XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: le@put.com   
      
   Suppose a friendly local time-travel provider offers you a chance   
   to visit J.R.R.T.   
      
   When in his life would you go see him,what might you bring,what would   
   you say or do?   
   (Assume nothing you do affects your own subsequent reality).   
      
   For myself,coming from the present rather than any imagined future,   
   I would seek to see him toward the end of his life,not his deathbed   
   but after he'd made all the decisions he made concerning the legendarium.   
   (I was drafting a letter to him when he died so this would be the   
   chance to pick that up).   
      
   I'd bring two sets of his posthumously published works,one to ask him   
   to autograph (obviously he might sign as few or many as he wished but   
   any would be a treasure) and one for him to keep and evaluate.   
   (Obviously I'd be open about being a time-traveller which would   
   likely be the reason he'd make time to see me).   
   I'd let him know what knowledge I had concerning the causes   
   of his near-term demise so he might be able to postpone it and   
   spend more time producing more as-he-would-have-intended versions   
   of those books.   
      
   I'd tell him something of the subsequent course of history on   
   my timeline (not sure what he might do that might set his on a   
   different course,but again I assume the two times,though points   
   on one line,have independent existence and can branch without   
   affecting others).   
      
   I'd ask some questions on some of the imponderables of the books   
   (Treebeard vs Bombadil,etc) but not others where I had a feeling   
   I'd rather not know his answers.   
      
   Of course I'd express my gratitude for the influence he'd had,   
   giving credit for any good effect and absolving blame for any bad.   
      
   And you?   
      
   -=-=-   
   The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,   
   at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)