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Originally Posted by Child
This is probably way off topic from what you wanted and, if so, I apologize.
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Its not.
I find myself wondering what would happen if CT was to be a little bit more 'lax' in his approach to copyright over the stories. His approach seems to be that he puts up with what he can't do anything about. CT is, I suppose, in the main responsible for the 'scholarly', creator rather than creation approach. No-one can legally write & publish Middle-earth fiction, so writing
about M-e & its creator is the only option. Not that I'm entirely decrying the 'scholarly' stuff. Shippey & Flieger among others have shed important new light on M-e. But is that what we
really want? Don't we actually want more tales of Elves & Hobbits (& Dragons!), rather than more analysis of Tolkien's use of the Legends of the Liosalfar, or the way the Kalevala inspired the Legendarium?
Of course, one cannot expect CT to allow a free for all - as we've seen most fan-fic is not simply poor, its embarrassingly bad! Also, one could argue that writers should come up with their own stuff & not 'leech' off others - to put it at its most extreme. But there may well be a 'White' out there who could do more with the material, but is not allowed to. And fantasy as a genre uses 'Tolkienian' themes already. Yet CT seems desirous that his father's creation be seen, & treated, not as a mythology, but as a literary work.
All the scholarly analysis will not make M-e any more accessible, or really, any more
interesting. In fact, its quite likely to make it less so, a it will likely put off readers who just want to wander the forests of M-e & visit the Elves. There's a lot more of Sam in most of us than of Pengolodh. I think Tolkien knew this. I find myself wishing that Priscilla, Michael or John had been able to be that 'Sam' as Christopher is that 'Pengolodh'.
But there's the rub. One could argue that PJ is a kind of 'Sam', giving us another account of M-e - & I'm not a fan of what he did! So I can't say I'd be pleased with what the 'Sams' produced. However, that's my opinion. Some good things would undoubtedly come of allowing others to use the materials Tolkien gifted us with.
But this is not really about arguing for more fan-fic. I suppose its a bit of a rant against a 'scholarly' approach which inevitably moves towards a deeper & deeper analysis of aspects of Tolkien's creation which have at best a curiosity value for a certain type of 'intellectual' fan.
We seem to be on the verge of a two-tier fandom - the ones who want to, if not demolish the Tower, at least want to perform analyses on its stones, & the ones who simply want to climb it & look out on the Sea. After all, there are very few other things one can do with such a Tower.