What Tolkien did was stereotypes BUT NOT IN A BAD, LOUSY WAY. Look at Aragorn. The Campbell hero, with all the prophecies before his birth, his childhood, the call to adventure, the meeting with the goddess... and then Gandalf. The wise old man with the beard. He has his weaknesses and mistakes too, Gandalf had. So why was Tolkien famous?
Elements from Nordic (the Twilight of the Gods thing and the Unchaining of Melkor after long Ages) and other myths. And his own imaginations (oh I love Beren & Luthien--old theme of love-conquers-all, but had a good impact, part of a saga but a complete story in itself. Spice it up that it's written on Tolkien and his wife's graves...). He wrote all his life, and got real good academic background (but i'm not against writers who were drop-outs; heard of Nick Joaquin, my country's only good writer?).
Sil is Old-Testament-like, and you got to admit, it's not a piece of cake to write history. LotR, which is in a way a continuation of Sil, not a joke as compared to other fantasies sprouting like mushrooms. It's not the writings of a teenager either (I believe Eragon was sold mainly because they marketed the fact that it was a teen who wrote it), it was virtually his life. Or, to make my point clearer, Tolkien wrote soemthing almost like religion. That's why he's good; a religion found on other religions that are very diverse yet alike. And expalins the stereotypes anyway. Add the fact that Tolkien got there
first, or rather,
ahead.
No offense, but in Harry Potter, I think the marketing had a lot to do with it being such a hit (remember Dan Brown? His Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code had the same plot elements, but why did people read him anyway? Brown challenged Christianity. Challenging Christianity has its own click; Brown generally rode with it.) The other fantasies? I hate to admit it, but when I watched Order of the Phoenix there were a lot of fantasy films. Riding alongside Harry Potter? I think so, and my professors agree. They were (forgive me!) lousy, they were a lot like Narnia, this boy who was the seventh son of a seventh son who was destined to save the world, and then there was this other movie about a little girl who was to save the world too, and there've been prophecies too, and they've old bearded men and old women as their mentors... rip-offs. Whenever I go to the bookstore I skip the sci-fi & fantasy section, because apart from the Tolkien and the Harry and the Lewis they're always about some lousy kid who's an orphan who's gotta save the world. The only thing that's different about them are their names.
Lewis... a reason I don't like him so much, the concept of
Christmas in Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe. Only that. Just the obvious Christian roots. Otherwise he's good; but it's not Narnia that I love about him, it's Screwtape Letters that my philo prof made us read. Real good bit of stereotype devils with a twist.
