Thank you Lush [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img], Birdland and everyone for your thought-provoking contributions. I want to go back to Aiwendil's memorable soundbyte -
"The problem of modern fantasy is one of talent. The problem of science fiction is, like that of Tolkien, one of style."
This is excellent, and has a certain implacable conviction. But I am minded to be devil's advocate again ... [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]
Having addressed postmodernism, the nature of marketing, the issue of writers' motives, the bad covers and all the other aspects discussed with great eloquence above, perhaps we come to the real crunch, highlighted by Aiwendil's quote.
You see, it MUST be wrong to imagine that modern participants in the fantasy genre generally lack talent on a scale that competing genre protagonists do not. Given the number of authors, this would either be a mind-boggling coincidence (ie. no), or an indication that (to mis-paraphrase) "fantasy is the last refuge of the scoundrel" in literary terms, ie. that bad authors who know they are bad authors tend to congregate within that genre.
No. Logic in fact, takes us to the opposite conclusion. That there is something inherent in the genre (insofar as it can be defined) that gives rise to banality. It's the only way to explain why so many authors have created so much unnecessary deforestation, whilst outselling "highbrow" literature many times over.
This also explains why people think Tolkien 'transcends' the genre - and is therefore not part of it.
So what is this quality, this fatal flaw? Well, I think the answer is - it's us. We get the fantasy we deserve. This is where we want to go when we want to escape from gritty reality. From grittyland to fluffyland. Because we're scared. Scared of sci-fi with its technological conviction, scared of crime and romance with those recognisable agonies, scared of horror with its primeval resonance, and scared of 'high' literature with its promise of too-piercing understanding. We want something where the unreality of it makes it less scary. A little corner we know is protected by the thistled hedges of fairy-tale, where we can escape and not be scared. Because it's fantasy. And that's what fantasy is, ultimately - all the thrills and adventures you want, all the empathy and wisdom you need, yet incontrovertibly and definitively UNreal.
And if that's the case, I guess it has to be that way.
(Remember I'm being devils advocate here ... [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img])
PS. One other little Tolkien point from Aiwendil that caught my eye - "I think it's somewhat misleading to say that Tolkien wrote because he had something he wanted to say. That's what modern authors of "serious" literature do. Tolkien certainly had no explicit "message" in his writing. He was, in a way, even more serious than those authors." I like that, please post in the Trilogy and Bible thread!
Peace
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