"Something Like" Tolkien ... but maybe not fantasy at all?

[Extollager]

Perhaps some Chrons people would enjoy this piece by me, at the Wormwoodiana blog, and might like to comment there.

Wormwoodiana: Guest Post: "Something Like" by Dale Nelson

Or here.

 

[Juliana]

Interesting post, Extollager.

 

[J Riff]

Well said.

 

[Extollager]

I've never done it, but I wonder what it would look like if I attempted to organize my books by mood or "quiddity" rather than author or genre, so that, yeah, I might have The Lord of the Rings side-by-side with the Patrick Leigh Fermor trilogy, etc.

Yout could end up with some peculiar and yet maybe reasonable groupings... Dunsany's fantasy next to the Oz books?

 

[The Big Peat]

I've never done it, but I wonder what it would look like if I attempted to organize my books by mood or "quiddity" rather than author or genre, so that, yeah, I might have The Lord of the Rings side-by-side with the Patrick Leigh Fermor trilogy, etc.

Yout could end up with some peculiar and yet maybe reasonable groupings... Dunsany's fantasy next to the Oz books?

I once tried that. I think Tolkien ended up nearer my Le Carre books than any of my fantasy (Kay excepted). The heavy emphasis on morality, the press of unprepared people into terrible situations, the ornate writing style - what makes Tolkien Tolkien to me seems mostly unechoed in modern fantasy.

Thank you for sharing that article.

 

[Extollager]

I once tried that. I think Tolkien ended up nearer my Le Carre books than any of my fantasy (Kay excepted). The heavy emphasis on morality, the press of unprepared people into terrible situations, the ornate writing style - what makes Tolkien Tolkien to me seems mostly unechoed in modern fantasy.

Thank you for sharing that article.

A warm welcome to Chrons!

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Tolkien to me seems mostly unechoed in modern fantasy.

Writers of paperback blurbs probably won’t help us.

Publishers love putting on stuff "Like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings" or similar. But really in 50 years of reading fantasy, maybe 47 or 48 years since first reading of LOTR, I can't remember ANY similar Fantasy. I'd agree there might be other books with a similar ethos and quality.

Blurbs aren't easy. But sometimes I wonder did the blurb writer actually read the book?

 

[The Big Peat]

Publishers love putting on stuff "Like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings" or similar. But really in 50 years of reading fantasy, maybe 47 or 48 years since first reading of LOTR, I can't remember ANY similar Fantasy. I'd agree there might be other books with a similar ethos and quality.

Blurbs aren't easy. But sometimes I wonder did the blurb writer actually read the book?

I think this is an example of people getting too hung up on the aesthetics of a piece, rather than the actual writing, thus they define Tolkien by wizards, elves and what not, rather than the mourning of a past world and lost innocence.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

define Tolkien by wizards, elves and what not,

And he only "invented" hobbits. Everything else is lifted from earlier myth, legend and folktale. European and Celtic.

 

[Brian G Turner]

they define Tolkien by wizards, elves and what not

Absolutely right - it's amazing how much following writers completely overlooked Tolkien's themes and their context.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

it's amazing how much following writers completely overlooked Tolkien's themes and their context

The writers or Publisher's marketing?
Oddly I think his themes are more prevalent in non-mediaeval fantasy (without elves etc), SF and even some Detective fiction (I read a Ruth Rendell "Inspector Wexford" last night, my first) than in "World of Warcraft" / "Wizards of the Coast" family of elves dwarves and wizards etc.
What's written and how it's promoted is filtered (before eBooks went mad) by publisher's marketing departments.

 

[The Big Peat]

And he only "invented" hobbits. Everything else is lifted from earlier myth, legend and folktale. European and Celtic.

Yup. I sometimes wish more authors would go and lift from these sources, rather than lifting from earlier fantasy authors.

The writers or Publisher's marketing?
Oddly I think his themes are more prevalent in non-mediaeval fantasy (without elves etc), SF and even some Detective fiction (I read a Ruth Rendell "Inspector Wexford" last night, my first) than in "World of Warcraft" / "Wizards of the Coast" family of elves dwarves and wizards etc.
What's written and how it's promoted is filtered (before eBooks went mad) by publisher's marketing departments.

Probably both. I think there's a lot of writers who got excited by the world he presented and rushed out to write their own adventures in similar worlds without really thinking about deep themes. Then publishers see a market for worlds like Tolkien's, and the rest goes from there.

I blame Terry Brooks

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I blame Terry Brooks

I like his "Magic Kingdom of Landover" books best, I find them much "better" than the various Shannara (which IMO got tedious eventually, I've progressively less of each series) or the rather gloomy "Word & the Void" series.

 

[Narkalui]

I hated Shannara from the get go. Stuck with that first one to the end and thought it just a giant scene by scene rip off of the obvious.

 

[BAYLOR]

I hated Shannara from the get go. Stuck with that first one to the end and thought it just a giant scene by scene rip off of the obvious.

The series does get better.

The Knight of the Word series is quite good

 

[BAYLOR]

Denis McKeirnan 's Mithgar Series.

 

[Cathbad]

I tried to tear this thread up, what with all that Terry Brooks bashing!!

Then I um... remembered it was a glass screen.

 

[BAYLOR]

I tried to tear this thread up, what with all that Terry Brooks bashing!!

Then I um... remembered it was a glass screen.

The Shannara book is a bit rough , but the series does get better.

 

[Cathbad]

I loved them all... but A Knight o the Word least.