Originality is an extremely overrated aspect of creativity. If someone writes a good novel set in Middle Earth who isn’t Tolkien, then it’s a good novel. I can accept a fiscal argument against copying other people’s work, but not an artistic one.
I suspect a lot of talent that would otherwise be put to good use is wasted by writers who are worried about being “original.”
Actually, I think it’s called “fanfic.”
You rang?
Warning: Contains teh ghey:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cassieclaire/
Perhaps I should link to this when I post to the “things accepted in your field that you have to explain to outsiders” thread. The process you describe of forgetting and mistaking is key to all transformations of tales/songs/etc to folk status.
The notion that folk tales arise from the “voice of the people” or collective unconscious has been – I thought – debunked for some time now.
Everything that is now folk was, at one time, the work of an author. What makes it folk is that it gets taken and reworked and retold, which is exactly what is happening to Tolkien, albeit through modern means. There is no requirement that transmission be oral, or that it “go through generations”.
When people lose track of what was original w/ JRRT versus what he was borrowing from, and begin to assume that, for instance, orcs and ents were always part of the mythic landscape… and when people start using JRRT’s literary elements for their own purposes unrelated to his books, then yes, we have “new” folk material, new myth.
This is not unique to Tolkien. Look at figures like Chief Seattle (Sealth) whose recorded words bear absolutely no resemblance to the many utterances attributed to him today.
You’re right about rubies and sapphires, which are corundum, but emeralds are beryls and quite soft in the gem world. Beryl does have alumninum in it, but also silicon, oxygen, and of course, beryllium.
“Orc” is an Old English word (meaning demon, according to JRRT), so it could reasonably be said to be part of the “mythic landscape.” Is it wrong for other authors to take the term and apply it to an evil race of humanoids, simply because Tolkein did it? (Nonetheless, I’d be disinclined to believe any author who used the word in that way and yet claimed that they weren’t influenced by JRRT’s works.)
I really liked her stuff when I was a teen. Now, it just seems pretty vulgar and silly. There are good parts to each book, but all in all I find myself skipping chapters (especially her excreble love stories).
I don’t particularly like Mithril as used in Dungeons and Dragons and other settings. As is, it’s relatively cheap and ordinary, and often not even worth noting. Whereas Mithril in Tolkein was something special. You couldn’t just buy a magic sword in Tolkein, or take a day off to make another one. They were incredibly rare (even Gandalf went centuries without one). Only the elves had “magic” items, and those were not really magical but expressions of deeper natural law.
But that’s a long discussion for another day.
Can mithril kill a zombie?
The American Chemical Society entry for mithril is unfortunately rather brief, although it does confirm that the metal’s molecular structure is isomorphic to yttrium silver (as I think everyone already suspected, really).
No reference to its effects on the undead, but I’d hazard a guess that mithril could probably kill a zombie, if administered in buckshot form at sufficiently high velocity.
Well Zombies have DR/Slashing and mitheral isn’t good at holding an edge, so I’d go with adamantium or just plain old steel. Keep the mithril for your armor.
I have nothing to add to the mithril discussion but since many others have already mentioned Brooks, I just want to add (knowing full well I’m likely to be tarred and feathered…) that it’s surprising to me to read the venom spewed towards him. I suppose that’s because I read his books long before I ever picked up JRRT’s and never realized the sacrilege Brooks dared to commit against young, naive readers. His books were the first fantasy novels I ever read and from that grew into a life-long enjoyment of the genre. Some credit should be given for that, at least. 
For what it’s worth, taken without the baggage mentioned above, they’re fairly enjoyable for me. I’ve certainly read worse fantasy. runs out of the thread, ducking rotten tomatoes
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I suppose that’s because I read his books long before I ever picked up JRRT’s and never realized the sacrilege Brooks dared to commit against young, naive readers.
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He’s a good writer and has some very good works, but tends to toss everything together as he goes aling. The *Sword of Shannara * was really, really shallow. It got much, much better later on in the series.
re so-called writer Terry Brooks: You’re much more generous than I, Smiling Bandit. After reading the 1st Shanarra book and realizing what a rip-off of LOTR it was, I refused to read another word by that con artist. (I think he’s done quite well without me though).
Whoosh!
(I was referring to the fact that this thread had been dead for six months.)
Well, he left himself plenty of room for improvement. I quite liked the “Free Corps”, although there’s nothing especially original even about them - mostly the French Foreign Legion with a touch of Pournelle’s “Line Marines”. But the next two Shannara books I read more in hope than expectation, and the hope wasn’t that well-rewarded. De gustibus, however.
Count me among those who don’t think Brooks is the author most guilty of perpetrating misery among fantasy fans (that honor goes to the venerable Mr. Robert Jordan).
But then, I read his second series before I ever read the first (Heritage of Shannara? Something like that). They weren’t wonders of unique characterization, but I found them diverting.
His next two weren’t great, I agree. But later on he wrote a trilogy, which was really quite nice. It wasn’t the greatest thing ever, and it had some annoying characters, but all in all it was a solid epic story of good, evil, and war.
In a lot of RPG games, especially Japanese ones, you don’t find mithril. You find mythril.
Quoth easy_e:
Green corundum and green beryl can both be called “emerald”. Two different gemstones, same name. But I hadn’t realized that any gems other than corundum also contained aluminum, which I think strengthens my argument.