Choices in Literature and Real Life

Today has been rife with talk about the coronavirus. Every class I went to discussed measures for protecting ourselves and those we may come into contact with, as well as what may happen after break (going online, quarantines, etc). One of the conversations I had today I found particularly interesting – someone made the comment that this year so far has seemed much like a beginning writer’s attempt at a dystopian novel – continually writing and rewriting beginnings. From the WWIII talk, to Australia on fire, to the corruption of our government and the rich in America, 2020 has been a rollercoaster. This comment made me think about how we view books, and the “logic” or illogic of the events they contain.

(Tangent, if you haven’t heard of the “Tiffany Problem”, look it up – its all about how things can seem too outrageous in a story, but were actually true in real life. During the 12th century the name Theophania was popular, shortened to Tiffany, but if you read a book set in the 12th century and saw the name Tiffany, would you cry foul?)

Tolkien had to make many, many, many choices while writing The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, and the Silmarillion, and somehow had to make sure readers would be able to justify each choice as making sense (or at least not breaking immersion) in universe. Some of this can be explained away via the “otherness” of Middle Earth. We don’t have Elves, Nazgul, or talking Eagles in our world (to name a few), so these are things that Tolkien chose to make “other” while still making sure they all seemed right for the world. Much of this, I would argue, he is able to do because of how slowly he brings each up to us. We are slowly introduced to how “other” things can be, and that allows us to believe that those things make sense in universe. One example of this was also brought up today in class – the Nazgul. We originally see them in Fellowship as a hunched dark figure hissing at the Gaffer – then as a black figure on a horse, then as the Ring-View-ancient-kings that Frodo sees, and we later (I believe in Two Towers, but I could be misremembering) we see them riding on the “fellbeasts,” or pterodactyl-like winged creatures. I think if Tolkien had chosen to bring them into the Shire already riding these winged steeds it would have felt far less natural (and, of course, the Nazgul probably would have caught the hobbits before they made it to Rivendell – another good reason not to give them flying steeds just yet).

To tie this back to real life though - if someone had written the events of this year as a creative writing project, wouldn't you have said "That's far too unlikely! Make it more realistic"? Honestly, after the way things are going this year, I'm not sure any of Tolkien's decisions could surprise me!