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	Subtopic	Started By	Posts
	Archive through Nov 07, 2004 Last Post: Nov 15, 2004, 12:00 pm		20

Posted By: Some Idiot Nov 08, 2004 - 07:52 am

This was an interesting thread - thanks berry, for reviving it.

In my opinion, whether a story is genius or not is the wrong bar to set. Was the story interensting, and did you enjoy it for any one of countless reasons. It could be that it opened your eyes to something you never considered, or it could be that you enjoyed the escape whenever you found time to pick up the pages.

I find it interesting that this thread started out with a post that everything in the genre has been 'played out'. It has also been said that there is no such thing as original thought any more... and that is not meant to be genre specific. Is it true? I don't know. It would be easy enough to say that everything you could possibly think of has already been manifest in the ideas of another person in history, and that any thought is pulled from one or more sources in your history that has collected to a single event horizen in your head, which boils down to nothing more than a new way of looking at the same old things (at best).

Even were this to be true, the question remains - does it matter?

Posted By: Woodreeve Nov 08, 2004 - 10:44 am

Well said, Magus. There IS definitely much in fantasy that is left to write... imagination knows no bounds. Fantasy is merely the vehicle by which the writer-artist may tell their particular story. Doesn't matter if that type of story has been used before -- here I mean, specifically, the 'quest'-type. It has been used successfully for centuries, from the Beowulf-poet, to Malory, and on up through Morris to Tolkien and beyond. What the writer brings to the old fantasy-quest is their own individuality, and whatever style of writing they wish to utilize. (I think fantasy these days can really only succeed if the old heroic quest is fused with a modern emphasis on character development, and utilizing a meld of old and new writing styles; but that's just my opinion.)

Posted By: Magus Nov 08, 2004 - 12:57 pm

I do enjoy the group quest. But I find that in my epic it's more then simply "Grrr... I'm going to conquer the world." Mine is more personally driven. They want at that specific group for a specific reason and will do anything in order to first try and torment them, and then kill them. Then the group seeks out the antagonists to help, in turn save themselves, but that's what the antagonists want. They want to kill them themselves.

And it's not simply the main character who has these enemies. They're really after another main protagonist, although not the MC. But they want all the group to suffer because they were likewise responsable for the event in question.

Does this make sense at all, or am I just rambling on and on and on and on and on and...

Posted By: Talon Sinnah Nov 15, 2004 - 07:15 am

I know I am late on the matter but hey I have not been on in a couple of days. Elf legends were around back in the dark ages and if I was a betting man so were dwarves. Yes Tolkien was a good writer and the Lord of The Rings were good pieces of literature. I just did not find them interesting as some of the other members may know. Shakespear on the other hand I enjoyed along with mistr Poe as well mainly because their writings had a tendency to be dark. I also agree that some plots are severly overused and need to be put to sleep. To many evil wizards trying to take over the world. Here is a idea a evil wizard trying to save the world.

Posted By: Magus Nov 15, 2004 - 12:00 pm

You'll notice a distinct difference between midieval elfs and modern elves. Origionally they were mioshievous little sprites. Now they arer wise, fair and aged immortal creatures of the light.

Posted By: Caltana Nov 15, 2004 - 12:57 pm

The group quest is always a good thing, it brings up the possibilities for great character interaction between the different kinds of people, as well as conflict of many kinds. The classic dwarf vs Elves etc, but I must confess that though I write fantasy myself I haven't read any other fantasy books than Tolkien's work. This is largely because I've tried and I just can't get into it. The whole prophecy, good vs evil with very few things inbetween kind of bores me, so I'm trying to write a mix of fantasy and reality, melding very real people with fantasy people, seeing how their different ideas and ideals differ and are alike, to see how fantasy characters deal with very human ideas such as angst, emotional problems, family arguements etc and basically all the things that ordinary people in our world and time have to deal with which fantasy characters (in my limited knowledge of them)never seem to do, taken out of the mythical fantasy quest like idea and not only that; how they deal with these things themselves. I try to write in practicalities such as referencing camping gear, and ordinary stuff you need on quest type missions. Mainly, I'm putting together ordinary humans, having them see the fantasy, sword and magic wielding and thinking 'what the heck,' and the same with fantasy character seeing these ordinary humans, their inability to fight, their lack of nobility (the old fashioned morality play)self serving ideals but not actually being evil and all the other things that define the huge differences between the two worlds. Its actually kind of fun, and though its only really been done before in a comedic frame, I'm findng it actually works quite well.

Posted By: Magus Nov 15, 2004 - 02:13 pm

Have you ever read The Dark Tower series by Stephen King? It describes and contains everything you just wished was in fantasy. It's quite awsome. It's a seven volume series and I'm on book 6 right now. The books are, chronologically:

The Gunslinger

The Drawing of the Three

The Wastelands

Wizard and Glass

Wolves of the Calla

The Song of Susannah

The Dark Tower

I highly suggest them, for each one is spectacular, but get's better as you go further down chronologically. But, just to warn you, it's not purely Fantasy. If I were to classify it, as I have done before, I would say it is aPost Apacolyptic Sci-Fi Western Epic Fantasy. It's a rahter interesting mix, and a rather interesting volume of literature.