Anomalies

[Bêthberry]

Interesting point, there, Rimbaud, to acknowledge Tolkien's writing habits and processes.

Umberto Eco has an article on popular culture, translated from an Italian newpaper, about this very kind of narrative gap or inconsistency.

Eco's point, and he is talking specifically about "Casablanca", is that it is this kind of art, narrative with holes and gaps and inconsistencies, which make for "cult art", the very anomalies themselves drawing widespread reader interest, in fact enabling extensive supposition and endless speculation.

Other examples would be Malory's 'Morte d'Arthur' and the entire plethora of Arthurian legend. In our own day, X Files.

Bêthberry