Quote:
Originally Posted by Zigűr
In my opinion the influence of Professor Tolkien's work is primarily to be found in what is called "High Fantasy", involving imaginary worlds/societies, an epic scale, good versus evil, saving the world, long quests or some combination thereon. I think the overwhelming majority of "High Fantasy" novels contain some element of "Tolkienism" but that Fantasy as a whole is too broad a genre to argue that Fantasy novels in general owe something to Tolkien.
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Perhaps, in the end, there's simply too much subjective interpretation involved when one reads to say definitively whether this or that is the result of influence by a particular author (unless such is indeed admitted by a writer).
Maybe one can simply define Tolkien's achievement in terms of what the Beatles did for rock 'n roll. They took what was perceived by many as a juvenile form of music and elevated it to Art, giving it both maturity and wide acceptance.
Could it be said that Tolkien, with
LOTR, took Fantasy fiction and showed that it could not only be popular, but also respectable?