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Old 03-24-2002, 02:17 PM   #14
Daegwenn
Haunting Spirit
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Lothlórien
Posts: 82
Daegwenn has just left Hobbiton.
Silmaril

I have read some wonderful books from modern authors(Anne Rice, Alice Borchardt, Marion Zimmer Bradley, David Eddings, Diana Gabaldon, Pauline Gedge, J.K. Rowling, Harry Turtledove- the list goes on and on). No need to bash them. I think it is unfair that people compare modern writers to Tolkien. I think that some people are a little too quick to assume that writers are jealous because of their books not getting written into movies and Tolkien's do. What about writers like Frank Herbert, Heinlein, or Tom Clancy? you don't see writers going "Damn them for being so successful!!!" Or at least I haven't.

I think that most writers are just fed up that they are being treated unfairly when it comes to critiques. Comparing a novice writer to someone of that calliber? That's like comparing the backstreet boys to the Commadors.

Let's say you painted a picture that you spent days upon days doing and then someone came along and said "It's too much like Monet..." How would you feel? I know I would feel like crap and I would be really angry. Not at Monet! But at those critics. Some authors strive for individuality. When someone comes along and says that to me, I would like to reach out and slap the person silly.

That still doesn't give them the right to slag a wonderful author, but they may have their opinions--as wrong as you and I may think they are.

Don't put down modern authors, they are the future generations of Classical authors. What some think is crap, in the future many will prize as closly to their hearts as we do with Tolkien. Already there is traces of this amongst younger generations that are beginning to pick up books and read.

If potential authors think that their success will be made overnight, they are sadly mistaken. Tolkien didn't just suddenly appear out of nowhere waving Lord of the Rings in his hands and have millions of people read them. It took him years. That is what some modern authors forget. If they whine and moan about authors that are successful instead of writing their own, then they will get nowhere.

Now that I have confused myself (and most likely others...) I think I'll end this novel-I mean, note.

~~Daegwenn
__________________
"And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—Riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard.
And he taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred.
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord’s daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair"
Highwayman
Alfred Noyes
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