bit hard to understand. I fear I might be missing the point: but the groundwork has been DONE. Let them eat eat cake, quite frankly. I think he would be being strongly urged to move on, to explore different areas of the mystery continuum that he is so much a part of that he finds it difficult to write it all down coherently. He was never a perfectionist, so he would inevitably keep venturing onwards.

I can see him being rather generous about sharing the artistic licence as regards the films; after all, that
way he would probably get to make more money, thus improving his stakes of surviving any adverse reaction to them. He could claim any textual deviations/defects were not his fault and still keep the majority of people happy by producing new work. I wonder what his homepage would look like? I think he would be encouraged to visit as many LotR sites as possible, to judge for himself the effects of his work. By now he would completely familiar with the concept of RPGs of course... maybe even endorsing ME-related RPGs or products such as Mithril miniatures... <img src=eek.gif ALT=":eek"> Crikey! Imagine the effects of mass-merchandising on his estate if he was still alive! He'd become a millionaire in no time! Surely that would effect his writings in some way or another --- which makes me wonder - would he then have more or less to aspire to as an individual?
How might sudden immense wealth shape his stories?
What about the impact of modern warfare; the threat of nukes etc...? The list goes on. Thoughts? <img src=smile.gif ALT="">

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Old 12-23-2000, 09:43 PM   #14
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Letters of Explanation

<blockquote>Quote:<hr> He was never a perfectionist, so he would inevitably keep venturing onwards.<hr></blockquote>

I beg to differ. If you read Humphry Carter's biography, you see cases of Tolkien going back and fixing things up, years after they were written, simply because someone wrote to him pointing out the discrepancy. I'm not talking about major flaws, either, but the sort of things no-one would really notice, minor flaws in genealogy or geography or whatever. If that isn't a sign of perfectionism, I don't know what is.

<blockquote>Quote:<hr> I wonder what his homepage would look like?<hr></blockquote>

Tolkien wasn't a major fan of technology - I doubt he'd even bother with a computer, let alone a homepage. After all, who needs a website when you've got books? <img src=wink.gif ALT="">

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Old 12-23-2000, 10:01 PM   #15
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Letters of Explanation

I quite agree with Zoe.

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Old 12-24-2000, 12:21 AM   #16
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Letters of Explanation

I would just like to point out that I said something about the lineages, so I am going to agree with Zoe since she said something I did(that barely ever happens, it seems like I am always wrong).

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Old 12-24-2000, 03:04 AM   #17
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Letters of Explanation

He would propably drown into enormous streams of letters and phone calls from fans. <img src=laugh.gif ALT=":lol">

Or then he'd be writing under a secret name.

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Old 12-25-2000, 06:02 AM   #18
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> lol...

Yes, he'd have to re-write the LotR and Sil to get rid of balrogs and trolls, just to shut us all up... <img src=smile.gif ALT="">

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Old 12-27-2000, 06:19 AM   #19
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: If Tolkien were still alive today...

He would direct the LOTR film himself and I could be sure he would do it well and not decieve me.

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Old 02-08-2001, 03:54 PM   #20
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Medical musings

I wonder if he would still be up to writing after smoking all that pipe tobacco? (thought I'd try and reboot the thread...)

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Old 02-08-2001, 06:57 PM   #21
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Medical musings

Good to see you Grey Fool, you need to post more often. I would say Tolkien would have made a Complete Silm. not like the one out now, but one consisting of about 5 books maybe. In it he would put several finished stories from his notes that he never got to finish and he would have a few appendices that make everything clearer to his readers. Like some of the appendices found in the HoME series.

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Old 02-10-2001, 01:23 AM   #22
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Medical musings

I rather think he would sue PJ. Hopefully anyway. <img src=wink.gif ALT="">

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Old 01-15-2002, 02:14 AM   #23
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If JRR was alive today he would still be irritated (to understate) by the continuing impostion of analogeous interpretation on his work. Or maybe he would have given up on everyone by now..."For the last time, Sauron is NOT Osama Bin Laden!"
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Old 03-08-2002, 02:04 AM   #24
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hey all you critising LOTR movie
of copurse it's not a book, it's so very different, but think again you couldn't make the book into a movie the way it is
could you?

for the movie was magical and funny, one of those movies you never want to end
didn't you feel the same way?
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Old 03-09-2002, 08:17 AM   #25
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iv always wondered: what if tolkien had lived longer? would he have writen more middle earth books? would the characters have had more adventures? would we have heard of frodo, sam, bilbo, gandalf, legolas and gimli in the west?

sadly we'll never know.
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Old 04-20-2002, 10:03 AM   #26
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Somehow, if good ol' J.R.R. was still alive today, I'd feel pretty sorry for the guy. I mean, really, he hated technology, and people would always be bugging him about Balrog wings Gil-galad's dad and things like that. If I were him, and he was alive, I'd take all my writings and high-tail it to where I could just finish writing in peace!
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