The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - The Tolkien Template - Carrying on the torch of mythology and folklore

ReededGoat · 11-12-2002, 05:35 AM

I disagree that a writer inspired by another writer will write something trashy...far from it. I think part of the problem is not truly acknowledging where you are getting your stuff from. Many people try to hard to be original, and many times they are working within a closely imitative context (much to their own obliviousness, sometimes). Better to know fully that you are imitating, because then you are free to just write. In music composition it has been said that the best composer is one who steals well...from other composers. There is an argument to be made that nothing is truly original - I think there are some that get close, like James Joyce, but even in his crazy novel Ulysses, he was using the template of the Odyssey - thereby imitating one of the oldest works of literature known to man! Tom Stoppard the playwright can be closely tied to Beckett, but he has a voice all his own at the same time. A lot of my problems with the fantasy I speak of is in the actual writing...many of the stories are great! I have read many novels and said to myself - the stories are good, the characters are good, but the writing is lacking. It's like the spit-shine to the whole thing, and Tolkien's still got the shiniest car on the block.
That said, I do find it difficult not to consider JRRT when reading other fantasy, but I am able to evaluate based on my own criteria, without holding it next to JRRT.

Thanks for the responses - great to read them,
RG

11-12-2002, 05:35 AM	#5
ReededGoat Animated Skeleton Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 32	I disagree that a writer inspired by another writer will write something trashy...far from it. I think part of the problem is not truly acknowledging where you are getting your stuff from. Many people try to hard to be original, and many times they are working within a closely imitative context (much to their own obliviousness, sometimes). Better to know fully that you are imitating, because then you are free to just write. In music composition it has been said that the best composer is one who steals well...from other composers. There is an argument to be made that nothing is truly original - I think there are some that get close, like James Joyce, but even in his crazy novel Ulysses, he was using the template of the Odyssey - thereby imitating one of the oldest works of literature known to man! Tom Stoppard the playwright can be closely tied to Beckett, but he has a voice all his own at the same time. A lot of my problems with the fantasy I speak of is in the actual writing...many of the stories are great! I have read many novels and said to myself - the stories are good, the characters are good, but the writing is lacking. It's like the spit-shine to the whole thing, and Tolkien's still got the shiniest car on the block. That said, I do find it difficult not to consider JRRT when reading other fantasy, but I am able to evaluate based on my own criteria, without holding it next to JRRT. Thanks for the responses - great to read them, RG