Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammerhand
Good day sir  , i have no defence whatsoever for Feists "borrowing" tendencies lol. Off topic, a guy that gave my class a lecture on Chaucer (major snore) was a student of Christopher Tolkien's at university, i forget which one, a distinguished one if memory serves correct. He said much the same as you (after the lecture) concerning Raymond Feist, and a few other authors that were alien to me. |
Well, on the other hand, using the "familiar" language might have served its purpose for curious readers (for example one who knew Elvish - or more precisely, had the dictionary at the end of Silmarillion nearby - could translate some of the words which are not even translated in the book, and have fun with it). I even believe the reason for using it may be sort of a tribute to Tolkien from the author - but, honestly, if I wrote something, I'd try to come up with my own language; I'll probably consider "borrowing" Sindarin/Quenya/whatever too "high" to put in my book. Feist did this with more things than just language - now I remembered that monster in the dwarven tunnels at the end of the first volume... yes, that obvious balrog... as I said, the author might have meant it to be a tribute to Tolkien, but the reader (like me) may consider it as lack of his own creative thoughts and simply copying... Nevertheless, as I said, the Riftwar Saga was a good read - or that's how I remember it.