The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - "just a book" or "a descriptive treatise on an imaginary ecosphere " ?

Lyta_Underhill · 07-25-2003, 12:26 AM

I treat a book as an exercise in sublime beauty to the extent that a book opens to me the multifaceted realms of mystery and imagination and allows me to not only suspend disbelief but to annihilate the very concept!

The "descriptive treatise on an imaginary ecosphere" becomes for me a word painting. Whether it be drawn from the artist's memory or imagination is immaterial, and the real beauty of Tolkien's work is this blending, or the "sub-creation" concept--author as chronicler, as if he is reporting on the doings and history of a world that may be in his mind, but is not necessarily originating there. In one of Tolkien's Letters (don't have it to hand, so I can't be more specific) someone asks him if he has an affinity for the visual arts, or if ME was influenced by works of art; Tolkien replies that it was not influenced by visual art...I am not very clear on the specifics, but the man shows him earlier depictions that look like ME and tells Tolkien "You don't really think you made the whole thing up, do you?" after which Tolkien reflects with the phrase: "Pure Gandalf!" The man may be implying that Tolkien has drawn from perhaps not only visual or other works before him, but perhaps a collective understanding of reality. Sorry if this is not too clear, but I hope I made the point I tried to make.

If a book plucks that thread--the universal thread that reaches beyond the intellectual and into the spiritual and aesthetic realms, then it is more than "just a book!"

Cheers and sorry for the ramble!
Lyta

07-25-2003, 12:26 AM	#4
Lyta_Underhill Haunted Halfling Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: an uncounted length of steps--floating between air molecules Posts: 841	I treat a book as an exercise in sublime beauty to the extent that a book opens to me the multifaceted realms of mystery and imagination and allows me to not only suspend disbelief but to annihilate the very concept! The "descriptive treatise on an imaginary ecosphere" becomes for me a word painting. Whether it be drawn from the artist's memory or imagination is immaterial, and the real beauty of Tolkien's work is this blending, or the "sub-creation" concept--author as chronicler, as if he is reporting on the doings and history of a world that may be in his mind, but is not necessarily originating there. In one of Tolkien's Letters (don't have it to hand, so I can't be more specific) someone asks him if he has an affinity for the visual arts, or if ME was influenced by works of art; Tolkien replies that it was not influenced by visual art...I am not very clear on the specifics, but the man shows him earlier depictions that look like ME and tells Tolkien "You don't really think you made the whole thing up, do you?" after which Tolkien reflects with the phrase: "Pure Gandalf!" The man may be implying that Tolkien has drawn from perhaps not only visual or other works before him, but perhaps a collective understanding of reality. Sorry if this is not too clear, but I hope I made the point I tried to make. If a book plucks that thread--the universal thread that reaches beyond the intellectual and into the spiritual and aesthetic realms, then it is more than "just a book!" Cheers and sorry for the ramble! Lyta __________________ “…she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea.”