[Halfir]

Birdland: What a great post, in a brilliant thread. I laughed out loud at your:"Strong sword arms don't work as well against a clerk." The image that conjured up was hysterical!

I also concur with your banlity of evil point, and your comment of the virtual beacon-light nature of evil in the fantasy genre. There, you know what is wrong, and you'd do you darndest to fight it, whereas today we have difficulty in identifying what is wrong, and even more difficulty in trying to fight it because of its banality - a la Arendt.

Moreover, critics ancient and modern of Tolkien and of the better and best fanatsy genre are clearly uncomfortable with the idea of faerie, and concepts such as 'eucatastrophe'as Tolkien called it.

I find this difficult to understand, but then I am a totally unreformed Jungian, a lover of Snorri Sturluson and the Eddas, and actually believe The Iliad and The Odyssey to be major literary achievements.(I also enjoy reading Harry Potter!) Clearly a no-hoper!