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:

In 1992, Alex Lewis presented a paper at the J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference in Oxford, England, in which he made the argument that Tolkien’s Silmarillion was constructed to reflect the political biases of the fictional chronicler of the text: Elrond. Lewis shows that characters affiliated with Elrond tend to receive more treatment in the text, and their actions are cast in a positive light, whereas characters outside of Elrond’s lineage—Lewis focuses specifically on the Fëanorians—receive relatively little coverage of their positive actions and tend to be depicted negatively by the narrator.

Lewis’s findings have been almost wholly ignored by Tolkien scholars, despite the implications of his findings for how The Silmarillion could be read as a work of history therefore subject to historiological considerations. However, another group that deeply reads, studies, and analyzes Tolkien’s texts has not only made a similar observation as Lewis but has acted, often significantly, upon those observations: writers of Tolkien-based transformative fiction, or fan fiction. Preliminary survey results show that this group is deeply committed to the study of Tolkien’s world in order to write fiction set in that world. These writers often express a desire to explore the perspectives of characters either ignored or maligned in the texts and sometimes write with the explicit purpose of righting the historical record where misrepresented characters are concerned.

This paper will consider how Tolkien’s construction of historical bias in his books influences the creation of transformative fiction based on those books. Lewis claims that part of the reason The Silmarillion is so compelling is because it mirrors the complexity of real-world history, including in the presence of political bias. The types of fan fiction being written about Tolkien’s books and the often inverse relationship between the characters Tolkien emphasized and the characters fan fiction authors write about suggests that the presence of political bias in the texts is a driving force behind the creation of transformative works. Fan fiction writers often view Tolkien’s books as historical texts and their own role as providing alternative texts within the historical record, using subtextual and intertextual analyses to construct stories that offer alternative readings consist with Tolkien’s larger canon. Finally, this activity suggests that Tolkien was successful, despite his doubts, in creating what he termed in a letter to Milton Waldman "vast backcloths" of myth and history that would inspire other creators.

I am hoping my fellow writers can help me with gathering some information for my paper.

1) If you consider historical bias (the fact that the in-universe narrators of the books might have made mistakes, slanted the stories to present a particular character/group in a particular light, or even outright lied) when writing your stories, please let me know!

2) I am interested in any recommendations of stories and authors who do this: who offer alternative readings of the texts on the basis that the in-universe narrator could not have known everything, might have made mistakes, or might have distorted facts or lied.

3) And finally, I am interested in any meta that considers these topics.

I have many ideas of stories and authors, of course, but I'd like to offer a broader example than just those I'm familiar with. Also, any Tolkien-based fanfic--not just Silmfic--is welcome. Comments are open here, or you can email me at DawnFelagund@gmail.com or PM me in the usual places.