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Originally Posted by Galadriel
Any book that is remotely related to Epic Fantasy and sells well is compared to Tolkien's works. It usually goes something like 'the best thing since Tolkien' or 'better than Tolkien'. I've even heard both at the same time, strangely; George R.R. Martin is called 'The American Tolkien' and at the same time is hailed as having a much better grasp on reality than Tolkien
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Originally Posted by Ibrin
I would say that Tolkien represents to many critics and analysts moral convention. He is the traditionalist, and to many who are looking to distinguish their work and make ripples that will be noticed, it's better to express preference for the novel, the unconventional — even if that, too, becomes conventional in time (I have in mind the nonconformist hippies of my youth, who eventually conformed to one another rather than the traditional). Authors like Moorcock fly in the face of convention, reject it, even belittle it, searching for something new, sometimes finding it, often not. And such as he will tend to be the darlings of critics who also want to be unconventional.
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Also some critics just don't seem to know how to promote A except by taking a swipe at B (or a strawman version thereof, as in this case). It's not restricted to speculative fiction, by any means– however, it does seem to be SF fans who are most likely to buy into it, for some reason. I've encountered quite a number over the years who act as though writing (or filmmaking or whatever) is a kind of competitive sport.
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Originally Posted by Ibrin
Ah, forgive some curmudgeonly ranting above. I'm getting old, and I'm wondering what the world is coming to, and I'm feeling like Tolkien did in one of his letters to his son, where he felt that the forces of Mordor were winning.
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Cheer up,
Ibrin. Things usually work out, I find.
