Insult to RJ?

[RAND AL THOR]

The link below leads to a cliche list in fantasy. Its really funny and very discouraging to all fantasy writers. Anybody who answer 'no' to all the questions on this list has likely written something that cannot be classified as fantasy!

 

Just go through it and post your comments below.

I find Q 33 particularly offending.

 

Q 75 is hilarious.

 

http://rinkworks.com/fnovel/

[Shaidar_Rannow]

I think Q 33 is worst by far. Whoever wrote that crap should be shot. because everything on that list was covered in LOR or CON. Morons...the whole lot of them!

[RAND AL THOR]

Whoever wrote that crap should be shot.

;)

[Luckers]

Lol. The List of 100 things to do when im an evil overlord does this better, and more subtly.

 

And Shaidar, painful as it is neither Narnia or Lord of the Rings would be published were they submitted today--says a lot about modern supply and demand, doesn't it?

[RAND AL THOR]

Lol. The List of 100 things to do when im an evil overlord does this better, and more subtly.

 

Agreed. I've seen that list.

I specifically posted this because of Q33 though.

[JenniferL]

I'd classify that as more of an ignorant statement than truly insulting. Don't you know it's not cool to like things that are popular these days?

[icspots]

So what was RJ supposed to 'have lied about to get this far'?

[haack909]

They are just saying he would had to have lied to say no to the first 32 questions to get that far down the list.

[Graendals favourite]

Ah, before I go andwatch the football match. Anyway, there's lots of people people who think anything popular is bad: such a thing is a compromise, it cannot be art. And there's people who if they spy something that has been done before, they cry foul because an unoriginal thought has been expressed. However, there's the people who do their own stuff, and also taking into account that if they are read by many they are read by many, they do their best.

 

(not read by many can be art, but it may be insignificant because you cannot get your work read.)

 

PS II, It is always people who must do and work at anything original, and such things cannot be read from lists like that.

[Safia al-Maaz]

Ugh, I am insanely curious now but it won't come up on my computer...

[Angel of Death]

Answering Yes to some of those would make a crap story, but then again answering no to some would make a crap story aw well.

[Moghedian]

*ROFL*

That was such an amzingly biased, pointless and naive list... :D

Wow and these people are so amazing they have the right to dictate what fantasy is?

And just wondering do they realise that so much of what they say is against LoTR and CoN?  :D

 

[Mr Ares]

And just wondering do they realise that so much of what they say is against LoTR and CoN?  :D

Sure that's not the point? Tolkien did it, Lewis did it, so we don't need you to do it as well. Still, the list wasn't particularly funny and didn't even make a good point.

 

Answering Yes to some of those would make a crap story, but then again answering no to some would make a crap story aw well.

The mere inclusion or absence of most of the points in there wouldn't alter the quality of the story, how they are used would. Having a young farmhand of mysterious parentage, for example. Having or not having that will not automatically make you have a better story. Unless Wheel of Time would have been improved/ruined by Rand being the Innkeeper's son.

 

Anybody who answer 'no' to all the questions on this list has likely written something that cannot be classified as fantasy!

I wonder if anyone can think of a fantasy that does answer no to all of them.

[Lille]

What i found most amusing is that Eddings would have had to answer Yes to alteast half of those questions :P

[RAND AL THOR]

And just wondering do they realise that so much of what they say is against LoTR and CoN?  :D

 

Sure that's not the point? Tolkien did it, Lewis did it, so we don't need you to do it as well. Still, the list wasn't particularly funny and didn't even make a good point.

 

 

How ridiculous. Just because a few well known authors have used some of those things doesn't make it their unique rights and it most definitely does not mean that nobody else may write anything with those aspects.

 

so we don't need you to do it as well.

 

Horrible thing to say.

 

 

What i found most amusing is that Eddings would have had to answer Yes to alteast half of those questions :P

 

I've read the Belgariad and found it to be a very horrible series. Actually I read it immediately after finishing all published WOT books so I guess the sudden contrast in writing quality is certainly making me biased buy honestly-i only got to the ending because I hate to quit reading a story.

 

Does anyone rate the Belgariad as good? My chief reason against it is that it is SO predictable.

[Moghedian]

Actually I read it immediately after finishing all published WOT books so I guess the sudden contrast in writing quality is certainly making me biased buy honestly-i only got to the ending because I hate to quit reading a story

 

I had the same problem though I only got up to the end of book four.  ;) I just found the books a bit... ::)

[Graendals favourite]

On this, a very significant argument is also whether, what is primarily said or what is intended, is hit on your head like a hammer. In art, like fantasy literature, you can say many things, and surely the surroundings affect the message. It can significantly hinder a more complex message if it is restrained into a very narrow refrain, be it the avoidance of popular refrains!

[SqueeEGA]

The writers of that list obviously dont know the point of the fantasy genre.  Sure answering yes to a lot of those could end up creating a cookie cutter fantasy with no real point, but you can also use those archetypes to stand up on to create something greater.  If we didnt stand on the shoulders of those before us we'd still be in caves beating rocks together.

[Lemno]

Sorry to defend the writers of that list, but i am quite sure that list is ment as satire by people who love fantasy themselves.

 

It's like the list with evil overlord things, sure they make fun of superhero movies and such but I am willing to bet that they still love watching ehm:)

[the dude]

i'm inclined to agree with Lemno.  i actually checked out some of the other stuff on there, and it was pretty funny, even when they were making fun of books and movies i really like.  say what you want, they're pretty astute.

[reyler]

I liked the Belgariad well enough. It's a good sort of introductory fantasy. Everything that Eddings wrote after it is utter filth. He didn't even try to write a new story in the Malloreon, he just took all the same characters and the same story and moved the pieces around a little.

 

The funny thing about that list is that, while referencing LotR and CoN right off the bat, most of the things on it never crop up once in either one. Although Star Wars suffers big-time by that list's standards, curiously.

[Brigadier]

No surprise that Star Wars takes a hit.  I saw an interview with Lucas about 12 years ago where he said that he had taken themes and character types from mythology and classical stories to create Star Wars to see if the same themes would work in a sci-fi setting.  If you think about it, Thomas Mallory would have failed the test:  Arthur was a young farmhand (basically) with mysterious parentage, Merlin was at various times a mysterious sage and a befuddled old wizard, the Lady of the Lake could be seen as a divine figure at times, female characters existing solely to be rescued, etc.  Personally, I think the themes and archetypes are timeless.  It's how they're used that will determine if the story is good fantasy or not.

[Hybrid]

Hey, I thought it was pretty funny, but then again, for me, nothing is sacred.  I did notice that some of the points are extremely true, and others are not, but it's still funny.  Also, I'd be willing to bet $50 that you wouldn't have considered this an insult before RJ died.  Notice that it was written in 2005.  Funny how death can affect people's opinions, hmm?

[RAND AL THOR]

Lied like a dog is not a nice thing to say regardless of whether the writer is alive or dead. RJ did not have many of those cliches at all and those that he did have were written in a unique way that never made the WoT boring. Hence that statement was totally untrue and unjust.

[RAND AL THOR]

I know the whole thing is supposed to be funny ( and it is at many points) but it is rude at points. Thats all I was trying to raise. Anyway, no decent fantasy author would look at this twice.