Tolkien-Based Fanfic and Historical Bias

[dawn_felagund]

As some of you may know, I am presenting a paper in about a month's time at the New York Tolkien Conference. The paper will concern how we writers of Tolkien-based fanfic use the historical bias suggested in his books as an inspiration for our stories. Here is the abstract from the NYTC website:

Comments

[indy1776]

Elrond is the chronicler?! Color me shocked.

1) I only tend to do this with LotR, and only to the extent that the Hobbits don't know everything and have a limited knowledge of the world outside of the Shire. As far as the Silm goes, I don't consider it at all except in the general "the victors write history" sense, and even that doesn't really affect my fic. So I don't have much of anything to say about this.

3) You have free rein to use my LACE meta.

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! :)

Bilbo is the actual writer, but Elrond is the most likely source of the information Bilbo used to write the Silm, so his biases are the ones conveyed (according to Lewis). Let me know if you want the article; I have it in PDF form.

[indy1776]

You're welcome!

That makes a bit of sense-- though I tend to think Bilbo relied heavily on Elrond's library. I'd love to read the article! (Heh. Speaking about biases: I have my own dearly-held view about Maglor and Elrond's relationship that the article's likely arguing against.)

[dawn_felagund]

Lewis actually (oddly?) never addresses Elrond's affiliation/relationship with the Feanorians. That's a weaker point of his argument, imo; he should have at least addressed it, even if he concluded that Maglor taking pity and all that still didn't give him much of a positive view of the Feanorians. (Although the Silm is more balanced toward M&M than the others, which does support Lewis's thesis. Since it was a conference presentation, he may have run into the problem I always run into: lack of time! :D So I shouldn't be too hard on him.)

I haven't written an Fan Fics yey

[jaredmith]

But this is a theme I'd like to explore.

Lewis for all the criticism he gets did depicts the Calmorleon culture as having positive traits, especially in Horse and his Boy. It might be interesting to draw some inspiration from there for telling a story from the POV of Rhun.

RE: I haven't written an Fan Fics yey

[dawn_felagund]

We're talking about different Lewises! :) Alex Lewis is the author of the paper I'm using for my presentation. Much as I like C.S. Lewis's writings on medieval literature, I've never been able to get through the whole Narnia series ...

RE: I haven't written an Fan Fics yey

[jaredmith]

I brought up Lewis entirely on my own, I didn't think you were mentioning him.

The Fic I'm going to work on probably won't have much Historical Bias really, but it will deal with the idea that the works that make up the Published Sil and LOTR/Hobbit are 100% accurate.

[febobe]

I can't say I've tackled this, but it makes me want to try something using it...wow. :)

So, I wonder, if Frodo is the author of LOTR, what biases would he have? Frodo doesn't strike me as one to portray himself in an overly positive light, and certainly one would imagine that if he were doing so he might have come up with a "nobler" explanation for how his finger was amputated. I'm curious what others think might be Frodo's potential biases other than "hobbits are vital and important and good," which does (of course) make sense....

-Febobe :)

[jaredmith]

I've always wondered why The Hobbit prefers Goblin while LOTR prefer Orc. Because the Explanation at the beginning of The Hobbit says Orc is what the Hobbits usually call them.

I guess Bilbo never expecting his Memoirs be of much interest to his own kind. But after the Scouring Frodo knew The Shire would want to read the tale.

[dawn_felagund]

I think their biases would be very similar to ours, actually. For one, being a very insular culture, there are huge swaths of the world that they are completely unfamiliar with, or that they've only heard of in terms of myths/legends and therefore view stereotypically. Rather like some insular communities in the U.S., i.e., when my husband and I went to Dublin a few years ago and I had coworkers fearing for my life because they were convinced I was going to be killed in an IRA attack ... :^/

They're an agrarian society, so it's likely they'd be biased toward the values of that society: hard work, community, simplicity, mother wit vs. book knowledge. Cultures that prioritize different values may be viewed negatively.

I'm no Hobbit expert and it's getting late, but that's just what popped first into my mind.

[ladyelleth]

Oh, goodness. I feel like I'm really not smart enough for this discussion, and I'm pretty wary of kicking loose a wank avalanche since I don't hold with a lot of readings (particularly parts of the tumblr crowd, and I don't know whether or not they check here), so I'll not waste your time with attempting a response - but Himring brought up an interesting point about historiographic bias and the author's own that I like very much. It's not meta per se, "just" a review on SWG, but I think it might be very relevant to your topic, http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/archive/home/reviews.php?type=ST&item=2328.

[dawn_felagund]

I wish you would "waste [my] time" (assuming you want to) and also that you wouldn't dismiss yourself so easily. You're more than smart enough for this or any Tolkien discussion.

Thank you for the link! That is exactly what I'm talking about. :)

[karri_kln1671]

I write about Thranduil and his Wood-elves because it seems to me that they were tossed aside as unimportant to the history of Middle-earth on the written works because they weren't Noldor, and therefore hardly worth mentioned (or giving a ring to or inviting to the White Council) despite their role in the important events of Middle-earth. Add to that that they are oft maligned in fanfiction, it all makes me feel it necessary to give them a positive voice.

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! I see your fanfic is linked on your LJ, so I will definitely check it out. :)

And unrelated to the project, but I totally agree and hope to cover the insignificant role certain groups of characters are assigned, for the reasons you give (and also that they were possibly not literate--or as literate--and so their histories would not have been as accessible to Bilbo, who was working in the Rivendell library).

[karri_kln1671]

Much of it is also posted at Many Paths to Tread: http://www.lotrgfic.com/viewuser.php?uid=299