The Case for Larger Lamps
Ok, so I just finished listening to the podcast I missed on the 25th, and while the hosts made some very fair arguments for miniaturizing the Lamps, I simply cannot let it go without codifying my arguments against their position. In the vain hope that they will read this post and say, "You know what, Nick is totally right and we were so wrong." Or not ... Let me see how cogently I can do this.
Style
The primary argument for the miniaturization of the Lamps is how they will look on screen. The word "phallic" was used a couple of times in the description of a tremendous tower reaching skyward, clearly showing a fairly negative view of such things. Unfortunately, our world of Middle Earth is full of towers of varying heights and descriptions, so this really isn't something that can be avoided. As far as the structure of the towers themselves, I see something more akin to the Eiffel Tower than Washington Monument. The base would be a particularly tall mountain, perhaps 5 miles in height, with the pillar coming up from the center. It should be narrow enough to not necessarily dominate the skyscape, especially as it nears it's pinnacle. At a significant distance, say, from Almaren, the atmosphere itself would obscure the base and the pillar itself would look something like the moon does when you see it in the daylight.
I've used Ringworld as an example before, and while I feel that the image above shows the 'Great Arch' as being far more dominant in the sky that the Lamps should be, it isn't terribly far off. I think that if we do it right, the lamps will look magnificent.
Logistics
Ok, so let's look at the "why" behind the Lamps. Yes, we want light for Almaren for aesthetics reasons, but we also want to help photosynthesis along. Remember that before the Lamps, our trees are not very ... treeish. The lamps accelerate plant growth over all of Middle-Earth. The Lamps we have that are just local to Almaren absolutely will not do this. That means that there will be no forests until the sun rises. If we are ok with having the forests grow without a source of bright light, then this eliminates this problem, but that presents it's own set of difficulties. As to the logistics of building the Lamps themselves, given time, I am fairly confident that those of us involved in this project could construct Lamps that were only several hundred feet high, even without any prior experience. The Lighthouse of Alexandria was only 450 ft. high, and yet I feel that with an unlimited (even by death) amount of time, we could manage it.
By the way, it only had a visible range of 20-30 miles. Curvature of the Earth is a limiting factor there, though so, take that for what it is worth.
There is, of course, the argument that if the lamps are too far away, how could their ruin reach Almaren, but I think there are a few solutions there. The structure of the landscape could guide the fiery liquid to the doorsteps of the Valar, for one. Another, is that the material within the Lamps themselves could be under great pressure. When the crystal that contains it is broken, it could expand to a far greater volume. Not that this has to be demonstrated on screen, but, for reference purposes ...
Thematic
This is, in my thinking, the greatest argument for the lamps being much larger. The Lamps are one of the great creations in the history of Middle-Earth. They rank along with the Silmarils and the Trees as irreplicable works. That to me indicates a level of superhuman craft. Surely, they must be something far greater than what mere man can accomplish. Anything less, and it hardly feels like something the Valar would celebrate. Their destruction makes this even more difficult. The Valar, the shapers of the world, have their most prized accomplishment destroyed by a couple of fireballs placed a few hundred feet above them? I would expect the Valar to be undone by nothing short of a cataclysmic event.
The other thematic element, I have mentioned previously. I am OK with a certain amount of fallibility amongst the Valar, but the level of provinciality required for them to only light up Almaren seems ... a bit too much.
I do hope that this will encourage our fearless leaders to reconsider this matter, but if not, I will happily go back and change some of the story ideas we have incorporated into our outlines to accommodate this alteration.