noWizardme
Half-elven
Some of us recently discussed the idea of "cannon" as it might, or might not, be applicable to Tolkien. I dug up a Cory Doctorow quote, about which I've since been thinking. The salient points are:
There's a tendency to regard whatever the original author wrote as "cannon"
But,
we build up a picture of characters in our heads- potentially the author can write something we don't believe about them ("Spock would never say that" in Dototow's example, even though there he is saying it in an official script).
And,
there's a tendency, once you are engaged with a character to want to "noodle around" with him/her: imagine what they do when they are not in the primary story and so on. For example, fond of Thorin, one might write that he is miraculously medivac'ed from the battlefield to an ICU on Long Island, where he recovers thanks to ++very special++ care [
] - a harmless if rather silly project to amuse ones friends, rather than an attempt to fit in with the internal consistencies of Midtle-earth. (Er no, I haven't written that one…)
My post with The full quote is over here, if you want http://newboards.theonering.net/forum/gforum/perl/gforum.cgi?post=643685#643685
Anyway;
Since that discussion, I've been thinking that maybe it's not only secondary (fanfic) authors who want to noodle around with the characters.
For example, I'm thinking of The LOTR appendix note about Gimli, who we are told gets on the boat to Valinor with Legolas. It doesn't (to me at least) fit with how this boat going west thing is supposed to work. It doesn't seem to be set up in the main text ( unlike Frodos departure, or Legolas' ). I wonder- is this Tolkien, find of his character, slipping him a ticket in a weak moment? (Maybe the expostulation which follows suggests he knows he shouldn't really.)
Or, is this the final punch line in a running gag about Gimli's courtly admiration for Galadriel?
Or…? (Can anyone make sense of this bit ?)
There's a tendency to regard whatever the original author wrote as "cannon"
But,
we build up a picture of characters in our heads- potentially the author can write something we don't believe about them ("Spock would never say that" in Dototow's example, even though there he is saying it in an official script).
And,
there's a tendency, once you are engaged with a character to want to "noodle around" with him/her: imagine what they do when they are not in the primary story and so on. For example, fond of Thorin, one might write that he is miraculously medivac'ed from the battlefield to an ICU on Long Island, where he recovers thanks to ++very special++ care [
] - a harmless if rather silly project to amuse ones friends, rather than an attempt to fit in with the internal consistencies of Midtle-earth. (Er no, I haven't written that one…)My post with The full quote is over here, if you want http://newboards.theonering.net/forum/gforum/perl/gforum.cgi?post=643685#643685
Anyway;
Since that discussion, I've been thinking that maybe it's not only secondary (fanfic) authors who want to noodle around with the characters.
For example, I'm thinking of The LOTR appendix note about Gimli, who we are told gets on the boat to Valinor with Legolas. It doesn't (to me at least) fit with how this boat going west thing is supposed to work. It doesn't seem to be set up in the main text ( unlike Frodos departure, or Legolas' ). I wonder- is this Tolkien, find of his character, slipping him a ticket in a weak moment? (Maybe the expostulation which follows suggests he knows he shouldn't really.)
Or, is this the final punch line in a running gag about Gimli's courtly admiration for Galadriel?
Or…? (Can anyone make sense of this bit ?)
] She is supposed to look after sick people in her ICU, not drool on them
]