I enjoyed last week's discussion of Gandalf's treason comments. What do you think of this extended analogy to help clarify Gandalf's attitude toward Saruman?
A veteran scholar comes across a troubling bit of data. The more the scholar follows the evidence, the more difficult it becomes to reconcile with the views of the world's foremost expert on the subject, which have long been the consensus in the field. Our scholar has a reputation for straight talk, and he has a sadly strained relationship with this expert, who tends toward egotism (and also happens to be most uncannily persuasive). Still, the scholar has great respect for the expert and trusts the expert to ultimately follow where the evidence leads.
So what does our scholar do with his hunch? An overconfident amateur might confront the expert immediately—or try to win over other scholars to the new hypothesis behind the expert's back. An underconfident amateur might second-guess his hunch, lay everything before the expert, and take his word as law. But our scholar is a veteran, so he keeps mum, gathers his evidence until he is fully convinced, and then takes his watertight case to the expert privately.
In Tolkien's day-to-day world, maybe Gandalf would have been aiming for a coauthorship.
A veteran scholar comes across a troubling bit of data. The more the scholar follows the evidence, the more difficult it becomes to reconcile with the views of the world's foremost expert on the subject, which have long been the consensus in the field. Our scholar has a reputation for straight talk, and he has a sadly strained relationship with this expert, who tends toward egotism (and also happens to be most uncannily persuasive). Still, the scholar has great respect for the expert and trusts the expert to ultimately follow where the evidence leads.
So what does our scholar do with his hunch? An overconfident amateur might confront the expert immediately—or try to win over other scholars to the new hypothesis behind the expert's back. An underconfident amateur might second-guess his hunch, lay everything before the expert, and take his word as law. But our scholar is a veteran, so he keeps mum, gathers his evidence until he is fully convinced, and then takes his watertight case to the expert privately.
In Tolkien's day-to-day world, maybe Gandalf would have been aiming for a coauthorship.