‘Canonicity’: the Book or the Reader?

[davem]

Originally Posted by SpM

by the same token, I would say that there is no reason why a Tolkien fanfic should not include aspects of human nature that Tolkien does not specifically address in his works, provided that they are dealt with in the spirit of Tolkien’s writing.

And would we be required to take Tolkien's moral/religious position - ie, we could have gay characters, but we would have to present that as 'wrong'.

Its difficult to explore this aspect of canonicity without straying into an area that some posters will be uncomfortable with, but the question is about whether Tolkien's moral position, shaped by his Catholicism, is canonical, or whether canonicity only relates to the facts, geographical, historical, biological, of Tolkien's world. Can we include the moral & philosophical dimension in with other facts of Middle Earth, or are they 'optional'? I still think this is the central, unanswered question of this thread.

To expand the question, would a fanfic which presented Sauron or Saruman as heroes, & was approving of their actions be 'canonical' as long as it stuck to the historical 'facts' of LotR, or would it be 'uncanonical' because it went against the moral values which Tolkien espoused?