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| Silmarillion | |
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| Topic Started: Dec 5 2006, 01:48 AM (970 Views) | |
| Edwardted | Dec 5 2006, 01:48 AM Post #1 |
Twin Prime Conjecture
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Silmarillion. Arguably the best fantasy book ever. Assuming you've read LOTR. Lots of books are close but none are as good as the entire Tolkein Set of Books. Dragonlance comes close. |
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| Thalia | Dec 5 2006, 09:26 PM Post #2 |
Mathematician
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I've never read the Dragonlance books, but I prefer Diana Wynne Jones and Robin McKinley out of all fantasy writers. |
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Verba vestra intellegere non possum! | |
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| Michel | Dec 6 2006, 12:09 AM Post #3 |
Chipmunk
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Why is fantasy such a popular genre among people our age? What ever happened to non-fiction? And sci/fi! Why does no one I know like sci/fi? Personally, I've read a lot of fantasy, and I've started to get downright sick of it. I mean, in the majority of them (obviously not in the Lord of the Rings), there is some twelve/thirteen year old doing imposible feats. For example, a lot of people in fantasy books swing swords around. Has anyone here tried to lift an authentic broad sword? They are almost, on average, over ten/twenty pounds, thus making it near impossible for people our age (12-15, about), to be weilding them in any defensive manner, as those darn fantasy teenagers are doing on a daily basis. How can characters get away with such feats with any hints of remaining credibility? |
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You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. -Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984) | |
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| Admin | Dec 6 2006, 12:30 AM Post #4 |
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Yes, this is thing that annoys me to no end. I've found the Silmarillion to be the greatest fantasy ever written. Today, most fantasy stories are written simply becuase the author wants to make money. Fantasy is in decline. Fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin wrote a few pages about this in the Foreward of her book Tales from Earthsea. There a a few choice lines: "In the years since I began to write about Earthsea, I've changed, of course, and so have the people who read the books. All times are changing times, but ours is one of massive, rapid moral and mental transformation. Archetypes turn into millstones, large simplicities get complicated, chaos become elegant, and what everybody knows turns our what some people used to think. It's unsettling. For all our delight in the impermanet, entrancing flicker of electronics, we also long for the unalterable. Arthur dreams eternally in Avallon. Bilbo can go 'There and back again,' and 'there' is always the beloved familiar Shire. Don Quixote sets out forever to kill a windmill...So people turn to the realms of fantasy for stability, ancient truths, immutable simplicities. And the mills of capitalism supply them. Supply meets demand. Fantasy becomes a commodity, and industry. |
 
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| Michel | Dec 6 2006, 12:42 AM Post #5 |
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Chipmunk
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How very true. |
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You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. -Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984) | |
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| Edwardted | Dec 6 2006, 12:54 AM Post #6 |
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Twin Prime Conjecture
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Dune is the best Sci-Fi. Forgot to add it in the first post. Also broad swords are lame. I mean thats one of the reasons ROME fell. WHenever a roman soldiers slashed he was left wide open to the swift attacks of barbarians. Longswords PWN. And they weigh 10-15 pounds. But they still pwn broadswords. |
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| appu_xavier | Dec 6 2006, 09:15 PM Post #7 |
Poincaré Conjecture
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Dragonlance PWNS!!! |
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| Edwardted | Dec 6 2006, 09:38 PM Post #8 |
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Twin Prime Conjecture
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No I pwn........ Dragonlance is good but Silma and Dune are better. |
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| Thalia | Dec 6 2006, 11:59 PM Post #9 |
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Mathematician
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The reason a lot of people like fantasy is because they like to imagine impossible things and emulate heroes as well as imagine themselves as heroes. It's like fairytales, the three impossible taks to win the princess. And I really don't see how sci-fi is any more "realistic" than fantasy. But yes, people do like realism in fantasy– that's why I like Diana Wynne Jones so much. Or Tamora Pierce, because she actually portrays kids learning how to lift a broadsword, or fight in army, rather than just being able to naturally. But it's also wrong to assume that that is always correct; or that non-fiction, fantasy, and sci-fi are the only genres that exist. I and plenty of my friends also enjoy historical fiction, fairy tales/myths/legends, short stories, etc, and various types of non fiction; as well as occasionally reading "popcorn" books to relax. To simply assume that all all teenagers ever read is bad fantasy is wrong and unjust. |
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Verba vestra intellegere non possum! | |
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| Edwardted | Dec 7 2006, 12:12 AM Post #10 |
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Twin Prime Conjecture
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Also plain NON-fiction is boring......... most of the time... I read this non fiction of a lost arctic expedition once and that was good... and one about ancient dinosaurs and how they survived, not those kid picture book ones, but most of the time its just facts. reading about facts are a pain. |
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| appu_xavier | Dec 7 2006, 04:31 AM Post #11 |
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Poincaré Conjecture
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Dragonlance pwns you |
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| Michel | Dec 7 2006, 11:54 PM Post #12 |
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Chipmunk
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Well just think, befor Dr. Seuss, there was little to no 'kid's/young adult/teen/etc.' section in the library, thus no Dune, Silmarillion, whatever. Albeit, a lot of us G.T. people do read at the adult level anyhow, there was still almost complete non-fiction, for children and otherwise. Ms Sugarbaker told us that at Haycock. |
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You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. -Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984) | |
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| Admin | Dec 8 2006, 02:30 AM Post #13 |
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The Silmarillion is not in any way a child's book. You don't write children's books in the trenches of World War I. |
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| Thalia | Dec 8 2006, 03:26 AM Post #14 |
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No, it's a mythology for Britain. But if you're going to complain about modern fantasy so much, think a little: before The Lord of the Rings, there was no fantasy at all, so you might as well blame your amazing "greatest fantasy ever written" for all the "fantasy stories ... written simply becuase the author wants to make money." Maybe if you took time to read some other stuff instead of sticking to the three series worshipped on this topic, you'd realize that there are still plenty of great fantasy stories and authors out there that are more relatable, comprehendable, and enjoyable for most people than Tolkien. |
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Verba vestra intellegere non possum! | |
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| Admin | Dec 8 2006, 03:29 AM Post #15 |
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Oh, no, I'm not saying I hate all modern fantasy. For example, the book Eragon was very good. Harry Potter....uh....so-so, Earthsea was excellent, Inkheart is good but not complete yet, and many others. But I'm talking about the state of fantasy in General. I have seen so many junk fantasy books, it's just saddening. Half of them are written for money alone. I'm afraid, all you Dragonlance fans, that this trilogy you worship is part of this phenomenon. Dragonlance is written by many different authors, and it has become a trademark rather than a series. Again, here fantasy becomes an industry. I have tried to read several Dragonlance books before, and I put it down barely throuhgh the first few chapters. Cardboard characters, nothing I can really relate to, just people with big swords hacking monsters. rip-offs of other fantasies as well...I could go on and on. |
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