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davem · 04-10-2003, 07:56 AM

But why does Tolkien sub create a secondary world where subcreation is so restricted? There's nothing really comparable in Middle Earth to Tolkien's own sub creative act.
Sub creation is really absent in a developed form in ME.
WHERE IS THERE AN EXAMPLE OF 'TOLKIENESQUE' SUB-CREATION (according to Tolkien, the ability in which we are closest to our creator) IN ME?!!
Sorry, but this is getting to me more & more as I think about it. There should be some Elvish equivalent of The Silmarillion! - ie an invented mythology within ME. Why are the great 'sub-creator's' sub-creations not also subcreative - & I'm not talking about objects, comic songs or 'histories'. Why don't they also create 'secondary realities'? They're also the children of a creative God.

But what you say reminds me of an article in the essay collection Proceedings of the 1992 Tolkien centenary conference, which suggests that the reason Feanor & his sons come off so badly in the legends of the Elder days is that Bilbo got his information about those times from Elrond & the Elves of Rivendell, who had reasons of their own to make the Feanorians look as bad as possible, & also suggests that Bilbo chose to write & perform his Lay of Earendel as a way of sucking up to Elrond by praising his father! The article was slightly tongue in cheek, but it does cause one to question how much the Elves did invent, & how biased their histories were.

04-10-2003, 07:56 AM	#7
davem Illustrious Ulair Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties Posts: 4,240	But why does Tolkien sub create a secondary world where subcreation is so restricted? There's nothing really comparable in Middle Earth to Tolkien's own sub creative act. Sub creation is really absent in a developed form in ME. WHERE IS THERE AN EXAMPLE OF 'TOLKIENESQUE' SUB-CREATION (according to Tolkien, the ability in which we are closest to our creator) IN ME?!! Sorry, but this is getting to me more & more as I think about it. There should be some Elvish equivalent of The Silmarillion! - ie an invented mythology within ME. Why are the great 'sub-creator's' sub-creations not also subcreative - & I'm not talking about objects, comic songs or 'histories'. Why don't they also create 'secondary realities'? They're also the children of a creative God. But what you say reminds me of an article in the essay collection Proceedings of the 1992 Tolkien centenary conference, which suggests that the reason Feanor & his sons come off so badly in the legends of the Elder days is that Bilbo got his information about those times from Elrond & the Elves of Rivendell, who had reasons of their own to make the Feanorians look as bad as possible, & also suggests that Bilbo chose to write & perform his Lay of Earendel as a way of sucking up to Elrond by praising his father! The article was slightly tongue in cheek, but it does cause one to question how much the Elves did invent, & how biased their histories were. __________________ “Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects."