China Mieville on Tolkien
- axordil
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I will say this: there's little doubt in my mind that LOTR in particular sucked most of the oxygen out of the publishing room in terms of fantasy for a generation. If you wrote quasi-medieval epic fantasy, you were a LOTR knockoff--if you wrote anything else, you risked being ignored. Moorcock had more of a New Wave SF following in the early 60s in the UK when he shifted towards fantasy--if that hadn't been the case it might have been TWO generations lost, because he was about the only real alternative.
And if I had been writing in the field back then, I would have been resentful, you bet.
And if I had been writing in the field back then, I would have been resentful, you bet.
It reads to me like "here's some great things Tolkien did, here's some awful things Tolkien did". Neither list seems unreasonable to me (though the latter comes off like just venting, unlike the thoughtful pro essay).
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
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I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
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- Voronwë the Faithful
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Rateliff makes the point that Mieville might have been trying to get on the good side of Moorcock and that crowd. Moorcock was Tolkien's biggest critic of the previous generation. Now that Mieville is "established" he can be more charitable.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Just what I'd expect Tolkien's critics to write; generalizing. Either you get him or don't....there's a lot to dislike - his cod-Wagnerian pomposity, his boys-own-adventure glorying in war, his small-minded and reactionary love for hierarchical status-quos, his belief in absolute morality that blurs moral and political complexity. "
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- Voronwë the Faithful
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And presumably that's what Mr. Mieville eventually did, too.ToshoftheWuffingas wrote:I agree with Ax. Those are fair comments on Tolkien albeit couched in hostile terms. Fortunately we can read past such characteristics to discover what is within.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."