(urth) tolkien's successors
Brian Lindenmuth
blindenmuth at jkharris.com
Thu Dec 2 13:59:35 PST 2004
I have been a lurking for a long time now and would like to contribute more
but I just cant seem to make the time. Any way, I think that you can
compare Tolkien's influence: good, bad, intended, unintended, forced on him
by critics and fans and detractors alike to someone else in a diffrent
entertainment field altogether. Bob Dylan.
When Dylan came on the scene his impact was so tremendous that he himself
almost was crushed under the weight of it.
But more importantly, because Dylan's shadow loomed so large over the music
landscape everyone from that point forward had to react to him in some way
to him, whether in a positive or a negitave way. He became the base line.
Critics for years after would say things like "The next Dylan..." or
"Dylanesque..." or "Wanna-be Dylan..." and invariably musicians were
crushed under this weight. But there were some artists who persevered and
went on to claim there own legitimate place in the rock canon and make
there own music and create their own vision. Springsteen might just be the
best example of this.
I apologize for my first post ever not metioning Wolfe (well I guess I just
did), but I did see some comparisons and just wanted to share.
-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Malthouse [SMTP:matthew.malthouse at ntlworld.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 4:24 PM
To: James Wynn; The Urth Mailing List
Subject: Re: (urth) tolkien's successors
At 02:31 02/12/2004, Crush wrote:
>Surely all fantasy writers today must say -with apologies to Nixon- "We're
>all Tolkienites now".
To my mind the "Like Tolkien" tag is a bad reviewers tag.
There aren't any writers like Tolkien. Oh, there are some who on their own
merits are just as good or perhaps better if one is prepared to compare
apples and oranges. But no one is doing precisely what Tolkein did and it's
possible that because he did it already no one will.
I don't think it's to be disputed that Tolkien is an irradicable influence
on contemporary writers and to that degree they might all be Tolkienites.
Matthew
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