"(D&D)... game that launched a million junior high school wedgies."-- Time

[Celebrim]

Henry: Yeah, I've yet to meet the reporter that thought the truth should get in the way of a good story.

I wonder how this reporter would explain the emmence popularity of fantasists like China Mieville right now? I don't think there is anyone in fantasy is hotter right now, and he hardly writes what you'd call comfortable idealic stories. Or, if you don't accept China as the hottest writer in the field, then I'll settle for Neil Gaimen - who also could hardly be called a romantic luddite.

No, the fact of the matter is that this writer probably hasn't read any fantasy and doesn't know where the field is currently or where it is heading.

 

[Celebrim]

For a much more literate, informed, and balanced discussion of Tolkein fandom, see Wired magazines article last year.

Time is so much last centuries magazine. It has all substance of a children's book today. See all the pretty pictures?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Henry: Yeah, I've yet to meet the reporter that thought the truth should get in the way of a good story.

I wonder how this reporter would explain the emmence popularity of fantasists like China Mieville right now? I don't think there is anyone in fantasy is hotter right now, and he hardly writes what you'd call comfortable idealic stories. Or, if you don't accept China as the hottest writer in the field, then I'll settle for Neil Gaimen - who also could hardly be called a romantic luddite.

No, the fact of the matter is that this writer probably hasn't read any fantasy and doesn't know where the field is currently or where it is heading.

The success of any literary fantasy, besides Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, is, in the larger scheme of things, almost unnoticeable. Books are not even in the running when it comes to popularity; movies and TV are the cultural touchstones that reach everyone. Look at the figures for how many copies of a book are sold as opposed to the ratings or box office draw of TV shows and movies; even unsuccessful TV shows - even ones that are cancelled due to low ratings - have audiences orders of magnitude larger than that of a successful book. The article discussed here is looking at how fantasy has become so popular with the general population, which means that it is looking almost primarily at TV and movies. You and I may prefer the literature, but TV and movies are what gets noticed.

 

[Celebrim]

Colonel: I don't disagree with you, but that's not the point. The writer of this article proposes to explain not just why the general public is facinated with Tolkien, but also what is the origins of the fan culture. His conclusion is basically that both have to due with a nostolgic longing for some morally simplier white male feudal Europe. I think this is BS of the highest order.

The reason that the public is fascinated by Tolkein is that Peter Jackson made a movie so that they wouldn't have to read the book, and that this movie is fairly well made and is sufficiently like the book that some of the quality of the book shines through and is accessible to the non-reading public. This is too simple and obvious to make for a good story.

The reasons underlying the fan culture are alot more complex as even noting that the fantasy fans and the science fiction fans are basically the same crowd would reveal. The ultimate answer is probably too complex and removed from most peoples experience to make a good story.

So, when the truth won't do, make something up.

 

[KnowTheToe]

The author of the artical tells the story from his perspective, choosing "evidence" that he thinks bolsters his point of view. Every writer does it. I think the guys comparison to the loss of faith in technolgy is really goofy, but hey, he may be right. I don't know we are all guessing.

As mentioned earlier, the movie was started befre the technology industries nose dive into the depths of economic hell. Second, I don't believe anyone has given up on technology. I believe most people still see it as the only way to improve life on earth. technology allows more people to live on a set amount of resources.

Anyway, a good story is a good story is a good story. This is part of a trend created by two good stories where good fights evil tranformed successfully onto the big screen.

 

[Drawmack]

Pop culture spins on a 20-year wheel.

The types of clothes, the types of stories, the types of music all cycle in a 20 year pattern.

Fantasy was populare in the 20's, 40's, 60's, 80's and now.
SciFi was populare in the 10's, 30's, 50's, 70's and 90's.

Those makine the popular items; music, clothes, books, movies, etc; where in their impressionable years two decades before they generally reach the height of their influence within their professions. So someone who is a high ranking sutio executive in the 90's was probably a pipply-faced starwars fan in the 70's. And someone who is a high ranking studio executive in the 00's was probably a pimply-faced rpg geek in the 80's - take the recent thread about manson for an example.

 

[Balgus]

drawmack:
Those makine the popular items; music, clothes, books, movies, etc; where in their impressionable years two decades before they generally reach the height of their influence within their professions. So someone who is a high ranking sutio executive in the 90's was probably a pipply-faced starwars fan in the 70's. And someone who is a high ranking studio executive in the 00's was probably a pimply-faced rpg geek in the 80's

Hey! I resemble that remark!!

And yes- I wholeheartedly agree. I give another example: the Transformers back in the mid 80's. I grew up then, and now it is making it's big push back into mainstream culture. But the crap on TV nowadays are catering to the kiddies- and is hardly what the grown-up pimply faced teenagers of the time would have hoped for. My bro even dedicated his garage to the collection and restoration of many old transformers that he could not afford at the time... it is just a little more expensive now trying to get the cool toys he wanted 20 years ago...

 

[Fast Learner]

Like a great many reporters, he mistakes his own awakening to reality for a transformation in the larger world. He imagines that since he is now just taking notice of events, that such events have only just begun to happen, and that they are significant of a great change in the tastes and habits of the public. He imagines that a temporary taste in Hollywood for fantasy signals a change in the taste of the public, when in fact it is only a fortunate coincidence that a few people in the movie industry have awakened to the fact that thier is a great crowd of fantasy fans that will pay alot of money if only thier favorite settings are treated with (something like) due respect.

Well spoken and insightful.

 

[Pielorinho]

Colonel, I agree that most books don't make it onto the cultural radar, Frodo and Potter excepted, but there's one more huge influx of fantasy into our culture besides TV and movies: computer games. The article ignores these as well, to its detriment.

On the one hand, an article rife with errors about fantasy/SF isn't going to impact public policy in the same way that an article rife with errors about, say, health insurance might. On the other hand, it sure would be nice if one of these articles would be written by a reporter who knows how to research, how to check her facts, before sending the article off to the editor. Sheesh.

On the third hand, His Dark Materials, with a screenplay written by Tom Stoppard?



Daniel

 

[Wil]

Not to be outdone, Disney reportedly paid nearly $8 million for the film, theme-park and multimedia rights to Clive Barker's fantasy novel Abarat.

There are two names I'd never thought I'd see in the same sentence