But this is the one point in the fantasy of the Silmarillion on which we, the readers, proceed with authority. We were there, Gandalf: we were there at the close of the Third Age.
Two thoughts, divergent. First: how amazing, at the end of a magisterial text, to invite the reader to rethink the whole damn thing. Not to undermine it, to lampoon or lambaste—but to encourage new questions, new depths of thought, insight: who else was there? At the ride of Fingolfin, at the kinslaying of the Teleri? What has been forgotten? Soon after Dashiell Hammett published his third novel, The Maltese Falcon , to critical acclaim and strong sales, he accepted a position as crime fiction reviewer for the New York Evening Post ….
Most writers do. Only detective story writers seem to be free from a sense of obligation in this direction, and, curiously, the more established and prolific detective story writers seem to be the worst offenders…. It is quite upsetting at any reasonable range. It is some little time before any burning or other painful sensation begins. Even among writers, believe me. It is one of those Horrible Truths one would rather not face…. Does anybody ever come up to a musician and say, Tell me, tell me—how should I become a tuba player?
If you want to be a tuba player you get a tuba, and some tuba music. And you ask the neighbors to move away or put cotton in their ears. And probably you get a tuba teacher, because there are quite a lot of objective rules and techniques both to written music and to tuba performance.
And then you sit down and you play the tuba, every day, every week, every month, year after year, until you are good at playing the tuba; until you can—if you desire—play the truth on the tuba. It is exactly the same with writing. You sit down and you do it, and you do it, and you do it, until you have learned how to do it….
