ceescedasticity:

Aha!

I just figured out that when people complain about Tolkien’s elves being too perfect, they are talking about them being almost universally pretty, strong, agile, fast, good singing voices, usually skilled in at least one art form (broadly interpreted), etc. etc. etc.

Whereas I’m looking at how many of them do not even REMOTELY have their act together, and how they continually get themselves into (or sometimes are put into by circumstances beyond their control) situations where being pretty and strong and agile and so on just isn’t good enough. So they fail.

And – to me – failure is INCOMPATIBLE with perfection. It may be ACCEPTABLE, it may even be unavoidable, but it rules out perfection. Ergo, elves are not perfect.

I wonder if this says more about the way I see elves or the way I see perfection?