Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Merlion" data-source="post: 3124631" data-attributes="member: 10397">This is the part I'm not so sure about. I still see their being to much disagreement among both regular readers and so called "experts" for their to be some final, absolute objective scale.  For instance the "expert" you quoated who while certainly mentioning Eragon's flaws, also called it a good work in the end. You disagree. So which of you is right?Then theres the issue of all the books, such as Eragon, that so many many people enjoy so well and become so successful, and yet people want to claim are "bad". Now maybe this explains that.. However, I have trouble with this notion so many of you have of enjoyment being a seperate entity from quality. If you enjoyed it, as far as I'm concerned it was good.Maybe not as well crafted as other works (yes, some things can be accepted as "better than" others by a majority, although that still has a subjective element), but my point is if you enjoyed it, it still has *value*And again, there is that issue of purpose. What was the purpose of Eragon (for example)? Well I cant be totally sure not having created it or spoken to the one that did, but from what I've read I'd say that in that case at least, it was mainly intended to entertain, and to be enjoyed. And in that, it has succeeded for thousands (myself included so far).Is it writen as well as the Lord of the Rings? No, its not.Is it objectively awful? No, its not that either. At worst, its at the low end of the spectrum of that semi-objective scale of the general criteria of the craft of writting. And for the record, although I have no "credentials" beyond having read a great deal of fantasy fiction in my life, and having tried to develop my own writing skills for the past couple of years, I feel that certain aspects of the story were (or I should say are so far) quite well crafted.  I agree with your overall point. However, I have never personally read a book, or experienced any artistic work that was totally lacking in craft in all points of the general criteria of its medium.I come back to Lovecraft again. He's not real great at dialogue or characterization sure. But he's an ace on mood, theme, description and various other areas. Also note that while I am willing to agree that say for instance the kid that wrote Eragon is not, at this moment, as good a writer as Tolkien or Lovecraft or Stephen King, in any area, I think theres every chance he *could* be with additional practice. See I'm a very positive person. I believe very strongly in the potential of all things and people. Of course I also realize that statement will now be ripped to shreds, but oh well.</blockquote>

Verification