Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Aiwendil
If and when this happens it will be most unfortunate. But it has not happened yet. It seems a bit premature to start worrying about it - especially since, as you point out, this ought to be just as much a concern for any literary work. I do not think that CT's precedent makes some future distortion of the text much more likely.
|
Yet it does seem to me that the treatment of LotR raises a legitimate cause for discussion and, yes, perhaps even concern. I am no literary scholar and have little knowledge of the textual development of literary works. But how many other works have the same wealth of interpretive material (HoME, Unfinished Tales, the Letters) available? How many have undergone the same textual development, to the extent of alterations in the wording that can be (justifiably) interpreted as changing the meaning of significant elements? I may be wrong, but I get the feeling that, by virtue of CT's assumed role in this (worthy though it may be), LotR is in somewhat of a rare, if not unique, position in this regard.