Mystic Muse reads The Silmarillion.

[pendell]

I didn't realize I'd murdered the conversation. Sorry .

Still, I've been thinking over the past day or so : Why Did Illuvatar create sub-creators to assist him in his work when he could just have done at all himself? For that matter, why make elves and humans who are also very capable of evil, of twisting and ruining his designs, even without a fallen Vala to egg them on?

The answer I'm coming up with is: Illuvatar doesn't want to be alone in the cosmos. He doesn't want to be a child playing with dolls. He wants to be an adult playing with his children. He doesn't want to just create art; he wants artists. Artists who will follow his design, like children coloring in a coloring book, or like a proud parent watching their grown daughter belt out "Flight of the Bumblebee" effortlessly in a flute solo for the Boston Philharmonic. Or, even further down the road, turning to their child's youtube channel and see the most wonderful videos with music combinations, their own creations which he did not create himself but still follow the patterns of beauty, truth, loveliness that he set before them as the original model.

That's why dolls don't cut it. Because it's still just him moving them around on puppet strings. If you want, like Pinocchio, a child that is not simply a wooden toy but a Real Boy, you've got to give them life and will of their own.

Thing is , if you're going to create Real Boys (and Girls) then you have to accept the downside that comes with Real Humans. To wit, real sons and daughters aren't china models which are only pretty and never cause trouble. Real people are a handful at any age!

Respectfully,

Brian P.