(urth) tolkien's successors

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

On Wed, 1 Dec 2004 19:13:34 -0800 (PST), Nathan Spears
<spearofsolomon at yahoo.com> wrote:
> [... T]his differs from the tone of many modern writers of fantasy
> who seem to be aiming to entertain and teach us, rather than to tell 
> us a story that happens to resonate with what they believe.
> 
> I don't know if anyone is trying to do that anymore.  

Well, you mentioned Le Guin, and I agree - she is not as consciously
manipulating her material as it at some times seems. Yes, there is
some of that, but (for example) she discovered only in retrospect how
important the images of trees and walls were to her.

I think that this is true even of the most "deliberate" fantasists. For
example, Delany certainly deliberately inserts his political, sexual,
and postmodern-philosophical-linguistic concerns into his work. 
But I doubt very much that he realized until at least the novel
_Neveryona_ how important the image of cities was to him; he
clearly loves cities, and his best novels are full of stuff about how
to get along in and enjoy cities.

Stephen King, at the top of his game (which is all too rare), is 
full of a kind of faith in the basic goodness of the universe - no, 
_really_ - that I don't believe he puts there consciously. Hell, half
of the problem with King is that he doesn't do enough consciously;
he sits down at the typer and is as surprised at what comes out as
the readers are, then doesn't revise or cut it anywhere near enough,
three quarters of the time. He launches into a novel not knowing
where he will come out, and when he gets to the far side he's
unwilling to change the course he's followed, thus resulting in
novels with some of the most unsatisfying endings imaginable,
dammit.

H'mmm. In general, though, you're right. Most of the major
fantasists running around loose today are extremely self
conscious about what forms and informs the meaning-structure
of their work...

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