On writing

[claidheamhmor]

A couple of interesting links:

When Hari Kunzru met Michael Moorcock
Via erudito, an interview of Michael Moorcock, the British author who wrote the Elric and Hawkmoon books. I enjoyed those when younger, I must admit, but they were rather unusual, as fantasy goes. Here’s a quote from the article:

"On the other, he has a strong anarchist streak and is deeply hostile to the Christian pastoral fantasy tradition of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. His own fantasy writing has always delighted in ambiguity, in contrast to the nursery-school morality of much of the genre. In a 1978 essay he skewered The Lord of the Rings, calling it "Winnie-the-Pooh, posing as an epic." He derided Tolkien's "petit bourgeois" artisan-hobbits, who are portrayed in the novel as a "bulwark against chaos", standing for "solid good sense" against the evil industrial-worker orcs. Tolkien's work, he writes, is nothing more than "a pernicious confirmation of the values of a morally bankrupt middle class", something not so far from the fascism he had agitated against as a young activist."

Then montecook wrote a post on writing, Writing for Dollars, Part 1, which touches on 2010’s top-earning authors, and discusses writing quality vs. earnings from books (hello, Stephenie Meyer...). Interesting stuff.

Comments

[jadedflame.livejournal.com]

People like hobbits because they are artisans??

I just like them because I use Hobbits as an excuse to have second or third breakfasts :)

Interesting articles though!!

[ihlanya.livejournal.com]

I use Hobbits as an excuse to have second or third breakfasts

LOL!!!

[claidheamhmor]

I can't eat a whole hobbit for breakfast, never mind two or three.

[ihlanya.livejournal.com]

He says "petit bourgeois" like it's a bad thing??

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

e's a link to Moorcock's original article:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=13253

As much as I like Tolkien (as a philologist), M. didn't know the half of it in 1977. We read in the Silmirillion that Orcs were made by Mogroth started with captured elves as breeding stock: he purposefuly bred for the worst traits, producing a true mongrel race. And why is Aragorn 400 years old? because the pure blood of the Numenorean kings flows in his veins. Numenor, Arya, same thing

[claidheamhmor]

Thanks for the link. I'm tempted to say that was a waffling, buzzword-laden essay that read far too much into fiction and writers.

[windrider-09.livejournal.com]

Well, writing quality has taken a knock if the sales of Stephanie Meyer's books are any indication.

I have to admit, Tolkien and CS Lewis did grow up in the time where an agrarian way of life was being eroded very quickly and their writing reflects that. I'm reasonably fond of Tolkien, but CS Lewis books stuffed Christianity down one's throat. Michael Moorcock has a very different style, but there are some Tolkiensque elements in his writing too (in my opinion anyway).

[claidheamhmor]

Oh, Moorcock certainly did have some such elements, despite his efforts to be different.