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The White CouncilCall to Arms (or Fidelity vs Fiction)Tolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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The White CouncilCall to Arms (or Fidelity vs Fiction)Tolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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Posted by Berembrôg on March 11, 2000 at 09:49:57 Our local Tolkien group recently discussed a tale which won this year’s local award for best JRRT fan fiction. Everyone was enthusiastic about it. Mine was the only dissenting voice for reasons I will give below. I am somewhat irate, to put it mildly, over the position of my ‘colleagues’ and I would like to hear your opinions regarding the matter. The short story was based on the corruption of Sauron. My opposition arose from the following: 1) the author describes a palace of Melkor in Aman which, although never mentioned (I believe) in the texts, is not all that unbelievable for the period of Melkor’s false repentance, prior to his stealing the Silmarils. The problem is that he is served by demons, and winged demons at that. Does anyone else besides me notice the incongruity of blatantly evil demons living in Aman, the “Blessed Realm”? 2) the author names Sauron prior to his corruption just that, Sauron, which as we all know means ‘abominable’ in Quenya. Now this was discussed some time back, but might it not be possible, indeed probable, that Sauron received his eloquently straightforward name AFTER he was corrupted? So he was known by another name (Thû, Tû, Túvo) in the Beginning. 3) lastly and most importantly, Melkor corrupts Sauron in Aman, in Aulë’s Halls (or Smithy, or whatever). Now it has always been my impression that Sauron never reached Aman but was corrupted in the Ainulindalë in which he already was a Maia of Aulë. Can anyone prove me right or wrong? The story in itself is very well written but the whole premise of the first paragraphs is wrong. For this reason I am of the opinion that the author should not have received first prize. I was the only one. Now, I live in Italy and Italians are notorious for being artists and for not following rules. The other members of the group felt that the points above were insignificant and called me a fanatic. Well, excuse me but I believe that if someone writes a short story set in Middle-Earth, then they should at least respect the texts (unless it’s a “what would have happened if” story). If you don’t want to respect the parameters set down by Tolkien himself then give your story another setting. In short, I believe fidelity to JRRT is more important than any esthetic qualities of a story. The Italians believe the exact opposite. I would really like to hear your opinions about this. Cheers Berembrôg
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