[Rimbaud]

I also very much appreciated the jazz reference. It got me onto a train of thought; I am aware of a slight straying from the original subject matter. If anyone thinks this should be a different thread just nudge me...

Language, in books of the nature we are discussing and I presume many of us are reading, is all important and all pervasive. Nar's point about being clubbed over the head with foreign words in fantastical films rings true for me, and even with regard to books I have read. Many of today's 'fantasy' authors use made-up place names and first names for their characters; their motives are obvious and understandable. When we hear that 'Jeff' from 'Croydon' has to battle with an evil 'more immense than the planet had ever known', we tend to giggle or assume it's a satirical take... Yet as you say, the creative buck should not stop there. Call your city Squendiblebubnimanbullity if you wish, but more understandable for the audience I am thinking of (well, me...(!)) would be the historical and linguistical context of that name.

This of course is where my argument falls a little flat because, as mentioned above somewhere, modern authors work under tighter deadlines and more pressing demands than did JRRT. I find the language and tone of much of the genre almost child-like. Full also of horrendous grammar and even editing mistakes. This for me dramatically lessens the impact of the story on me. Essentially, and you'll appreciate I'm trying to antagonise for response, I would rather read a bad story well told than a good story badly told.

So is the weakness of the whole genre that most modern authors do not have the time to spend creating a truly original or indeed complete world for their fictions to take place in?

That sounds a little too trite for me. Some modern fantasy series are massively wordy and the gaps between books inordinate (Robert Jordan) so, (for the better selling proponents anyway), time is not really the issue. The problem with Jordan's work I would argue is in both tone and soul. It lacks both IMHO, in any discernible quality. So then is it true that the ONLY author in the field with the time and the passion to create really great fiction fantasy was JRRT? Can that really be true? I have read many many books in this area and I can only think of perhaps four writers who come close. And we all know how many books with those horrible covers there are in the bookshop...

So then are we at a dead end? Is the genre exhausted? I would hate to think so. Yet, other than Tolkien and perhaps two or three others (all of whom have likewise stopped writing, due to age or having passed away) I do not read fantasy books. I started reading them two decades ago and stopped a couple of years back. I would love for a writer to prove me wrong. All my reading list comes from other places now (and I read a couple of books a week).

I will confess that to a large degree I am playing devil's advocate and hoping for some spirited responses... [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]