Quote: Timbo @ July 30 2009, 11:22 AM BSTFor good or ill, the modern literary fantasy genre would not exist without him.
For ill. The LOTR movies are magnificent films that knock Harry Potter into a cocked hat, but the books are bad. As is most of the genre. IMO.
Quote: Timbo @ July 30 2009, 11:22 AM BSTIn a sense. Morris' prose style was much the same as his approach to design: dense, ornate and self-consciously Medievalist. His Well at the World's End is a big influence on Lord of the Rings; The Silmarillion possibly owes more to Lord Dunsany's Pegana. In the context of the tradition he was working in Tolkien represents a departure to a more accessible 'pulpy' style. For good or ill, the modern literary fantasy genre would not exist without him.
Eddison might have something to say about that!
Quote: chipolata @ July 30 2009, 11:24 AM BST. The LOTR movies are magnificent films that knock Harry Potter into a cocked hat,
Thought the films were pretty dreadful really; Alan Lee's designs were fantastic, but otherwise they were just the usual dumb Hollywood event movie crap.
The power of the books rests in the depth of Tolkien's assimilation of North European myth and the richness and coherence of his created world. Strip the story down to the bare basics and you are just left with the generic sword and sorcery schlock Tolkien's imitators have been churning out ever since.
Quote: Marc P @ July 30 2009, 11:28 AM BSTEddison might have something to say about that!
But the likes of Morris, Dunsany, Eddison, Mirrlees and Cabell were "literary" authors who never captured the public imagination or spawned imitators in the way Tolkien did. Possibly just as well in the case of Eddison, who makes quite disturbing reading these days.
If the modern tradition has a second progenitor, it is Robert. E. Howard, but I was thinking of the more literary end of the spectrum.
Quote: Timbo @ July 30 2009, 11:39 AM BSTIf the modern tradition has a second progenitor, it is Robert. E. Howard, but I was thinking of the more literary end of the spectrum.
Gor blimey, I like him. I don't know why, though... 
Quote: Griff @ July 30 2009, 11:42 AM BSTI fear a mention of the largely unreadable H.P.Lovecraft is swift approaching.
He is bad.
Quote: chipolata @ July 30 2009, 11:24 AM BSTFor The Harry Potter movies are magnificent films that knock LOTR into a cocked hat
With regards to Aaron's point - fiddle-faddle. Peter Jackson is a great film maker, which is more than can be said for most of the hacks who have hemlmed Harry Potter movies (with the honourable exception of Alfonso Cuarón). Fact.
Quote: Griff @ July 30 2009, 11:46 AM BSTI've said it before on here, but horror books are rubbish. I know there's the odd exception, but it really is 99% tripe.
Agreed to a certain extent, Stephen King's good. I enjoy James Herbert. Early Clive barker was good but then he got married to another man and it all went tits up. Ramsey Campbell isn't bad.
Going back a bit, though, Edgar Allen Poe is class.
Quote: Griff @ July 30 2009, 11:46 AM BSTI've said it before on here, but horror books are rubbish. I know there's the odd exception, but it really is 99% tripe.
Yes, horror for its own sake has always struck me as peculiarly pointless.
Quote: Griff @ July 30 2009, 11:49 AM BSTPeter Jackson did make The Frighteners though, which is terrible.
I very much enjoyed the LOTR films until the very tedious multiple endings of the third one. I'm looking forward to the Hobbit film.
I liked his early horror films. They had shutzpah and a half. I also enjoyed Heavenly Creatures. And I'm looking forward to seeing what he's done with The lovely Bones, and how his Dambusters handles the whole Nigger question.
Quote: Griff @ July 30 2009, 11:49 AM BSTPeter Jackson did make The Frighteners though, which is terrible.
I didn't mind that; if you want a really bad Peter Jackson movie, try Meet the Feebles.
Quote: Griff @ July 30 2009, 11:50 AM BSTRamsey Campbell is awful and Poe is a million times worse. I've seen better prose in a Skoda car manual.
It's a while since I read Campbell, but I remember enjoying his short stories. As for Poe, I like him. And found him emminently readable. Plus he's from Baltimore, isn't he? Home of Homocide and The Wire.
Quote: Griff @ July 30 2009, 11:56 AM BSTYou sir, have either the patience of a saint or the deceitfulness of a charlatan.
A little from column a, a little from column b.
chipolata is, as ever, living in bizarro world.
Quote: Aaron @ July 30 2009, 11:58 AM BSTchipolata is, as ever, living in bizarro world.
It was a Homer Simpson quote.
Quote: chipolata @ July 30 2009, 11:58 AM BSTIt was a Homer Simpson quote.
Wasn't it Grampa Simpson? (Episode: Mother Simpson), Or did Homer say it to at some point?
Quote: miss_jaffacake @ July 30 2009, 12:30 PM BSTWasn't it Grampa Simpson? (Episode: Mother Simpson), Or did Homer say it to at some point?
I think you're right about it being Grampa Simpson.