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Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man
But, in telling us how we should view this character or that event, isn't Tolkien restricting our "readerly freedom" to make up our own minds?
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The example that springs to mind is the reader who asked why Gandalf messed up at the gates of Moria, and offered several explainations. Tolkien's response:
He said that he forgot. Why didn't you believe him?
Why, indeed. Do I trust the narrator? If not, then why am I reading the book?
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Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man
But, all the same, do we not risk losing out from "delving too deeply", as bilbo puts it? Does not our very awareness of the author's own (firmly expressed) views on his text risk obscuring our personal vision of the perilous realm, as inspired from our own interpretation of the text?
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I suppose that could happen. It didn't happen to me. When I read the Letters, it separated the Perilous Realm from Tolkien. He became a narrator, like many other narrators out there, who saw into the perilous realm, or was shown it, and given the gift of reporting what he saw. The letters show his looking, his pursuit, as surely as is described in Smith. Why would that obscure my vision? Temporarily, it may; but in the long run, it inspires me to pick up my walking stick, head into the woods, and see what I may for myself.
I suupose when one man prophesies, a response might be, don't get to know that man, because knowing his weakness might make you doubt the prophesy. But another response might be, "Prophet! Apprentice me, and teach me to see!"
I choose the latter.