Line #7 Literature/LeafByNiggle

Context Literature / LeafByNiggle

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1	[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leaf_by_niggle_tolkien.png]]
2	"Leaf by Niggle" is a short story by Creator/JRRTolkien. The artist main character is in some ways an allegory of Tolkien himself, and of any form of artistry.
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5	!!"Leaf by Niggle" provides example of:
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7	* {{Allegory}}: Although Tolkien famously disliked allegories, this story clearly represents his anxieties and frustrations over trying to balance his life-long project of creating his [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Legendarium]] with his "real" job as an Oxford professor.
8	* CelestialBureaucracy: Niggle is a bit casual in preparing for his demise, so he is assigned to a sort of purgatory. After he learns to be better organized, the entities in charge send him on further.
9	* DescriptionPorn: He carefully describes how Niggle drew leaves better than trees, and wants to do an entire trees all of his leaves.
10	* ExtremelyLengthyCreation: InUniverse. Niggle starts to paint a forest, and after many long years, dies. All that remains of his ''magnum opus'' is a painting of a leaf.
11	* MeaningfulName: Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey explains how the word "niggle" means to "work or spend time unnecessarily on petty details; to be over-elaborate in minor points", which reflects Tolkien's fear that writing his [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Legendarium]] may have been a waste of time.
12	* OneBookAuthor: Niggle only ever makes the one painting.
13	* ThePerfectionist: Niggle spends all his effort trying to get every detail of his painting absolutely perfect, down to each individual leaf on the tree.
14	* TitleDrop: After most of Niggle's ''magnum opus'' is destroyed, a surviving bit is framed and displayed in a local museum, with the title "Leaf, by Niggle". [[spoiler: It is eventually lost.]]

Context Literature / LeafByNiggle