My initial reaction to this topic was to denounce fantasy and proclaim Tolkien as "greater" than fantasy. But I changed my mind, at least about the denouncing of fantasy.
All genres of literature are full of crap, fantasy's crap is just funnier looking.
The fantasy genre seems to have become the poster child for merely entertaining books, and there is probably some good reasons for that. But I have come to realize that this type of generalization is unfair. Mystery, romance, crime, popular, classics, all contain merely entertaining books, some more than others. Is there a problem reading books solely for entertainment? Not necessarily. Is there a problem if that is all you read and often read? I’d say yes. Just like I’d say it was a problem to watch TV for 3 hours a day. But to say -- because I think most fantasy is just entertainment, and I think reading too many books for merely entertainment purposes is a waste of time, therefore the fantasy genre is a waste of time, would be foolish of me.
Escapism can be great. It just depends on what you escape to; sometimes you can escape to something that is inspiring and enlightening, and sometimes it just becomes checking out of life.
Kind’a soap-boxy huh? Oh well.
More to the point of the topic- most of the people that I know who love Tolkien do not care much for fantasy as a genre. maybe it's because we haven't had good experiences with it. I would appreciate any suggestions of Tolkien caliber fantasy (if it exists) sent to me via private message. I haven’t had much luck in the genre of fantasy finding something worthwhile. And don’t say Dune. Not that Dune wasn’t worthwhile I just didn’t care for it. And don't say Harry Potter, arbitrary spells and magic is pretty cheap writing in my opinion.
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War Eagle.
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