Quote:
Originally Posted by davem
Actually, it brings up a bigger question - should the ideas & concepts that fantasy explores, whether in book or movie form, be restricted?
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No, it shouldn't.
Furthermore, isn't the very categorization "fantasy" a restriction in itself? I certainly think so. I mean there are many great works of fiction that easily
could be classified as fantasy, or sci-fi, but isn't for reasons unknown to me. Take for example Bulgakov's
Master and Margarita, Orwell's
1984, or the works of Astrid Lindgren. Now these works are rightly admired by much of the literati, whereas fantasy books usually are dismissed as lowbrow trash for nerds, sometimes unrightfully, but perhaps often not. I guess what I'm saying is if you set out to write a fantasy-book, you will inadvertedly end up writing something derivative, often in the shadow of Tolkien, although it might be well worth reading anyway.
For what it's worth, my advice to a budding fantasy-writer would be to forget about the genre and just try to write a great work of fiction. I don't think Tolkien set out to write a fantasy-book or laid any restrictions on himself based on what he thought the genre demanded.