What if the books had been written by someone different? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Diamond18 · 05-11-2003, 11:26 PM

In all fairness, Bill, that was Mayhemish joke thread. I think Yavanna's looking for a more serious discussion on the topic.

On that note: I think it's impossible to say that anyone else could write "Lord of the Rings", because any novel (or at least, any good one) comes from the unique heart and soul of that particular writer, which cannot be duplicated unless one is just plagiarizing. Besides that, our subconscious creative minds are shaped by our particular lives, and no two people will live the same life. That is not to say Tolkien based it off of his own life, but of course how you grow up, and who you learn from, will affect what you know and how you think.

My fuzzy point being that writers don't just write books, they create them much the way you'd give birth to (or 'beget', if you're a guy) a child, and the book bears the resemblance to its author that a child does to its parent. It'll have the parent's genes and will be molded as the parent raises it.

So LotR would not simply have a different style or a few surface divergences in plot — if the idea was "born" to a different author, it wouldn't even be anything like the "Lord of the Rings" we know, in the first place. Because I doubt, even, that the idea itself could come to another writer, as LotR didn't just pop into Tolkien's mind: it grew from The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, which in turn grew from his love of languages, etc.

[ May 12, 2003: Message edited by: Diamond18 ]

05-11-2003, 11:26 PM	#5
Diamond18 Eidolon of a Took Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: my own private fantasy world Posts: 3,460	In all fairness, Bill, that was Mayhemish joke thread. I think Yavanna's looking for a more serious discussion on the topic. On that note: I think it's impossible to say that anyone else could write "Lord of the Rings", because any novel (or at least, any good one) comes from the unique heart and soul of that particular writer, which cannot be duplicated unless one is just plagiarizing. Besides that, our subconscious creative minds are shaped by our particular lives, and no two people will live the same life. That is not to say Tolkien based it off of his own life, but of course how you grow up, and who you learn from, will affect what you know and how you think. My fuzzy point being that writers don't just write books, they create them much the way you'd give birth to (or 'beget', if you're a guy) a child, and the book bears the resemblance to its author that a child does to its parent. It'll have the parent's genes and will be molded as the parent raises it. So LotR would not simply have a different style or a few surface divergences in plot — if the idea was "born" to a different author, it wouldn't even be anything like the "Lord of the Rings" we know, in the first place. Because I doubt, even, that the idea itself could come to another writer, as LotR didn't just pop into Tolkien's mind: it grew from The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, which in turn grew from his love of languages, etc. [ May 12, 2003: Message edited by: Diamond18 ] __________________ All shall be rather fond of me and suffer from mild depression.