Discussion of non-Tolkien literature: any place for it around here?
 

So, it might seem a funny thing to do to register on a Middle-Earth/Tolkien board with the initial aim of discussing works not written by Tolkien, but I do this out of love for the great man himself! It was interest in Tolkien that led me to Mervyn Peake, and the works I'm interested in discussing (and fanatically promotoing, hah).

Fanatic though I'm fast becoming, I'm not sure how well-known the series is. Is anyone here familiar with Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series, sometimes referred to as "The Titus Books"? Consisting of Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone, the "low-fantasy"/gothic triology was originally conceived as a sprawling epic, cut short by the author's early death. I see an amazing potential for popularity in these books, particularly in the wake of the Lord of the Rings films, but maybe that popularity exists already; I read somewhere that the BBC did a miniseries on the first two books, and I'm in the process of tracking it down.

When I began reading these books, my mind jumped immediately to Tolkien. Peake describes faces and characters in as gorgeous detail as Tolkien takes with his characters and landscapes. Because I was hugely in to The Lord of the Rings a few years ago, and moderately active on the forums revolving around the LotRO game, (This community doesn't seem to be based around the gaming community, but I might have skipped over the site description; my navigational skills are so rusty) I got the idea of coming back to one of the old forums to reccomend these books and see if anyone else was already into them. Things seemed to have changed a lot in the Tolkien comunity, but I came across this forum and figured I'd try my luck.

So, is this kind of discussion all right by the board rules? Or should I take my crazy shenanigans elsewhere?

Just looking for discussion, and maybe even some recommendations for similar works (high fantasy, low fantasy, anything). It's time for this nerd to get back in touch with her roots. : )

I can't speak for everyone, and certainly not the moderation here,

*bows dutifully with a hint of a smirk*

but generally speaking, there are no off-topic discussions regarding other authors (or anything else off-topic, for that matter); however, there have been discussions of other authors in comparison to Tolkien. So if you phrase your points correctly, you can subtley allude to your literary interests without anyone's feathers being ruffled (as long as it remains in context with Tolkien)...sort of a 'stealth discussion', as it were.

As far as the LotRO game, it is not Tolkien, but some hybrid, bizarro Middle-earth where aliens landed and ate the brains of the Hobbits. I played it in Alpha and Beta stages, and was more repulsed by it than by the liberties taken within the films. From a Tolkienist's standpoint, it was very disappointing.

P.S. Don't I know you?

Welcome to the Downs, Sydney–

You may be interested in this thread.

Welcome, Sydney! As a moderator, I can give you the Barrow-Downs' official policy. This site is indeed devoted to Tolkien's works, including their various embodiments such as the movies. In order to discuss Peake's works without reference to Tolkien, you would need to find a Peake forum - or start your own, if none exists. However, as Morthoron said, we do allow discussions - and have had a number of them - comparing Tolkien's works with other fantasy books (Narnia, Harry Potter, or Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy, for example) or discussing the influence Tolkien has had on other authors.

As long as you keep that in mind, you are welcome to begin threads that deal with another author's works in connection with Tolkien. Should things go too far off-topic for our forum policy, one of the moderators or administrators will remind those members involved - no problem, no reason to get upset, standard procedure around here.

The thread Nerwen mentions is one possible place to look for references to Gormenghast.

There are also a couple of threads on the various LotR games; a search should find them for you; if not, just post a question and I'm sure someone will direct you there! :)

Enjoy yourself!

Thanks for the rundown, Estelyn. I'll make sure that any discussion of outside literature is done in conjunction with Tolkien. My choice to come to a Tolkien forum before a Peake forum was made because I thought there was a good chance many here would be familiar with the books, and if not, that anyone who cared to check them out would probably enjoy them quite a bit.

Thanks for the thread, Nerwen, I'm interested to see what everyone else is reading!



And Morthoron, you're right, we do know eachother. An important fact to note, though, is that back when I was roleplaying, I was only 15 years old. Very cringe-worthy. It's almost a relief that all the old forums seem to have gone under, all traces gone, hah.


Thanks for all the help, everyone.

I kept hard-copies of all your previous fan-fic, just for such an emergency.

The BBC series of Gormenghast was superb. Even down to the level of the sets, which had a glimmer of the Forbidden City, something Peake had in mind as he wrote his story. The cast is top-notch (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christopher Lee, Celia Imrie etc) and even though it rattles through (as it has to do), it works. You can get it from Amazon UK.

It's an amazing story, and well worth comparing to Tolkien as they were contemporaries and a lot of comparisons can be drawn between both men and their work. Not least the influence of war on them - Tolkien having endured the Somme and Peake witnessing the aftermath of Auschwitz (he was commissioned to draw what he saw).