tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post180890595621412979..comments2024-03-22T19:07:21.790+00:00Comments on The Wertzone: A History of Epic Fantasy - Part 6Adam Whiteheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-12013048686558657832019-03-12T15:40:11.118+00:002019-03-12T15:40:11.118+00:00The cast of Earthsea isn't predominantly black...The cast of Earthsea isn't predominantly black, just the ones of the southeastern part of the Achipielago are depicted as black, dark skinned doesn't have to be black. If you see the LeGin family history, is obvious that Ged and Ogion are based in Ishi, the last yahi, so, they are racially amerindian, culturally, they are chinese, apart of the daoist filosofy in wich is based the saga, other chinese cultural traits can be seen.nerimanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11501498374508217096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-72694081364164149012018-09-28T00:28:10.783+00:002018-09-28T00:28:10.783+00:00It is true that it took a while for fantasy to fin...It is true that it took a while for fantasy to find its form. When trying to profit on the fantasy craze after Tolkien, almost all kinds of speculative fiction was referred to as fantasy, even science fiction. <br />Regarding fantasy and science fiction, I personal feel that science fiction first had to establish itself as a genre of its own. For writers such as HG Wells it was an attempt to adapt non-realistic fiction to a modern age that no longer believed in magic and fairytales. Fantasy in turn would later distinguish itself from science fiction. Before that happened, there was sometimes sci-fi elements involved in fantasy.<br />In Swords of Lankhmar, the characters encounter a german speaking guy called Karl Treuherz of Hagenbeck. He has some sort of spaceship based on advanced technology, not magic, which he use to cross between the dimensions looking for animals and creatures that would be great attractions in a zoo. <br />There is also a scene where the Gray Mouser is shrinking, and he is doing that by losing most of the molecules his body consist of. Later he and some rats gain mass by stealing atoms from other humans close by. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser knows of course nothing about mass and atoms, it is just Leiber trying to be more realistic and explaining it directly to the readers (just as Naomi Novik tries to explain dragon flight by claiming there are pockets of gas in their bodies, allowing their huge bodies to fly, even if the dragons would have to look like huge balloons in the real world if that was the case). <br />Imagine if Tolkien had written in Lord of the Rings that the reason why there are no descriptions of female orcs is because of significant mutations in a couple of genes that only exist on the Y-chromosome, which is much larger than in humans, that makes the males much stronger, aggressive and terrifying than the females. Or claimed that Sauron was even more evil than Stalin and Hitler. The readers would know what he meant, even if the characters had never heard about these persons. The book would just not be the same.Hansenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03972219789961366511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-81769313967283799122017-04-05T02:21:30.028+00:002017-04-05T02:21:30.028+00:00Just want to point out: Bridge to Terabithia is re...Just want to point out: Bridge to Terabithia is realistic fiction, not fantasy... ��Peter Macalahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11028194361863280521noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-75269238766400197512015-09-04T17:59:10.033+00:002015-09-04T17:59:10.033+00:00I would like to thank you for this series on Epic ...I would like to thank you for this series on Epic Fantasy history. I've been reading the genre since 2001 continously and have never come across a summary of the history. This is the most interesting blog post series I've come across in years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-50256553990587007292015-09-04T09:35:34.508+00:002015-09-04T09:35:34.508+00:00D&D did get going and became popular before 19...D&D did get going and became popular before 1977, but I think it was more of a two-way street: lots of D&D players became fantasy fans and vice versa, and the success of Weis/Hickman and Salvatore in the 1980s is down to the overall success of fantasy as a whole. But then D&D players got into the D&D novels and then expanded into the rest of fantasy. And many of the biggest fantasy authors around today are D&D or roleplaying vets, some more influenced by it than others.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-7114482116896979402015-09-04T07:15:14.649+00:002015-09-04T07:15:14.649+00:00Just a tiny remark - the first work of Michael Moo...Just a tiny remark - the first work of Michael Moorcock about Elric is not called "The Dreaming Souls", but "The Dreaming City".Flavius T.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-64632075404026733012015-09-03T21:59:46.198+00:002015-09-03T21:59:46.198+00:00I can't deny that Gygax and Arneson were the m...I can't deny that Gygax and Arneson were the most important figures of 1977... but I'm also not certain it's true. <br /><br />D&D certainly did a huge amount to shape the, as it were, furniture of fantasy. But it was (at least at first) primarily oriented toward the same sort of S&S that was popular at the time.<br /><br />I think that Del Rey may actually have been more important. Imagine: a guy sets up a new publishing company, and decides to publish fantasy, a niche genre, and one he personally detests. What does he decide to publish specifically? Stuff that cannot get published for love or money anywhere else. First book he publishes - The Sword of Shannara. Later that year, it's Lord Foul's Bane, which had previously been rejected by every single publisher in America (for a total of 41 rejections). And the year after, he rescues McCaffrey's Pern novels (the first two had ben written long before, but had gone nowhere) and turns them into a massive, bestselling cycle.<br /><br />The important thing isn't that Brooks and Donaldson moved toward modern epic fantasy... it's that they did that while being <b>stunning</b> succesful. I strongly suspect that Brooks, Donaldson and Pern were the three biggest selling fantasy series by far in that era, and they were all being published only because of Del Rey.<br /><br />I think it's the massive commercial success of Brooks and Donaldson in particular that moved fantasy a long way toward the mainstream, and pushed the genre to follow their lead (particularly that of Brooks) in emulating Tolkien - I think that popularisation and that setting of a paradigm that was just as important as D&D growing the fanbase and providing the trappings.<br /><br />At least, I'm not sure that it's not...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com