Christopher Tolkien at it again....

[davem]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Who would be better qualified than family of the author?

But what if we weren't talking about Tolkien - this decision, if it went in favour of the Estate would bring the person/character under copyright. It would, as I stated, make it impossible for any writer to use a historical figure (certainly one of recent times) in a fictional setting. That's not too far a step from being able to prevent any 'unauthorised' biographies. It would hand control of a huge chunk of our cultural history over to famous individuals' Estates.

This is not a power they have had before, & the Estate is pushing the boundaries. And their wealth & power could well mean that their opponents in this case actually decide not to fight the case in the end & just give in. And that would seriously deter anyone else from following them in writing not just about Tolkien but any other figure from recent history whose decendents are rich enough to do the same. The Estate's actions here (as pointed up in the Techdirt article I first linked to) could lead to major difficulties for historical novelists.


Ok, so to the book itself. I'm a bit further on, & its growing on me slightly - & read these reviews on the Amazon.com site http://www.amazon.com/Mirkwood-Novel...DateDescending particularly the first one, as this guy has written some very knowledgeable reviews of Tolkien's books in the past. Of course there's the odd wince inducing moments - where Tolkien, at an Inklings' meeting talks about 'pants' instead of trousers' (note for US writers: 'pants' are what you wear under your trousers!)