Fantasy Obsessed

[Jonn]

I'm not really so much a wide reader of the fantasy genre, although RJ's books are my favorite. I have read the HP books.

I've read Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and most of the Silmarillion even.

 

Other series I've tried to read, but none of it caught my fancy...

 

My question here is:

 

Are we the most in-depth/obsessed community of novel fantasy fans?

 

I don't know. I don't go to any other sites or anything. I know the Harry Potter fans can get pretty obsessed, but I find most of that obsession to be either entirely too weird or pretty corny and childish with the fanfiction and stuff like that.

 

The other part is, how deep we get into the books. There is of course the RPing element. I don't really find the time to try it, but I guess there are a fair deal of people who do. Besides that though, we really analyze every detail in the books and there are a lot fo details, man.

 

We have really passionate discussions about things in these books, and I find that it's hard to rival the intensity of the feelings of the fans of these fantasy novels. I mean, many of us have been reading these books for over a decade. Some for nearly 20 years!

 

I think it;s so unique in the world of fantasy literature. The series is about to end, and you literally have generations growing up on reading these books, and being passionate about every chapter.

 

I lack experience outisde of these novels. Are there any other novels where the fans can rival what we have in this epic series?

 

I hear a lot of A Song of Ice and Fire, Harry Potter of course...there's lots out there, but nothing really matches up to the buzz that goes up around these books. that's just me though.

 

What do you say?

[Zardi]

The HP fandom is at least as obsessed as this one. The reasons you see less discussion and more fanfiction may be because 1) JK Rowling has said she doesn't mind fanfiction, and so nearly every fan feels the need to try their hand at it at some point, 2) there is just less to discuss in Harry Potter: there aren't 5000 different plotlines to be resolved in the next book, only one main plot, and 3) while HP has a huge number of adult fans, I'd wager that it also has a higher proportion of child and young teen fans than WoT does. However, the serious discussions that do arise are just as intense as for WoT. You just have to dig a little deeper to find them.

 

As for LotR, I tried to participate a bit in the fandom when I was younger (I read the books in middle school, before the movies were announced) and didn't find them to be a very welcoming lot. Make one mistake because you haven't read the Silmarillion, and...oi :roll: Maybe I just had bad luck.

 

Both HP and LotR (and probably every fantasy series) have roleplaying elements. I can't say much about their intensity because I avoid RP at all costs. :P

[Inara]

i dont think fanfiction is childish, i love to write my own scenarios, i certainly never publish them on the web, they are mine.

 

i dont think anyone is too obcessed until they relegate people because they are not as obcessed. there will always be people who dont take things as seriously as the next person, then again, alot of people think i'm too much of a purist (or fanatic..whatever)

 

i think that the depth of world that fantasy offers (and scifi too) is really what causes our genre to attract the people who can become obcessed, and snare those who may normally not be so inclined.

for crying out loud, there are people who speek klingon (sp?) exclusively. its a whole new world as soon as the book opens, or the tv is turned on.

 

myself, i love 'living' in the worlds that are offered to me through fantasy, i'm an escapist. anyone else?

[merlinspetrock]

There is a pretty big fanbase for George R.R. Martin too, and growing. Their community is not as active (convention wise) as this, but their forums are always jumping. They seem to be a little rude and xenophobic also, so I just read their boards instead of joining in the discussions. No offense meant to the members of their boards, just seems like the people at dragonmount are a lot nicer to people IMO.

[Guest Egwene]

Is this 'DM niceness' that several people mention due to the fact that in many ways the WoT books ARE nice books? You feel that the really nasty stuff is reserved for the really nasty people. Maybe this is reflected in how the fan base operates. Could it be that we copy the values and acceptable behaviour codes accross?

 

Whilst HP, Starwars, LotR etc... have huge fan bases, I don't think there is a s much to discuss. Obviously those stories are much shorter, but also I don't think as detailed. LotR is maybe the exception, but only if you also take in books like the Silmarillion. And of course the film fans are looking at the whole thing from different angle alltogether.

 

There are other books that I read again and again, but whilst I enjoy the stories, I never get the same cache of questions building up as I go along. Example: the short info that Verin is persona non grata in Far Madding. A similar info in another book, I would just read as a fact. In WoT, I am instantly trying to connect it to other happenings or try and work out were this is going to come in later in the story.

 

Once you re-read the series, it just becomes so obvious that there are those one sentence bits of information hidden all over the place that become meaningful later on. The knowledge that even if we read it yet once more, we'll never spot them all is probably what keeps us talking and pondering... bit like a treasure hunt, really :D

[Incubate]

*throws hands into the air*

 

FORGET IT, IF THIS COMPUTER DOESN"T WANT ME TO POST MY THOUGHTS THEN SO BE IT!!!!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :x :x :x :x :x :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

[Thread7]

I don't think anyone can compare to us right now because we are so near the end but LotR used to be as big at least most likely bigger especially during the movies I mean have you seen the end credits on the last movie there's like ten minutes of a list of names from just one fan club and their were a sight more then that.

[JenniferL]

The LotR fandom is much, much bigger than ours. I think HP probably outnumbers us as well.

 

LotR has been in publication considerably longer than WoT. It also existed before the rise of the internet. Most of the LotR fan groups exist offline and are organized geographically. The LotR fandom was huge even before the movies came out and its likely to stay huge even after the furor dies down in ten or fifteen years. Those Legolas fangirls have to grow up eventually.

 

HP fandom is similar to WoT fandom in that its primarily young and organized mainly online. I do think HP tends to skew a bit younger than WoT, so there's probably tons of unorganized HP fans out there that can't get their parents permission to make contact with a fan group.

[Werthead]

There is a pretty big fanbase for George R.R. Martin too' date=' and growing. Their community is not as active (convention wise) as this, but their forums are always jumping. They seem to be a little rude and xenophobic also, so I just read their boards instead of joining in the discussions. No offense meant to the members of their boards, just seems like the people at dragonmount are a lot nicer to people IMO.[/quote']

 

As a moderator on the biggest GRRM forum, asoiaf.Westeros.org, I find this view a little disappointing. As with all forums (including this and others), we have our share of people who are abrasive and rude. When they are found out and reported, they are reprimanded. Also, ASoIaF has a much greater international appeal it seems than other series, including WoT (probably as Martin's love of the Medieval period is respected by people living in European countries which are the sources for his castles, knights etc), so perhaps Americans are given slightly more of a rough ride with regard to political and environmental issues than on other forums. That said, probably 75%+ of our community is American.

 

Also, the GRRM fan community is probably more active than the RJ one in organising parties, meet-ups and joint holidays. No offence to Robert Jordan, but GRRM himself is also a much more sociable person, happy to while away the hours discussing the books and other subjects whilst consuming liberal quantities of alcohol.

 

So I would urge anyone who does feel like this to give our board a chance and sign on. Our community is growing rapidly since the publication of the last novel (we've recently exceeded Dragonmount in number of posters, for example) and there are numerous WoT fans on the boards as well. Cheers :)

[JenniferL]

Keep in mind that ASOIAF hasn't been in print as long as WoT has, so its going to take a bit to get them organized. Also, there are some WoT sites who can be nasty and xenophobic. Most aren't though. I chalk it up to us being relatively young fandoms. There's still plenty of room to grow and expand, so no one is getting terrortorial yet.

[SinisterDeath]

I have this theory that as soon as HP ends, all there fans will be wandering around aimlessly trying to find something to read.. And they will all stumble apun Wot and ASOIAF.. And then they will be hooked. By the time that ends, they'll be hooked on A memory of light. *hopefully*

I'm guessing more of the older hp fans have read LOTR between hp books..

[Werthead]

Keep in mind that ASOIAF hasn't been in print as long as WoT has' date=' so its going to take a bit to get them organized. Also, there are some WoT sites who can be nasty and xenophobic. Most aren't though. I chalk it up to us being relatively young fandoms. There's still plenty of room to grow and expand, so no one is getting terrortorial yet.[/quote']

 

To be honest, I think ASoIaF fans are generally as 'organised' as WoT ones (there's a six-year publication difference between EotW and GoT, with GoT recently celebrating its tenth birthday). With WoT it seems there's lots of different small fan groups scattered all over the world with varying degrees of participation from Robert Jordan in their activities, whilst ASoIaF has one large, informal fan group (the Brotherhood Without Banners) which is highly organised and often has charity-raising events with prizes donated by GRRM etc. So I'd put the two at parity at the moment in 'organisation'. How things develop in the future will be interesting.

[Guest Egwene]

Before people get too fired up... a few points to consider...

 

- most people that read WoT also read aSoIaF, HP and tLotR. We may prefer one or other... but we all love fantasy... and the 'Others' are those that consider anything not 'real' as being rubbish.

 

- the books mentioned are all very different from each other. Age wise they range from very young (early HP) over WoT (teenager) to aSoIaF (young adult) with LotR somewhere inbetween. Yes, you can read them at any stage but I believe those to be the age groups in which to start reading them at the earliest, in order to really understand the story.

 

- let's face it... if there were more hours in the day, we would probably all be members of all four fan groups...

[SinisterDeath]

I don't think wot & asoiaf are tean-young adult..

If anything wot is young adult and asoiaf is borderline adult *at least from what I think i've heard about it.* :P

[merlinspetrock]

Werthead,

 

I wasnt trying to say that everyone was evil over there. Just a few things Ive read kind of turned me off some of the members over there. I think the forums are great and there is alot of good information to be found. I tried to write the previous message without insulting anyone who posts there also.

[Thread7]

Can someone please tell me what asoiaf stands for so I can look it up it sounds interesting

[Werthead]

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. It's probably the most critically-acclaimed epic fantasy series on sale at the moment, consisting of seven novels, of which the first four are on sale now, with the fifth to follow next year. It seems to be quite popular with WoT fans, but it is somewhat more adult in theme and content. People often equate it with a HBO TV production. Time Magazine last year declared Martin to be 'The American Tolkien'. The books come very highly recommended by several other authors, including Anne McCaffrey, Janny Wurts, Katherine Kerr, Robin Hobb, Raymond E. Feist and a guy you may have heard of called Robert Jordan...

 

@ the other comments, yeah I realised no insult was intended. Things can get heated on the Martin boards on occasion, but then they get heated on any boards. And to be honest probably the three or four most OTT arguments I've ever seen on a board have actually been on Wotmania rather than on Westeros.org.

[SinisterDeath]

I thought RJ said he's never even Read a song of fire and ice?

[JenniferL]

No, he's read it. There's a quote from him on the cover of my copy of "A Game of Thrones". I think you're thinking of The Sword of Truth trainwreck.

[Werthead]

Yeah, Martin and Jordan are friends (not close friends, but I think GRRM thanked Jordan for his quote on AGoT and they've stayed in touch, appeared at cons together etc). Although, slightly ironically, Jordan has read GRRM, GRRM has never read Wheel of Time (it's somewhere on his 'to do' list though).

 

Having a Robert Jordan quote on your bookcover can do wonders for business. GRRM and a British fantasy author named JV Jones whom Jordan also recommended have both said they reckon it's added tens of thousands of sales to their series.

[Zardi]

Time Magazine last year declared Martin to be 'The American Tolkien'.

Not a criticism to the poster, but that phrase is so overused that it means nothing to me anymore. Martin, RJ, whoever wrote Sword of Truth, and Paolini (Eragon) have all been hailed as "the next Tolkien." If Harry Potter weren't set in 1990's Great Britain, I suspect JK Rowling would also be "the next Tolkien." Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous?

[Werthead]

True, to a certain extent. I've seen lazy writers (usually on Dragon Magazine back when they did SF&F reviews) apply it to authors like Tad Williams, Raymond E. Feist and Robert Jordan, but in Martin's case it is more justified, since last time I checked Time Magazine was more respected as a journalistic organ than Dragon Magazine

 

Personally I'd say that Martin outranks Tolkien in several key areas, including character-building and prose style, whilst Tolkien remains ahead with his mythology/history and invented languages.