Did JRRT encourage new ME stories?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Yes, great achievements in graphic novels require those..

'Kapow!' 'Foom!' 'Whack!'

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by davem

'Kapow!' 'Foom!' 'Whack!'

Your comment is a bit short there, even for your usual flippancy. I'd say you're about 997 words short.

You know, I wonder-- if we assigned 1000 words to each picture drawn by every Tolkien illustrator and artist, that would probably exceed the length of LotR, wouldn't it? I think Tolkien got his wish.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Your comment is a bit short there, even for your usual flippancy. I'd say you're about 997 words short.

You know, I wonder-- if we assigned 1000 words to each picture drawn by every Tolkien illustrator and artist, that would probably exceed the length of LotR, wouldn't it? I think Tolkien got his wish.

i know 'graphic novels' are considered by many as high art, & I'm sure there are some good examples of the genre (Lal raves about Sandman). However, just as this 'genius' who will take up Tolkien's pen will (in my opinion) remain ever elusive & the job be taken up by some hack writer who will churn out genre fantasy, I expect that rather than presenting us with a work worthy to stand alongside Tolkien's own, that a graphic novel continuation of Tolkien's work would be squarely aimed at the hard of thinking demographic, who want to see Legolas surfing down stairways ('Whoosh!) while shooting Orcs ('Twang!' 'Arrgh!).

It seems to me that there can only be justification for asking for 'fuller' or completed versions of tales left unfinished by Tolkien, & I think its been shown that such versions are pretty much impossibilities. There is no justification (beyond the joy obtained by writers & readers of fanfic) for 'officially' sanctioned versions by other writers, as these writers have neither the absolute knowledge nor absolute control that Tolkien had over his creation - hence for that reason, however good & faithful said works were, they would ultimately be pale shadows of the original creation.

The demand for 'other tales' set in M-e is asking for something that doesn't actually exist (Tolkien didn't tell those stories, didn't invent that part of M-e). Its like asking for someone to decorate your fifth bedroom when you live in a four bedroomed house - & I just know someone is going to respond by saying 'Well, you could employ someone to build an extention!' - which is the whole problem with analogies: people think that because they can demolish the analogy they can as easily change the reality the analogy is pointing up.

The idea of 'graphic novels' of Tolkien's creation - whether adaptations of existing tales, or original stories - doiesn't really add anything to the argument of whether there could, or should be new tales - the form they may take does not really add anything to the discussion till we've reached a consensus on whether they are possible - or at least desirable.

[narfforc]

So Davem you think my Return of the Two Towering Kings and their Ring of Fellowship wouldn't sell then? , better start writing Potty Harry and the Goblins on Fire instead, or would you suggest Hairy Potter and the Prisoner is on a Razorban . All joking aside, if one person emerged that could and would write as the equal of Tolkien, there would be many more that would write junk, the world would be awash with piffle if it wasn't vetted properly. Fanfic does me quite fine, it's harmless fun and of which I have participated, of course I wish someone could write some more, but that wish would be wasted, for if I had one it would be that Tolkien had written more.

[davem]

Originally Posted by narfforc

. Fanfic does me quite fine, it's harmless fun and of which I have participated, of course I wish someone could write some more, but that wish would be wasted, for if I had one it would be that Tolkien had written more.

As said earlier, I wrote some fanfic myself & stuck it over on the Downs fanfic section. Fanfic is fine & fun & (to continue with the alliteration) free. I think this is fantasic, fabulous - free fiction for fans.

And so on.

What I don't get is why people want to pay for something they now get for free. It seems that what people want is to be told by the Estate what fanfic is good & what is bad. This seems to me to demonstrate a lack of the most basic critical judgement - of course, one admires the person who is so aware of their own lack of aesthetic sense that they are willing to pay to be told by those in authority what fiction is good & what is bad, & yet at the same time sad that it has to come to that. Their plaintive cries of 'Please tell me what is good Fanfic, O ye Lords of the Tolkien Estate, by putting JRRT's monogram on it & charging me £20 to buy it in hardback with nice colour plates by Ted Naismith! Else shall I not know whether the Middle-earth tales I come across on the Web are good or bad, for I am under a curse, as t'were laid on me by Morgoth himself, that I cannot tell whether a tale be worth the reading or not!' wring the heart of even the greatest cynic & the most unfeeling among us. Certes.

Of course, the irony is that when copyright expires & people are free to publish new tales of M-e all Tolkien's works will instantly appear FOC on the net, so that people will be able to get Tolkien's work for nowt, & yet have to pay for the sequels that will appear to glut even the most desperate fan of fic - all of which will be published perfectly legally, & 99.9999% of which will be drivel.

[Feanorsdoom]

Of all this I can but finally concede that unless some genius does arise who can put on paper a vision of Middle-earth beautiful enough that the Tolkien estate, as well as the majority of its literary fans, accepts it as worthy to be placed beside JRR Tolkien's own works, our comments are only echoes of the eternal battle between the hopeful and the conservative. That genius, if he ever exists, will not be relying on hope, nor will he shrink in the face of conservatism; and the next great story of Middle-earth won't be written in a literary forum.