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Subject: 
Re: Chapter 2, plus 2 MOCs, too
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.castle
Date: 
Tue, 8 Apr 2003 03:10:01 GMT
Viewed: 
1637 times
  
In lugnet.castle, Matt Hein writes:
In lugnet.castle, Bruce Hietbrink writes:

Matt, I really think you're doing yourself a
disservice here.  You are really missing out
on one of the best books of the 20th century
of any genre, and quite probably THE best in
the fantasy genre.

"Frankenstein" is definitely the best fantasy book.

The only disservice I don't want to do to
myself is draw from something so starkingly
obvious that someone can point to it and say

'there's another mindless tolkein fan! See,
I told you nobody can write a fantasy story
without dwarves/ elves.'

I agree with Matt.  It is impossible to read something and not pull from it.
I think reading something like LOTR would have too much influence and
frankly i do not wish to be sucked into the vortex of "typical fantasy".
Admittedly, I have some of the elements in my story but they are very
limited (i think).  The trouble it seems is that too many people fall into
the traditional fantasy mold of Dragons, orcs and elves that rather than
being truely fantastic become a chip of the block.  While these qualities
dont ensure the work is bad, it doesn't seem as interesting.

Right now, I feel like drawing from other
sources besides tolkein, since I'm going
for a science fiction/ fantasy story, not
completely fantasy...and I'd rather not
have one object possess an ostensible amount
of power. That would be too simple...

I fear that my great powerstones of Sirob may fall victim to that artifact
of ultimate power (or do they?)

The answer to avoiding being a copycat is not to
avoid the original sources. The answer is instead
to read lots and lots of sources--read Tolkien, read
L'Engle, read Lewis, read Le Guin, read McCafferty,
read Cooper, read the mythology of the Greeks and
Norse and other cultures, read the Bible and other
religious works, read etc etc etc.

I don't really read much fantasy.  Most of my background is from video games.
I think the best influences are from great literary sources.  Don't be
afraid of a little Dickens or Fitzgerald.  a few stanzas of Shelley never
hurt.  Elements of classics like "the Three Musketeers" and various others
run throughout my story.  Also, since lego based stories are also visual,
movies help alot.  My Jahmong Shrine developed after watching Jackie Chan's
"Spiritual Kung-Fu"

Oh, yeah...you can definitely bet I'd read into
any of the aforementioned works, except for
Tolkien...I'll read anything stephen King,
I'll read Ray Bradbury, heck, I'm even reading
the bible, and I might check out the Koran and
assorted Japanese works, but no Tolkien. I'm
watching some James Bond movies, saw Swordfish
(very interesting), playing some Metal Gear,
and reading stories of basically anyone else,
but still avoiding Tolkein.

I feel if I can pull off writing a fantasy
project without utilizing Tolkein as a
reference, that should be considered a feat
within itself.
Personally I think the best Fantasy is that which is completely created by
the author


Once you have all these different things swimming
around in your head, sure, you'll pull influences
from here and there, but it won't be a rip-off of
any one book.  In interview after interview I have
seen professional writers say how reading has helped
them grow as writer. Remember, Tolkien drew inspiration
from all kinds of sources.

Oh, definitely! You wouldn't believe all of the
odd science fiction ideas I conceived that
could be successfully integrated into fantasy
such as

magic > environ manipulation
magic> interaction of various isotopes of Rydium

religious faith > influence of the seeds
Religious Faith> Worship the creator (i wonder who that is?)


You know, I'm considering writing a
terminology digest to log in all of
these ideas...

And notice, I didn't use Tolkein to
conceive these! • Good job!

http://www.lugnet.com/~1112/Glossary/ZeroYear

<<_Matt Hein_>>
Fellow lego enthusiast
O s p r e y

http://www.lugnet.com/~1112/Creations

I really like the points Matt made and just wanted to add a few more.  I
think the key is just originality.  If you take an idead from another
sourse, make it your own.  Do the orcs always have to be barbaric evil
hordes and why are dwarves so frickin short. ('cause they are Dwarves,
stupid) oh.  I guess Tolkein is good but it is his fantasy world and so we
should each create our own original ones too.

-Nick
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/oranzinr
http://www.mocpages.com/home.php/57?r=800163069



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Chapter 2, plus 2 MOCs, too
 
(...) The movie 'Resident Evil' gave me some excellent ideas for writing, albeit I might only take a few of them...maybe mix some of that with the 'World is not enough' James Bond film... (...) Hell, I'd like to see a fantasy spoof similar to this, (...) (22 years ago, 8-Apr-03, to lugnet.castle)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Chapter 2, plus 2 MOCs, too
 
(...) The only disservice I don't want to do to myself is draw from something so starkingly obvious that someone can point to it and say 'there's another mindless tolkein fan! See, I told you nobody can write a fantasy story without dwarves/ elves.' (...) (22 years ago, 8-Apr-03, to lugnet.castle)

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