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Fordim Hedgethistle · 11-23-2006, 08:15 AM

OK -- being terribly reductive and probably simplistic here...but couldn't Tolkien simply have been acknowledging the difference between the creating-writer who pens a first draft and the editing-writer who takes that great shambles and renders it "finished" insofar as he makes sure that it "makes sense" (i.e. is internally coherent, presents a unified story and vision of its characters and action).

The creating-writer (in this model) simply goes with the story and gets it down. The editing-writer is one who shapes that material -- and given that Tolkien was Catholic and his work engages with moral issues it makes sense that this act of re-vision would be undertaken from that perspective.

Maybe the Professor was just being honest: "As I was revising the story I was conscious of the fact that I was a Catholic man who was reshaping it and rendering it coherent."

11-23-2006, 08:15 AM	#5
Fordim Hedgethistle Gibbering Gibbet Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Beyond cloud nine Posts: 1,844	OK -- being terribly reductive and probably simplistic here...but couldn't Tolkien simply have been acknowledging the difference between the creating-writer who pens a first draft and the editing-writer who takes that great shambles and renders it "finished" insofar as he makes sure that it "makes sense" (i.e. is internally coherent, presents a unified story and vision of its characters and action). The creating-writer (in this model) simply goes with the story and gets it down. The editing-writer is one who shapes that material -- and given that Tolkien was Catholic and his work engages with moral issues it makes sense that this act of re-vision would be undertaken from that perspective. Maybe the Professor was just being honest: "As I was revising the story I was conscious of the fact that I was a Catholic man who was reshaping it and rendering it coherent." __________________ Scribbling scrabbling.