Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Quote: J.R.R. Tolkien "Tree and Leaf"

Tolkien views the act of story telling as a form of creation, like God the author creates his own world for the reader to inhabit and experience, and belief is essential for maintaining the stability of that world, “What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful ‘sub-creator.’ He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’; it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.” - J.R.R. Tolkien "Tree and Leaf"

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