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 Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 9:20 am
Unfortunately, as good as some of these authors may be, I don't think they'll be considered as brilliant as the true great authors of literature in the past. I actually mean people LIKE Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker and the Brontes.
Tolkien has certainly attained that level of respect as well.
I've not read a great many of them yet, but they are the Great Works of Literature. People like Christopher Paolini won't gain that level of fame. Novels (including ones I've not read yet) like Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Treasure Island and Dracula come into that category. They're also known as classics. I don't know any authors as yet who've managed to attain that kind of success in the 20th/21st century besides Tolkien. I don't even think J. K. Rowling will get there (I'll be downright furious if she does - no offence to people who like Harry Potter but in my opinion and the opinions of pretty much everyone I know outside the internet, it's well-written crud). Phillip Pullman, so I've heard, is great. I've not read anything of his yet, but I intend to some day. Another is possibly Neil Gaiman.
However, saying all this, fantasy isn't one of those genres that tends to acquire that level of interest. The old classics have a much wider audience, and that's probably why they've been so successful. There's that, and the fact that getting published before the 20th century was even more difficult than it is today.
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:29 pm
Have you read Tolstoy as well?
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:29 am
I've not even read all of the ones I mentioned. I've not read Tolstoy yet. I'm currently reading the backlog of books I've acquired, and continuing with series' I've started and never finished.
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:19 pm
Have you read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, then?
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Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 9:23 am
Not yet. I intend to some day. I just hand a humongous backlog to read right now. -_-'
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Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 3:04 am
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to catch up someday? I have a dream...sigh
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 1:44 pm
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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:35 am
My problem is - there are also all these great story lines here, too!
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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:45 am
Here there be Opinions... not trying to force anyone to think as I do... smile
With the same caveat of apologies to anyone who loves them (heck, *I* love them!) I'm so glad someone else shares my opinion of Rowling's books... I loved all the HP books, but the relative ease with which they translated to movies points up the fact that they're candy floss. Well-written spun sugar; even the darker ones are... fluffy. There were so many sub-plots she could have gone with and chose to ignore... Loved them, wish I had her luck with publishers... but they aren't great literature. When we are all dust, they'll be remembered for the hype, the money, and the fan base--but...
Tolstoy is brilliant. Hard to read sometimes, and I have used War & Peace as a doorstop from time to time (and I once thought LOTR was a huge book!! Whoa...) but it is great--well-written, occasional slow spots, but a really good read. Only once has it ever been properly brought to the Big Screen, and that was a few years ago.
As for time to read... OMG I wish I had more of that. smile
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:11 am
I have nothing but contempt for Harry Potter and everything he stands for. Yes, it's for children primarily, but in my personal opinion it's badly constructed fantasy and judging from the friends I have who have read the HP books, J K Rowling has plagiarised an awful lot of other author's work.
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:27 pm
Plagiarism really makes me angry... it's cheating, and it's unoriginal. The thought that someone could make millions of dollars/pounds and beat out the Queen for income with plagiarised candy-floss just cranks my shorts. sad
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:14 am
It's true though. People I know who've read Harry Potter say a lot of it is plagiarised from many different sources, and Rowling has covered it all up cleverly.
For example, Meg and Mog. If you don't know them, they're age old childrens characters. Meg is a witch who rides on a broomstick and she has the classical black cat at her side. It just so happens Harry Potter is a boy, but rides a broomstick and has an owl as a friend. Am I right?
That's just one example. If you look closely (I've not read Harry Potter and I never intend to - I am going by what I've been told) you'll probably notice a lot of other examples as well.
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Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 3:49 pm
Well I havn't actually read very much but that would have to do with my age...I just started reading lord of the rings,and it is better than I would have imagined from the movies.I don't klnow much about the older authors but there seem to be a few fairly new authors who are quite good. For example R.A slavatore in my opinion he writes some of the best fantasy books around especially for these days. And earlier someone mentioned Twilight and new moon both amazing books.
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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 8:16 am
Many of what I believe to be classic authors are poets: Baudelaire, Shakespeare, Keats, John Milton: (Paradise Lost is what I'd consider a classic.) I'd love to read Voltaire's Candide, but i've only read excerpts, and I just haven't had time.
I took a Spanish language literature in translation class in college, and found a couple of very good reads, if not modern classics. Both are written in the style known as "Magical realism", in which magical occurrences not only blend with real life, but are written in such a way as to almost seem like commonplace occurrences. One is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, which can be a hard read simply because names in this family's line repeat and it can be hard to keep characters straight. (Don't let the fact that it's in Oprah's book club throw you.) The other is House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. (I'd advise not to see the movie; all the magic was taken out of the story, rendering it quite dull, or so I've heard..)
As for "classic fantasy", I'm actually rather fond of L. Frank Baum, despite the fact that the Oz books are considered children's literature.
I actually like Harry Potter, but wouldn't call it a classic, certainly not on a par with Tolkien.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:54 pm
better constant lead As for "classic fantasy", I'm actually rather fond of L. Frank Baum, despite the fact that the Oz books are considered children's literature.
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