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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1300132" data-attributes="member: 812">Yep, I would say you definitely define good writing differently. "Enjoyable to read" is one way to define good writing.The problem with "enjoyable to read" as your definition of good writing is that it doesn't admit to comparative analysis. There's no point in discussing the whys and wherefores of writing if that's how we define good writing -- because everybody can just say, "This is what I find enjoyable," and how can you argue with that?If you're interested in discussion the RELATIVE merits of literary works, as I suspect ruleslawyer is, and I know I am, such a definition is useless. For our purposes, we need a definition that offers a more objective basis of discussion -- even if such a definition excludes works we enjoy reading.Such a definition might include such things as appropriate vocabulary, philosophical insight, wit, emotional power, mature observation, intelligent commentary, beauty of language and energy of story.Now of course we can debate endlessly as to what such a definition ought to properly include, even while we debate to what degree our favourite authors demonstrate such qualities.So if you have an objective definition of "good writing" by which you think REH displays superior skill to Tolkien, then I at least would love to hear it and use it as a basis for discussion. But if all you can say is "I find this more enjoyable" then our conversation is, sadly, pretty much over.The great short story writers -- Hemingway, Alice Munro, Eudora Welty -- show us just what good writing can accomplish in very few pages. There's no need to accept lesser artistic power just because the length is shorter.Great stories, practically by definition, are about transformation. A character that doesn't change -- in a 5-page story or in a 3,000 page epic -- is a plot point, not a character.Right, but as I pointed out above, if there's no difference between "stuff I like" and "stuff that's good" then it's impossible to have meaningful, objective discussions about what's good or not.</blockquote>

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