Quote:
Originally Posted by blantyr
I'd also note that much of fantasy writing has hopped off the Tolkien themes entirely. Modern urban fantasy set in the current day is awfully common. Charles de Lint with Moonheart and many similar books might be an early proponent of the subgenera. Of late, and more cliched, we have had Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight with it's vampire werewolf conflict. The leading character is often female and a quite competent combatant. There is generally a strong romance element, borrowing the love-hate style familiar to those who have touched regency romance. If werewolves and vampires have been over done, one can find angels, demons, furies and any other similar sort of beast. The powers and abilities of the heroine might change, but the themes and style of the work doesn't. I've recently discovered mermaids have become a popular theme in the young adult market.
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Note - Buffy and Bella are worlds apart, and it's not werewolves in Buffy, it's demons.
Counting TV as 'fiction', which it is, the BBC's Being Human centres on the relationships and conflicts of vampires, werewolves and ghosts and is anything but cliched. I've not seen the American alternate version but the original British one is marvellous and wholly original (and sadly ending for good next week), managing to be both hilarious and horrific at the same time.
Also note that almost all 'supernatural' fictions seem to have contemporary settings, as indeed did the daddy of them all, Bram Stoker's Dracula. This is because they all share that common theme -
they walk among us. Quite a lot different to traditional fantasy written by Tolkien, George RR Martin, Ursula le Guin, Mervyn Peake etc. Fantasy worlds are about escape, even where they are utterly grim, however sometimes the two collide - see Neil Gaiman for more.
I don't think it can be denied that Tolkien is an influence on almost or even all fantasy writers who followed him, whether they graciously admit this (like George RR Martin and JK Rowling) or claim they are nothing like Tolkien (see Terry Pratchett and Phillip Pullman). There are absolutely masses of books (and TV) out there that are 'original' though, in as much as any fiction which uses long standing tropes and myths can be said to be 'original'.