Seems Like Someone's Rooting for the Wrong Side

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Raynor

For the same reason?? In what manner can you say that Tolkien delighted in evil? I am really curious.

I'm speaking as an amateur writer here (RPGs for the most part), but what tales do you think are the most fun to write? The most satisfying to have come out finished?

It's not the happy ones.

Of all of Tolkien's tales, I would personally say that the one that would be the most satisfying to finish would have been the Narn i Chín Húrin. The Lay of Leithian simply doesn't compare, in terms of satisfaction of completion. Why? Well, this is all complete opinion as to why I would enjoy writing Túrin's tale most-- it's the saddest, most evil. Maybe we never see Morgoth or Sauron up close, but to say that we don't see much of them is simply nonsense. The entire tragedy of the House of Húrin is Morgoth's work. The dialogue of Morgoth and Húrin, and the dialogues later of Glaurung and Túrin are dialogues that I think would have been absolutely delicious to write. And yes, the good, noble characters would have been pleasing to write in all their tragic-heroic glory... but the really fun lines to have penned would have been Morgoth's, would have been Glaurung's.

It has already been brought up how Tolkien liked dragons... and I don't think anyone would say that Tolkien's dragons are nice characters. They are purely evil. But fascinating. Deadly fascinating. Are ANY characters really so seductive as Smaug or Glaurung? We know they are evil--Tolkien makes that quite clear--and we are glad when Túrin or Bard kills them... but they are compelling, fascinating characters.

Originally Posted by Raynor

This subject has been raised previously; if we check the Silmarillion, there is little said of Melkor, even at the height of his power. The most compelling part is one phrase. The same goes for LotR, as Sauron never takes the center stage; there isn't even a single instance where he is directly addressed in the second person. Should I presume you are reffering to mercy towards evil characters?

Mercy towards evil characters?

Not at all.

To be honest... I find the idea that one should berate readers for enjoying the evilness of the evil characters to be a little ridiculous. I was attempting to raise, with a deliberate pointness, the question that if one is going to censure the reader then one ought to censure the author. After all, in condemning those who view pornography, do we not normally reserve even greater condemnation for those who provide the pornography?

Of course... who around here wants to make the claim that Tolkien had some severe psychological problems and was morally in the wrong to have relished (as I think he must have) writing those scenes of evil in ascendance. And it doesn't even matter if he actually did relish writing them or not-- the logical principle remains the same. If we can conceive of Tolkien enjoying it, and still think him a moral person, then I think a reader enjoying reading the same cannot either be censured.