Fiction in Middle Earth

[davem]

Sophia, I wonder if they do consciously 'sub create' their world/themselves. I suspect its 'automatic', an essential part of the way they relate to things. I even begin to wonder if they could respond in any other way. Art, after all, is essentially an 'embalming' process. It is about capturing a moment, a thought, an image, & 'freezing' it forever. So, the Elves are 'embalmers' because they're artists. Being embalmers in this sense is not something they sould be condemned for. Artists embalm. They create & embalm. That's art. They do it to their world, their history, themselves, even time itself. How could it be otherwise with the greatest works of art of the greatest artists. That's why it has to be 'gated worlds' rather than 'gated communities' - every work of art, poem, painting, story, is in this sense, a 'gated world'. You enter into it through a 'gate', but once you've passed through the gate, you're in another world, not a different community in this world.
This is why, I suppose, there's no 'fiction' at least from the Elves. For them everything as far as they can make it be, is 'fiction'. Which is not to denigrate what they do, making the world (& yourself as part of that world) into a work of art is as valid an approach to living as any other - is our way, of seeing the living world as a source of raw materials to exploit, any better. Is embalming worse than destroying?