Transmission theory: what the heck was Tolkien thinking?

[Galin]

I think that plenty already in The Silmarillion can still happen (in a sense of reader participation as it concerns what "really" happened), on a round earth and under a pre-existing sun. And there are plenty of magical or fantastic things that remain.

And if folks allow (and enjoy) a flat earth idea to be true, despite that part of the mind can still conjure up "well, that's impossible" without given a choice from the story itself, can't the same folk, side, in a sense, with Mannish legends?

Admittedly, an "in story undermining", being part of the reader experience, arguably makes it easier for questions to intrude, and sway the reader to choose a more likely opinion, but within the reader experience, one is still allowing (if the writer does his job well) the fantastic to be true. Then maybe it's about individual measures.

What version of Pi's (Life of Pi) story is true? Or which do you prefer? And then again both versions are fiction.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Galin

I think that plenty already in The Silmarillion can still happen (in a sense of reader participation as it concerns what "really" happened), on a round earth and under a pre-existing sun. And there are plenty of magical or fantastic things that remain.

And if folks allow (and enjoy) a flat earth idea to be true, despite that part of the mind can still conjure up "well, that's impossible" without given a choice from the story itself, can't the same folk, side, in a sense, with Mannish legends?

Admittedly, an "in story undermining", being part of the reader experience, arguably makes it easier for questions to intrude, and sway the reader to choose a more likely opinion, but within the reader experience, one is still allowing (if the writer does his job well) the fantastic to be true. Then maybe it's about individual measures.

What version of Pi's (Life of Pi) story is true? Or which do you prefer? And then again both versions are fiction.

I expect it's rather like a fundamentalist's adamant word-for-word view of the bible as opposed to a more liberal Christian's understanding of biblical events through the lens of modern, accepted science.