The wrong kind of details: the components of wonder (aka lmp's rant)

[Kuruharan]

lmp: You're married? Hmm, there goes my mental picture of the lone poet struggling with his verse on the streetfront of a little Parisian bistro. To be replaced with the mental picture of the harrassed poet arguing with his wife in the backyard, much to the amusement of the neighbors, as his treasured verse lies unregarded under a deck chair.

Ahh, the glorious misconceptions of the past...(a phrase that I seem to be using more and more of late).

Okay, here's another evil villain whose evil plans the good guys will frustrate, and this villain too will die at the hands of his supposed allies or some outside force because the good guys never murder, don't even kill in battle. They're too good.

I don't think that this storyline is inherently bad or devoid of wonder. It's just been overused, or misused. That was actually sort of the ending of That Hideous Strength when the N.I.C.E. was destroyed through the intervention of "outside forces." Although I have to admit that I read that series one right after the other so the "wonder" of Malacandra and Perelandra was still with me and the story-arc was still tied together. Estelyn may be right that THS might not have had that wonder in and of itself. It's hard to imagine that LOTR could have ended in a similar fashion (aside from the fact that it didn't) because Sauron's slaves would never have turned against him and overthrown him. Although his fall was indirectly due to "outside intervention."

it's the same as with the good horror shows - too much detail spoils the fun.

Along that line, I think that Sauron never personally making an appearance in LOTR was one of Tolkien's best ideas. It makes the enemy seem more dangerous and helps contribute to the overall wonder of Middle earth. (And it avoids the mistake of Milton, a point which was foremost in Tolkien's mind.)