Sadism in The Silmarillion

For those who don’t know, The Silmarillion is basically J.R.R. Tolkien’s version of the Bible. (Okay, Tolkien was a Christian, so his version of the Bible is, you know, the Bible. But stay with me.)

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings make a lot of references to people, places and events from thousands of years before the story. Those references aren’t just extra details Tolkien thought up on the spot. They’re part of a vast mythology he constructed and revised throughout his life. After he died, his son Christopher gathered his notes and edited them into a cohesive story. That’s The Silmarillion.

All of which is a long way of saying that if you like Tolkien and you haven’t hit the big S yet, it’s  flippin’ sweet. Like the real Bible, it’s dry in places, has a lot of names to keep track of, and may be tough to get through on your first time reading. But it also features origin stories for Gandalf, Sauron, and, you know, the entire universe. So that’s a pretty good time.

As I read it, I pictured Tolkien as a kid, carefully setting up all his toys. You go here, you go there, this is your name, okay, and you’re related to this guy, and these two guys are friends. The beginning is like that. And then at a certain point he looks around and says “Everybody ready?” and goes RRREEAAAAAAAAAAAHHH and starts tramping around like Godzilla, kicking dudes over and knocking down cities. After that, the rest of the book is basically the whole world going to hell, over the course of a couple hundred pages.

I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty cool. There are balrogs and dragons and everything.

I mention this because I think lots of writers fail here. They get the first part right: they set up their world with meticulous details, figure out the characters and what they’re like and who knows who, they draw maps, they establish backstory. But then they don’t do the second part. They lose their nerve and throw out a couple of softball conflicts, but never get in there and really start tearing shit up.

I’m not saying every story has to feature an apocalypse (although it would be nice), but you’ve gotta make it real. You’ve gotta put your characters into some real trouble, some trouble that seems impossible to handle, and then you’ve gotta throw out something else on top that makes the first trouble seem like a trip to Happy World. You’ve got to throw out some serious, Morgoth-level sadism.

(For those wondering: Happy World? Actually kind of a creepy place.)

So what’s up, hypothetical readers? Any Silmarillion fans in the hizzouse?