Why is it so difficult?

[FlimFlamSam]

Inziladun spoke: [You don't care for it, apparently. I think that's quite clear.]
Yeppers. Clear as crystal I think.
I've already said I was deeply immersed in it on both a reading level and scholarly level for nearly 30 years. Now--get it away from me!
Almost like a bad marriage that was once good.

Unfortunately there are no Lord of the Rings only message boards that deal strictly with Lord of the Rings and not any accessory books.

Galin spoke: [I would say is somewhat reflected in Tolkien almost changing publishers]
That worked out well!

Somewhat?
He burnt that bridge with glee didn't he? Then had to come crawling back and do some sketchy repair work, and do some boot-licking.

Letter #123 is hilarious. "Dilatory coils of Allen & Unwin". What a riot.

#124 is even funnier. "I cannot contemplate any drastic re-writing or compression." Then asking for the formal letter declining to publish for legal matters after declaring it a bloated (600,000 words and a scary thing to contemplate publishing at the time; in addition to the estimated 400,000 words of the then Silmarillion) monster unfit for children, which is what the publishers were expecting and made monetary payments for-- a sequel to The Hobbit and thereby hoping they would reject it by asking (nay demanding later) to have them publish both. Since that was a condition the new publisher was ready to accept, once Mr Tolkien finished the Silmarillion he wanted to go there instead. And STILL trying to pimp The Silmarillion [B]at the same time[/BI] to Allen & Unwin as the better alternative to publishing Lord of the Rings instead.
And to publish them both NOW!

#125 Reminding Allen & Unwin how long the book is and that he doubted readers would stick with it, aside from his close friends. Yeah, you don't want to publish that! Especially since it cannot be divided up artifically into smaller books for ease of publication. So sorry Charlie. Reject it! Reject it!
You want this nearly equally long and clearly unfinished book instead! You know, the one you already rejected (albeit through misunderstanding of the lay instead of prose).
But I understand if you want to back out now. Do it! Do it! Riot!

#127 Are you going to publish both or not? Yes or no? No! Oh happy days!

#133 After the new publisher backed out due to the very things Mr Tolkien used to get out of his Allen & Unwin contract.

To Allen & Unwin--"I have modified my views" (because I need money and you were at least willing to publish Lord of the Rings until I was a jerk and uncompromising in order to get out of the contract and go elsewhere). "Can anything be done to unlock the gates I have slammed myself?".
Oh BTW belated congratulations on your marriage that I never gave earlier because I was angry with you and hoped your slimy soul rotted in purgatory.
I uhhh had tennis elbow, yeah that was it. Call anytime! Hoping to hear from you!

[Galadriel55]

FlimFlam, think whatever you want of The Sil - even if you think it's not worth the paper it's printed on - but do not be so disrespectful towards JRRT. To paraphrase a line from LOTR, if you have nothing to say but ill, please keep silent.

[Nerwen]

FlimFlamSam–

Again, if you don't like it, don't read it. Again, why should you expect any writer's creative output and method of working to be tailored to you personally? I have seen this attitude in teenagers, of course, but most of them do, however, eventually grow up and realise that the world does not revolve around them. By your own account, however, you are a man of mature years– which quite honestly shocks me.

Also, there is the matter of your attitude towards other posters. While it is true that I have been pretty blunt, others have been much more polite and forbearing– and you've replied to them, too, in a tone of what I can only call dismissive contempt. You have made it quite clear that you have no respect for anyone else's opinion, and no interest in anything I should call discussion.

I have to ask: if, as you claim, you are not here to stir people and pick fights... then why?

[Morthoron]

FlimFlamSam types, FlimFlamSam opines, but FlimFlamSam seems incapable of using the quote button at the bottom right-hand corner of each post, thus irritating other posters by taking their quotations out of context and jumbling his hyperbole in with their points. Here's an example for FlimFlamSam to follow:

Originally Posted by FlimFlamSam

I've already said I was deeply immersed in it on both a reading level and scholarly level for nearly 30 years. Now--get it away from me!
Almost like a bad marriage that was once good.

How odd it is for someone to have allegedly studied an author's corpus on a "scholarly" level for three decades, but then suddenly become jaded on the subject or, rather, the foundational aspects of the material (which act as cosmological underpinnings for a grandly epochal subcreated mythos). One might think, on a strictly cynical level, that using the term "flim flam" as a nom de guerre is far too apt in this case to be coincidental.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

How odd it is for someone to have allegedly studied an author's corpus on a "scholarly" level for three decades, but then suddenly become jaded on the subject or, rather, the foundational aspects of the material (which act as cosmological underpinnings for a grandly epochal subcreated mythos). One might think, on a strictly cynical level, that using the term "flim flam" as a nom de guerre is far too apt in this case to be coincidental.

Originally Posted by Lady Brooke

I've heard of slow readers, but really? It took you 30 years to realize you didn't like a book? Wow. You must have read a word a day.

Indeed. I don't like to accuse anyone of outright lying, but I must say that I too am finding this "30 years of meticulous scholarship" business very hard to believe. I mean, all this sounds to me much more like somebody who has only recently dipped into Tolkien's non–LotR writings, and become infuriated that they didn't fit whatever his preconceptions were.

EDIT:X'd with Mr FlimFlam himself.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by FlimFlam

Morthoron spoke: [but then suddenly become jaded on the subject or, rather, the foundational aspects of the material.]
Suddenly? Nope.
Nor am I new here. Well, I haven't posted for about 10-12 years here or thereabouts, so I guess that does make me new or a newcomer in a manner of speaking.
The people who knew me best back then; HerenIstarion, Mithadan, Tar-Elenion, Lindil and a few others are most likely no longer here and I have not checked on their status as of yet.

The first two mentioned are still around. Perhaps they can shed some light on this.

Originally Posted by FlimFlam

I have done some criticism of Mr Tolkien and his work. That seems to upset some people--in some cases deeply. Oh well.

Once again– it was not the bare fact of your criticising Tolkien's work, which you are welcome to do, it was the manner in which you did it.

[FlimFlamSam]

Nerwen spoke: [The first two mentioned are still around. Perhaps they can shed some light on this.]
Thank you for the information.

I have passed through fire and Tolkien internet death and have come back at the turn of the tide.
If it matters that much to you, grab your phial and call out "A Elbereth Gilthoniel!"

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by FlimFlam

Since then, my gag-reflex towards those materials, including UT, and everything else not strictly Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit has taken irreversible hold.

Then there's not much point your posting about it on a discussion forum, is there?

Originally Posted by FlimFlam

I have summarized my views in appropriate threads and paraphrased some letters and posted on fairly recent topics in others

Oh yes. I was actually about to ask if you were, er, let's say acquainted with a certain other recent member who showed much the same strange pattern of simultaneous trolling on some threads and "scholarly" posting on others. But then I remembered he was amenable to using the quote button.

[Nerwen]

Btw., I should have should have said "the first three"– lindil is also still active.