I wish there had been an entry for "depends on the quality."
Quote:
|
Letter 131: I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and scketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd.
|
The defensive ire we see in Tolkien's letters (and elsewhere) seems to me to be directed at the lack of respect for the characters and the "high, purged of the gross" character of the legendarium as a whole. I imagine he would be, or try to be, more patient with one who attempted to respect the characters and the quality of the mythology, than with folk who did not attempt either; say, the movie-adapters in Letter 210.