(1) A sweet new image for science fiction loving dogs!
Cool Corgi Dresses Up As All 13 Doctors From ‘Doctor Who’ —
(2) What brand of cigarettes did Godzilla smoke? I never wondered before. See behind-the-scenes photos from the Japanese movie productions, including the fellow who wore the monster suit taking a smoke break. At Dangerous Minds.
Actor Haruo Nakajima (pictured above) spent nearly 25 years inside the rubber Godzilla suit that he gleefully trampled over mini-Tokyo in for various Godzilla or monster-themed films from the early 50s through the 1970s.
(3) James Lileks’ satire for National Review, “The Twitterverse Strikes Back against the Phantom Menace of Anti-Star Wars Racists!”, begins –
According to my Twitter feed, gullible people are complaining –
I should just stop right there and wrap it up, right? After breaking news like that, where could I possibly go?
…Anyway. If Luke comes out in the new film wearing the Leia slave bikini; if Chewie marries Groot; if Han makes a big speech about how the end of the Empire means they can rebuild the galaxy along the lines of, say, Denmark; if the main villain is named Ben-Ghazi — then you might complain that you’re being Force-fed some political drivel. Even then it wouldn’t matter.
(4) A pretty fancy bookmark. A map of Middle-Earth annotated by J.R.R. Tolkien for illustrator Pauline Baynes is being sold by Blackwell’s for 60,000 reports the Guardian.
A recently discovered map of Middle-earth annotated by JRR Tolkien reveals The Lord of the Rings author’s observation that Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford, and implies that the Italian city of Ravenna could be the inspiration behind the fictional city of Minas Tirith.
The map was found loose in a copy of the acclaimed illustrator Pauline Baynes’ copy of The Lord of the Rings. Baynes had removed the map from another edition of the novel as she began work on her own colour Map of Middle-earth for Tolkien, which would go on to be published by Allen & Unwin in 1970. Tolkien himself had then copiously annotated it in green ink and pencil, with Baynes adding her own notes to the document while she worked.
Blackwell’s, which is currently exhibiting the map in Oxford and selling it for £60,000, called it “an important document, and perhaps the finest piece of Tolkien ephemera to emerge in the last 20 years at least”.
It shows what Blackwell’s called “the exacting nature” of Tolkien’s creative vision: he corrects place names, provides extra ones, and gives Baynes a host of suggestions about the map’s various flora and fauna. Hobbiton, he notes, “ is assumed to be approx at latitude of Oxford”; Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University.
David Doering argues, “I feel that such artifacts need to be in public, not private, hands. This is a critical piece of our cultural history and is of immense value. It should not allowed to disappear into private hands.”
(Fifth 4) John C. Wright explains how “My Elves are Different; Or, Erlkoenig and Appendix N”.
When calculating how to portray the elves in my current writing project (tentatively titled Moths and Cobwebs) I was thinking about Erlkoenig and Appendix N, and (of course!) about GK Chesterton. There is a connected train of thought here, but it meanders through some ox-bows and digressions, so I hope the patient reader enjoys the scenic route of thought.
First, Erlkoenig. I had noticed for some time that there was many a younger reader whose mental picture of the elves (those inhabitants of the Perilous Realm, the Otherworld, whose ways are not our ways) was formed entirely by JRR Tolkien and his imitators. They are basically prelapsarian men: like us in stature and passions, but nobler, older, and not suffering our post-Edenic divorce from the natural world. This is not alien to the older themes and material on which Tolkien drew, but there is alongside this an older and darker version.
(5) Nancy Fulda outlines “What To Expect When You Start An Internet Kerfuffle” for the SFWA Blog.
And so you write a blog post.
It is the most difficult and most magnificent thing you’ve ever written, pure words of truth sucked directly out of your soul. You feel triumphant. Liberated. (Terrified, too, but that doesn’t matter now.) You have said the Thing That Must Be Said, and you have done so with courage and clarity. You click a button, and send your words winging toward humanity.
And then, of course, the internet does what the internet does best.
It starts kerfluffling….
Day 2: Negative feedback.
Your post has reached people with opposing viewpoints. Many of them. Blog posts pop up across the internet, criticizing and often misrepresenting your stance. Angry comments multiply like weeds. Email conversations ensue. You become embroiled in a number of difficult and confrontational exchanges, often with people who seem incapable of understanding what you’re trying to say.
You may get hate mail. Depending on what you’ve said and who you’ve said it to, the content of those emails may be very, very ugly indeed. Your hands are trembling by the time you click the delete button.
By the end of the day, you’re afraid to check your email. Comments are still rolling in, and somehow, even the positive messages only make you more aware of the bad ones. You wonder whether this was all a mistake. At the same time, you can’t stop refreshing your screen. The rest of your life has ground to a screeching halt; deadlines missed, meals skipped, loved ones neglected. Even when you’re not online, your thoughts are spiraling around what’s happened there.
And people are still retweeting your post.
(6) Today’s Birthday Boy
- October 23, 1942 – Michael Crichton
(7) Last weekend the Iron Hill brewery chain in Pennsylvania offered Harry Potter-themed fare reports Philly.com.
The pub will serve Dumbledore’s Dubbel, a sweet Belgian ale; and Voldermort’s Wrath, a West-Coast style IPA with an intense bitter hop flavor. In addition to the limited brews, a Harry Potter-themed menu will be served for those hungry wizards. Items include:
- Aunt Petunia’s Mulligatawny Soup
- Slytherin Smoky Pumpkin Salad
- Ron’s Corned Beef Toasts
- Hogwart’s Express Pumpkin Pastry
- Dumbledore’s Cauldron Beef Stew
- Butterbeer-Braised Pork Loin
- Pan-Seared Chinese Fireball (salmon)
- Mrs. Weasley’s English Toffee Crumble
For the non-beer drinker: Butterbeer and autumn-themed mixed drinks will be available.
(9) Details about J.K. Rowling’s new Harry Potter play are online. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will pick up 19 years after the seventh book, and it will focus on Harry and his youngest son, Albus. Here’s a brief about the plot play’s website:
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
(10) Here’s some artwork from the forthcoming production.
(11) The pilot and second episode of Amazon’s original series The Man In The High Castle can be viewed for no-charge here through 11:59 PM PST on Sunday, October 25 in the U.S. and UK.
The season launch of all episodes will be November 20.
(12) Andrew Liptak recalls the history of science fiction in Playboy magazine at Kirkus Reviews.
(13) Alastair Reynolds covers his trip to Russia on Approaching Pavonis Mons.
My wife and I are big on art, and we’d long wanted to visit the Hermitage. I can safely say that it was everything we’d hoped it would be, times about ten, and although we went back for a second day, you could cheerfully spend a month in the place and not see enough.
(14) Zombie George R.R. Martin will soon be on the air:
For all you Z NATION fans out there, and those who aren’t (yet) too, my long-anticipated guest starring role as a rotting corpse is scheduled for the October 30 episode, “The Collector.”
(15) At Teleread Chris Meadows pays tribute to prolific Amazon reviewer Harriet Klausner, who was an important part of the growth of online book sales via Amazon.
Harriet Klausner, at one time one of the most recognizable names on Amazon, passed away on October 15, at the age of 63. Klausner was a speed-reader who was one of the most prolific customer reviewers on Amazon, with over 31,000 reviews to her credit at the time of her death. According to a 2006 Time profile of her, she read an average of 4 to 6 books per day. Although the details of her death were not disclosed, it must have happened fairly quickly—the last review on her Amazon.com reviewer page is dated October 12.
(16) Jonathan R. Eller speaks about Fahrenheit 451 at Wisconsin Lutheran College on October 26.
(17) The wisdom of the Fred!
https://twitter.com/FredKiesche/status/657600422794915841
[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, Robotech Master, Phil Nichols, Steven H Silver, David Doering, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day the indefatigable Will R.]
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Fifth?
(17) The scroll shouldn’t bother me anyway.
Looks like Bradbury’s lost the “Fahrenheit 451 isn’t about censorship at all” battle once and for all…
(Of course, I’ve never understood that position, myself.)
You appear to have two items 4. The first item 4 prompts me to wonder if Paul Allen will buy it and add it to the EMP collection (HINT HINT HINT not that he’ll ever see this) and the second item 4 prompts me to be surprised that JCW is more or less correct about Tolkien’s Elves.
Regarding 5, I went to go read the whole article and got a bit depressed when she had everything going back to normal on day 100. For people like Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn, it’s probably never going back to normal again.
@McJulie, Obviously, 4th is the new 5th.
Also, Fifth!
I agree with JCW, for once, but if he had been reading Terry Pratchett instead of Erlkönig, he would have found that theme already ably explored in “Lords and Ladies”.
Fred Kiesche is wise. 🙂
And I lust after that map.
Michael Chricton -> Crichton
Also ::ticky::
And the File770 time machine appears to be on hiatus again.
The modern pop culture image of elves probably does owe some debt to Tolkien’s vision (although Tolkien’s elves have darker aspects, too).
But if so, surely it is not filtered through Tolkien’s literary imitators so much as it is through Dungeons and Dragons and “Elfquest” and the video games and Japanese anime that riffed on them.
I agree with Microtherion that Pratchett’s “Lords and Ladies” did an excellent (and hilarious) deconstruction of the cold dark undermyths of murderous, dangerous elves back in 1992. Diana Wynne Jones, for that matter, skewered all the superior-elf-cliché stuff in her riotous “Tough Guide to Fantasyland”.
For all that, it’s still enjoyable to see more authors play with the old mythology of scary child-stealing elves instead of the modern romantic Vulcan elves.
@Junego: I have just read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, and went back to read your remarks from two days ago; the more I think about it, the mire I’m inclined to agree with you. One of the best things about the book is all of the main characters are sometimes frustrating or less-than-good, which is like life!
–V guvax lbh ner evtug nobhg gur fbhepr bs fbzr bs Zbev’f qrfcrengvba ; vagrerfgvatyl, frireny crbcyr guebhtubhg gur obbx ner fubja univat oevrs bppnfvbany synfurf bs nygreangvir gvzryvarf naq gurl svaq vg znqqravat. Cyhf bs pbhefr ur’f ybaryl jura rirel fvatyr crefba rkprcg Gunavry jub xabjf jung ur pna qb vf nsenvq bs uvz (sbe tbbq ernfba).
–Zbev qvq abg unir gb pbaivapr Gunavry gb gehfg uvz va dhvgr gur jnl Tenpr npphfrf orpnhfr Gunavry veengvbanyyl yvxrq uvz sebz gur zbzrag gurl zrg, rira gubhtu ol evtugf ur pbhyq unir orra perrcrq bhg ol gung jngpu.
Fb Zbev vf n pbzovangvba bs tbbq naq onq yvxr zbfg crbcyr! Yvxrjvfr Tenpr qvqa’g nyjnlf orunir jryy ohg fur unq ure ernfbaf. Cerggl haqrefgnaqnoyr hetrapl gb xrrc Gunavry nf ure erfcrpgnoyr uhfonaq-fuvryq va fbpvrgl. Naq fur trahvaryl gubhtug Zbev jnf n zbafgre, rira vs ovnf ceriragrq ure sebz pbafvqrevat zber punevgnoyr cbffvovyvgvrf. Yvxrjvfr Zbev jnf hapunevgnoyr jura ur fnvq “fur jbhyq znxr lbh fznyy”, V’z cerggl fher gung’f bcvavba abg cebtabfgvpngvba.
Gurfr riragf punatrq Tenpr fb gung fur jnf jvyyvat gb tb bss jvgu Zngfhzbgb rira gubhtu ur jnfa’g fnlvat ur’q zneel ure (V qba’g guvax). Fur jnf jvyyvat gb fgbc serggvat nobhg cvaavat qbja n yvsrybat frphevgl naq whfg tb jvgu gur evtug abj. Qb lbh nterr?
Nf sbe Gunavry’f punenpgre synjf, ubj nobhg hajvyyvat gb znxr uneq qrpvfvbaf, nibvqnag, guvaxf ur pna unir obgu Zbev naq Tenpr rira gubhtu arvgure bar yvxrf gung vqrn?
I don’t think I’d include Elfquest in a list of Tolkien imitators. The Wolfriders and the Sunfolk are short, tribal, earthy and pugnacious, and very few major characters are anything like the Tolkien-esque elven stereotype. At least to my high school age self discovering those books as the original series was drawing to a close, they were something of a revelation, both in being a kind of “low fantasy” I hadn’t been drawn in by before and in giving me my first “wait, you can do that with comics?” feeling.
Twelfth fifth!
God’s Tick.
Mama had a ::tickbox::….
I don’t know if anyone’s commented on David Gerrold’s posting his novelette “Entanglements” for free online, but I just read it. It is fantastic.
The ticks are just awful this year, but they make a click when crushed, which is useful here at File 770.
Deep in The Just City.
@Lis: Hell yeah, I removed two ticks from my cat today, and three more in the past week.
Do You Wanna Read a Scroll, Man?
Driving bibliographers even more bonkers …
Michael Crichton wrote a number of thrillers as John Lange.
John Lange wrote a noted series of books as John Norman.
It’s sort of a pity they never collaborated.
Heads up: The television bracket nomination round is open.
(12) For shame on Andrew Liptak for not mentioning the most important SF/Playboy connection of all — Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea were editors for the magazine and got the idea for The Illuminatus! trilogy from reading all the crackpot letters the magazine received.
@Vasha
re: Watchmaker
I pretty much agree with all you said about the characters. More thoughts…
Bar bs gur ybiryl guvatf nobhg gur fgbel jnf gur jnl Chyyrl trgf gur ernqre (be ng yrnfg fbzr bs hf…Uv, CuvyEZ 😉 gb pner nobhg gurfr crbcyr rira jura gurl qb fbzr dhrfgvbanoyr gb snveyl onq guvatf – Zbev guerngravat Vgb’f jvsr, Tenpr oybjvat hc n ohvyqvat – ohg rfcrpvnyyl Zbev. Jvgu Tenpr naq Gunavry jr trg npprff gb gurve gubhtugf naq rzbgvbaf. Jvgu Zbev jr bayl frr uvf npgvbaf guebhtu bgure crbcyr’f rlrf, lrg jr’er znqr njner bs uvf ybaryvarff, srne, pbashfvba naq qrfcrengvba.
Bs pbhefr gur zlfgrel bs jub Zbev vf, jung ur’f qbvat naq jul vf gur vzcrghf gung cebcryf gur obbx. V nterr uvf vzcnpg ba Tenpr naq Gunavry vf cebsbhaq. Gunavry jbhyqa’g unir zrg Tenpr ng nyy, Tenpr jbhyqa’g unir unq ure rcvcunal nobhg gur rgure, Gunavry jbhyq unir, cebonoyl, fgnlrq n pyrex bs fbzr fbeg, Tenpr jbhyqa’g unir tbar gb Wncna jvgu n crefba jub frrzf n zhpu orggre pbzcnavba sbe ure.
Dhrfgvbaf nobhg gb jung rkgrag Zbev ernqf gur shgher naq pbagebyf riragf naq vf pbyqyl pnyphyngvat naq uhegf be urycf bguref ner yrsg unatvat. Gur ynfg fprar, gb zr, frrzrq gb pbairl Chyyrl’f vagragvba gb yrnir hf jvgu gung chmmyr hanafjrerq. Qvq Zbev neenatr gur nppvqrag gung chg Zngfhzbgb ng gur prerzbal (cebonoyl lrf); qvq ur qb vg gb trg Tenpr bhg bs gurve unve (cebonoyl lrf); qvq ur erzbir Tenpr va n jnl gung jbhyq nyfb orarsvg ure (znlor); qvq ur yrg ure frr uvz jvgu gur obyg gb yrg ure xabj ur qvq vg (znlor); jnf ur jneavat ure yvxr ur jnearq gur nffnffvaf (znlor, nsgre nyy, fur nyzbfg oyrj uvz hc!). V sbhaq gur raqvat ernyyl vagevthvat naq bqqyl fngvfslvat.
cf: vvep, gurer jrer frireny uvagf va gur obbx gung fbzr ‘cflpuvp’ novyvgvrf jrer npprcgrq naq pbasvezrq, fb gurve jbeyq vf n fxrjrq irefvba bs bhef jvgu gur fnzr uvfgbel, qvssrerag culfvpf.
I really, really like this book. It’s on my Hugo list. I hope Pulley can do somewhere near as well on her next book. I still haven’t found any previous fiction published in her name. I don’t know how to check for pseudonyms. For now, she’s on my Campbell list, too.
Rather liked this short story:
http://dsf.webfactional.com/hither-and-yon/magic-realism/sandra-mcdonald/the-devil-is-beating-his-wife-today
I had known some of the sayings about rain on a sunny day, but never the titular one.
@LunarG
re: Devil short story
That was interesting. Thanks for the link.
Yeah that is a rather clever story, gur byq qbrfa’g-xabj-ur-vf-qrnq ovg. Gur cbyvprzna vairfgvtngvat uvf bja pnfr, ohg ur vf snyyvat qbja ba gur wbo urer, jba’g oevat guvatf gb whfgvpr. I did think the inclusion of those sayings was a bit strained though.
Anyone who liked Aliette de Bodard’s “The Citadel of Weeping Pearls” should check out another family story in the Xuya universe, “Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight” (from January). I actually think this shorter story is considerably better, more focused, with more acutely written characters.
Poul Anderson has some pretty good not-so-good elves too. Most famously, perhaps, in The Broken Sword, which predates LotR, but there’s some pretty naughty ones in Three Hearts and Three Lions
And, of course, there’s also Tom Holt’s recent books, where the defining qualities of Elves are smugness and cluelessness. Though I guess that’s more a parody of the Tolkien flavor.
Other people who were right before Wright are Raymond Feist in Faerie Tale and Jim Henson in Labyrinth. I heard recently that there is a cut scene where Bowie is shown to be a glamour and the real Elven King is very different.
And then there is Julian May in the Pliocene Exile series where she suggest the monstrous looking Firvulag(especially the Howlers) survived into times modern enough to interact with humanity.
Actually, scary elves are not so rare in modern fantasy; two I can think of offhand are Ellen Kushner’s Thomas the Rhymer and Patricia McKillip’s Winter Rose. Come to think of it, those are both variants of the “mortal man trapped by fairy queen” story. Said queen is rarely benign; those two books just came to mind as particularly menacing and alien.
Note to John C. Wright: scary pre-Tolkien elves are not different. They are elves wearing flare, and they date back to Anderson. Now, take a 400 foot-long lizard with atomic breath, and call THAT an elf? There, that’s different.
I would like to send a copy of Mary Gentle’s Grunts to JCW and retreat to the safety of a bunker with a view of the results…
Well, I have a few minutes while waiting for my ride to the airport, where I will hope that the Delta overlords and the airplane gods they serve will get me to Dulles in time to make it to the wedding where I am starring as “the Groom” so I figured I’d drop in and talk books.
Just finished Zeroes by Chuck Wendig and before that the Black Widow novel Forever Red. Zeroes was pretty good, and the technology in it wasn’t as campy as say… CSI: Cyber. I thought it had a pretty authentic feel, mostly because he stayed away from specifics and dealt with results rather than methods. Dialogue was snappy, their was some pretty cool characterization, and like most things Wendig, their were some creepy, icky bits that made it unique.
I enjoyed Forever Red, but I didn’t feel like it said much. Like when all was said and done it just felt like another issue of a comic, which I guess makes sense, because of the origin, but I was hoping to get more meat and potatoes from it. I mean, she’s Russian, there should be more potatoes, right?
Currently working my way through Kieron Gillen’s Uber ( a comic book series) which tackles what would have happened if instead of conccentrating on von Braun’s rocket program, Hitler had spent the money making uberMensch. It’s pretty great.
I’m also devouring Matt F’n Wallace’s Tor.com novella Envy of Angels. Like most Wallace stuff, there’s no slow opening, just BAM you’re in a seedy hotel room in some exotic locale as giant mantises try and kill you. Highly recommended.
(1) That corgi is adorable!
(5) Honestly, the risk of starting a major internet kerfuffle is one of the main reasons I don’t really have anything resembling a blog space anymore (well, I use my livejournal to test formatting, but that’s basically it).
(17) *snicker*
After which he was informed that he didn’t have to wear it between shoots.
Scary elves? The lios-alfar in Alan Garner’s The Moon of Gomrath. (Which may get my vote for least kid’s-book kid’s book ever. If you see what I mean.)
(I don’t think Lord of the Flies counts. I’ve never thought of that as a book for children. It’s a book about children, yes, but I’m sure it’s aimed at adults.)
@Steve Wright
The Weirdstone of Brisengamen and The Moon of Gomrath were very nearly top of my list of favourites when I was a kid. They’re still right up there. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking of them because of the discussion of elves. 🙂 I think early exposure to different takes on fantasy staples helped a lot for keeping an open mind when reading. I never got much of a chance to get used to or reliant on a formula, and that’s a good thing.
I’m not unsubtly hinting about certain Nutty Nugget loving groups at all. Honest.
The full JCW article is just too much, as he quotes extensively from Jeffro Johnson to allow him to lament various perceived failings in modern fantasy, modern readers, and the modern world.
We have JCW – a man of limited horizons – using Jeffro’s yet more limited horizons to show JCW is a man with a proper vision of the genre, which he then uses to castigate the perceived failings of Ancillary Justice – a book he’s never actually read.
He then laments a “general decline in civility, openmindedness, and courage” which shows his vision doesn’t even extend to a mirror.
@alexvdl yup, Envy of Angels is good.
@Anna Grunts is pretty head-explody no matter what. I think I’d hesitate to recommend it to someone without a whole series of “It’s really good but….” caveats.
@LunarG interesting story
I was not trying to say “Elfquest” imitated Tolkien, I was trying to say that in my observation the modern pop culture idea of elves was formed more by “Elfquest” than by Tolkien.
I apologize for being unclear.
The more I read Pratchett’s “Lords and Ladies” with its “cool”, wild-maned, fur-and-flowery-twig-adorned elves with huge eyes and dripping charisma, the more I felt certain Pratchett was deliberately commenting on “Elfquest” type elf mania far more than anything Tolkienish.
One day a Puppy will accurately describe Ancillary Justice, surely? It isn’t that long a book. One of them has to put in the effort to read it eventually, right?
I’m pretty tired of people writing long complaints about how terrible young fans are. I’m also tired of reading complaints about the greying of fandom. Said complaints often come from the same sources. I can’t imagine why younger fans might not want to spend time with those people.
“indefatigable”
🙂 Thank you for casting that so kindly.
We have the elves of The Books of Magic also and I remember that Anne Bishop also had another kind of elves in her Tir Alainn series. So JCW wasn’t really first as others have said.
But it was kind of an interesting text, some stuff totally of of there, some with good insights. Good for starting a debate.
PSA: The Girl With All the Gifts is on sale on Amazon for $1.99 in the US. If you like Zombie stories with a cool sciency twist, it’s a fun one.
The Silmarillion shows that over sufficiently long periods of time, all elves can be assholes, and some can be ferocious assholes altogether. Also, it was interesting to realise that when Tolkein used ‘wisdom’ he usually meant knowledge or skills, often quite practical knowledge and skills. So when Elves get cagey about giving advice, it’s usually because they know the people asking don’t get it that Elves are as prone to failings as other races, only on a geological scale.
Anyway, JCW wasn’t remotely or distantly the first to do this. Weren’t Dark Elves a bit of a gothy craze for a while in the nineties? There was a comic called Poison Elves about Elvish assassins that had decent art but got as tedious as all the other unstoppable assassin types that were popular at the time.
The Fisks of Avalon
There are some painful inaccuracies in the Wright article, but I don’t believe he was claiming to be the first to write bad elves. Not least because the article in question gives several examples of what inspired him to go that route. ‘Different’ elves is just a statement that he isn’t writing Tolkeinesque elves, not that he’s the only one to do so.
I get the impression, from the comments, that JCW is writing this as a YA book. If you’re going to write YA about elves, you should probably read some contemporary YA about elves/fairies. There’s a ton of stuff out there that portrays elves/fae etc as beautiful and dangerous and scheming. Dangerous elves is probably more of the norm in YA today than Tolkienesque High Elves. While it is good to go back and re-read the masters, if you are writing today you should probably have a sense of what’s out there now, too.
I agree that lack of availability + so much new stuff are two of the reasons younger readers don’t read the older stuff. Another reason that JCW misses is that tastes change. My teen has bounced off of many of the older books on my shelf.
Nigel beat me to it – back in the First Age men were Men, dwarves were Dwarves, and elves were Serious Assholes. In fact, most of the elves in The Silmarillion are assholes: Thingol, Feanor, Feanor’s sons, Eol, Maeglin … need I go on?
@Katja
No surprise there. I often bounce off the older books on my own shelves.
Coincidentally, one of the program items at Windycon 42 in a couple of weeks is: The Wide World of Elves: From Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to Gygax’s Elven variety pack, the term elf can refer to a whole slew of different types of creature. Why do we use Elf to mean so many different things?
And regarding teens bouncing off older books, Windycon 42 has Young Adults Review Classic YA SF: Prior to Windycon, a group of young people read some of the classic YA fiction in the field. The stuff an older generation of fans grew up on. Come and learn what they liked and disliked, whether they find it relevant, and how it compares to what is being written today.
Ooh! A tribute to Harriet Klausner!
/me ranks tribute 5 stars, unread.
Fingolfin seemed to be a decent sort.
I tried to pre-order Gentleman Jole but there doeas not seem to be an ebook edition? Surely a mistake?
(I was halfway to buying the eARC but I can only do it from Baen and they want a metric fuckload of information I am too lazy to type out.)