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/lit/ - Literature

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2343291 No.2343291 [Reply] [Original]

Why isn't "high fantasy" called "LoTR-clones"?

That would be much more fiting name for this lowly genre as it clearly demonstrates that all of it is derived from single book, just like early FPSs were callled "Doom-clones" as they stole all their ideas from Doom.

>> No.2343292

Well each new fantasy writer tends to be labelled as "new-tolkien"...

>> No.2343293

To be fair, Tolkien got most of his ideas from the Eddas.

captcha: irritype commands

>> No.2343298

>>2343293
To be fair, High fantasy = religion

>> No.2343299

Most people don't really know the difference between high fantasy, low fantasy, horror fantasy, epic fantasy and sword&sorcery. When the word "fantasy" comes to someone's mind, their usual reaction is: "Oh, I'm not into elves and dragons." That's because most contemporary fantasy has been heavily influenced by Tolkien, and this led to the publication of hundreds of generic, cliché-ridden tolkienesque pieces of shit and those contributed to the current fantasy ghetto.

However, there are good fantasy works that aren't influenced by Tolkien at all. Just dive into fantasy written before him: Howard, Lovecraft, Leiber, Clark Ashton Smith. There are also some good stuff written after him, even if it has nothing to do with elves&dragons: Cook and Moorcock for example. I've also heard of Wolfe as being a good writer too.

>> No.2343301

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie is not derivative of Tolkien.

>> No.2343307

>>2343299
That being said, being influenced by Tolkien isn't necessarily a bad thing. Having elves and dragons in a book doesn't mean it's shit; just look at anything by Pratchett.

>> No.2343325

>>2343293
And Beowulf. And a shitload of other classic sources of NE lit and myth.

>> No.2343327

>>2343291

Um, because in many cases it's not. It's like saying, 'why aren't all crime novels called "Agatha Christie clones" because they feature a murder and a detective?'

Obviously OP you're the usual ignorant e/lit/e. Sure, Tolkien cast a long shadow over certain aspects of the genre but for about the last 15-25 years that has been in recession. No one writes LOTR clones anymore.

>> No.2343358
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2343358

>>2343327
> No one writes LOTR clones anymore.

I don't think so...

>> No.2343373

>>2343291
why LOTR isn't called "european mythological stories clone"?

>> No.2343509

>>2343373
Why isn't Ulysses called Odyssey metaphor?

>> No.2343515

the classification you're thinking of is epic fantasy

and yes, all of it is strongly influenced by tolkien (while never approaching the same level)

>> No.2343520

>>2343358
In other news, GRR Martin tried to be original by being the complete opposite of Tolkien and failed miserably.