Happy Fantasy Friday, everyone! It’s time to Blog For A Beer. (click here for the rules.)
Today we thought it would be fun to allow you all a little therapy. To give you space to say things you can’t normally say. Fandom is a pretty accepting place, for the most part, but there are a few sacred cows that will get you in trouble if you try and poke at them. For instance, I don’t think Firefly is all that damn great. I am not particularly enamored of Joss Whedon in general, though I did enjoy Buffy. But still, Whedonites make me roll my eyes.
I can say that from the safety of my computer where I have my security system trained to alert me when the fen come with pitchforks. But try saying that in the middle of a con. Or a Buffy panel. *shudder* You’re just asking for it.
What unpopular opinions do you hold? Do you think the latest three Star Wars movies were better than the originals? Do you secretly hate Harry Potter and all he stands for? Are you of the opinion that Twilight is an awesome series? Let it all out here! No one will judge you (much). And you can even say so anonymously. (But you still need to leave your real email address in case you win. No one but the editors can see it, and we won’t hold a grudge.)
Some rules: Your opinions can be as unpopular as you like, but let’s not get personal and start attacking people. You can say “Buffy was bad” but not “Joss Whedon is a baby killer.” It is okay to say “Joss Whedon is overrated” (for example). Keep it to SF/F stuff. Don’t get angry if someone is harsh on your sacred cow, get even! By posting your own unpopular opinion.
The three elements that hooked me on The 13th Warrior were:
- The movie used cinema technique so effectively to show (not tell) how someone who is already language-sound-rhythmically sophisticated, the Poet, learns a new language via total immersion.
- The horse! She was a character all her own, while remaining horse, of course, rather than a stand-in for a human companion. This also was fitting in the sense of a warrior’s dependence upon his horse, as much as his sword and other companions.
- A convincing sense of what this meant to be a hero in your community, that first ideal of hero, which depended also upon warrior prowess and success. This includes the battles described by another poster.
The villains of the piece, not so much. Not even at all. But then, this was based on a Crichton novel, Eaters of the Dead, so there you go.
And let’s face it, as retellings/revisionings of Beowulf go it beats the godawful new animated Beowulf hands down: “I have come to kill your monstah!”
Tolkien is so overrated. Yes, I said it. He had great ideas, but really his world building was essentially jacked from mythology. The elves are the celtic Sidhe, for example. I could list more, but it would take too long. So while I do enjoy his world and the way he created it, for people to act as though he is where fantasy began is absurd. Fantasy began long before Tolkien with far older texts such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or The King of Elflands Daughter by Lord Dunsay. Tolkien was primiarily a linguist and a historian…not a writer. He knew he was stealing from myth, he did it on purpose. But no one else seems to realize that. There is nothing shameful about pulling from myth, but I hate it that people don’t seem to understand that that is what he did.
Plus, I’m sorry, but his characters are flat, mostly because he wrote in third person objective, and therefore the reader never really gets to truly know them. He wrote it to be like a history, and in that he succeeded…when I read the books I could really care less who lived or died.
I respect his use of myth, but it is the fault of his popularity that much of the literary world thinks that fantasy is unintellectual escapism…because a whole generation of writers didn’t try to do anything more than be Tolkien-Light, and therefore ruined the reputation of the genre.
He had great ideas, but really his world building was essentially jacked from mythology.
And this is a problem why?
[/i]I respect his use of myth, but it is the fault of his popularity that much of the literary world thinks that fantasy is unintellectual escapism…because a whole generation of writers didn’t try to do anything more than be Tolkien-Light, and therefore ruined the reputation of the genre.[/i]
That’s not Tolkien’s fault, but that of the writers who tried to emulate him. A lot of fantasy references myth, folklore, or fairy tale in some way so I agree with JS Bangs – why is it a problem?
Likewise, since Tolkien made no bones that he was writing a history (albeit a made-up one) for his made-up languages to live in, why be upset that LOTR is or reads like a history? It’s not like it’s false advertising!
Just for the record, I’ve read all of it but never all of the way through, and I haven’t managed to sit through all of the films yet either.
Jennifer @ 53: But no one else seems to realize that. There is nothing shameful about pulling from myth, but I hate it that people don’t seem to understand that that is what he did.
This is the part that bothers me. Why do you assume that those of us who like Tolkien’s work are ignorant of Norse and Teutonic myths? I’m fairly well aware of how much was taken from the legends and sagas to shape Middle Earth’s background and stories, but I can still enjoy what Tolkien did with it. In fact, I think he he reinvented myths more than stole from them. If you read the Ainulindalë you can see how much he “stole” from Judeo-Christian mythology too, but his fusion of mono- and polytheism makes for a great tapestry to build a fantasy world.
Anyhoo, I’m well past my two cents’ worth now.