Transmission theory: what the heck was Tolkien thinking?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I don't know if it was quite the case that Tolkien had overtly rejected the ideas he was considering in the Myths Transformed texts, so much as he was ambivalent. He had already, in the late 40s, gone to a round world model and back; and, like us, his modern Science Mind was aware that the Earth is round and orbits a Sun that is at least as old, but his Literature Mind was also aware that his cosmological myth is utterly beautiful if utterly "unscientific."

The whole idea would of course be hard to sustain if followed through completely: the Science Mind knows that the Evening Star is an uninhabitable earth-sized planet millions of miles away, not a guy in a boat with shiny jewel, but it ain't nearly as good a myth.

Besides, how "scientific" is a world with dragons, invisibility rings and giant glowing trees?