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littlemanpoet · 04-27-2005, 01:51 PM

I'm moved by your post, mark12_30. Not only do you point out a valuable distinction, but you effectively evoke that to which you assign greater value.

So why is it that The Silmarillion seems so ..... like looking through a spyglass at something real but remote ..... while Smith seems, like you said, as if I'm looking inside my own dreams? Same author; different technique? I suppose so, but I doubt that technique is at the heart of it.

Does The Sil convey truth with the same power that Smith does? I don't think so. I've rarely been moved by The Sil (cannot include Valaquenta, etc. - Tolkien didn't); but I am moved deeply every time I re-read Smith.

Oh, and thanks for moving this thread onto something really worth thinking about.

04-27-2005, 01:51 PM	#7
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	I'm moved by your post, mark12_30. Not only do you point out a valuable distinction, but you effectively evoke that to which you assign greater value. So why is it that The Silmarillion seems so ..... like looking through a spyglass at something real but remote ..... while Smith seems, like you said, as if I'm looking inside my own dreams? Same author; different technique? I suppose so, but I doubt that technique is at the heart of it. Does The Sil convey truth with the same power that Smith does? I don't think so. I've rarely been moved by The Sil (cannot include Valaquenta, etc. - Tolkien didn't); but I am moved deeply every time I re-read Smith. Oh, and thanks for moving this thread onto something really worth thinking about.