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Some of the details of tone & treatment are, I now think...mistaken. (Letter 131)
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Even if he wasn't being a perfectionist-- and I think he was-- even so, he said
some of the details of tone and treatment. That's a long way from saying, the whole work doesn't fit so throw it out. Details are details. To exclude the entire work based on a short list of details doesn't make sense.
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I might not (if the story had been more carefully written & my world so much thought about 20 years ago) have used the expression 'Poor little blighter.' just as I should not have called the troll William (Letter 154)
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Again, these are details, and throwing out the work based on these details alone doesn't make sense.
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The Hobbit was originally quite unconnected, though it inevitably got drawn in to the circumference of the greater construction; & in the event modified it.
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He could have said the same thing about LOTR, which he didn't realise was going to connect so thoroughly to the Sil until he wrote Weathertop.
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Even so it (TH) could really stand quite apart, except for the references (quite unneccessary, though they give an impression of historical depth) to the Fall of Gondolin. Letter 257.
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Saying that the tale could stand apart is not the same as saying it is disconnected.