en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2595881 Comments by TimAZ http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/19/sanity-and-sanctity-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-1/#IDComment129683668 I meant that in defense of Martin and Abercrombie. There is something there deeply moral despite the adverstised wickedness. Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:59:05 +0000 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/19/sanity-and-sanctity-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-1/#IDComment129683668 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/19/sanity-and-sanctity-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-1/#IDComment129459714 Wow, I love this quote. It's as if Tolkien is commenting specifically on Martin and Abercrombie. “At the same time one knows that there is always good: much more hidden, much less clearly discerned, seldom breaking out into recognizable, visible beauties of word or deed or face — not even when in fact sanctity, far greater than the visible advertised wickedness, is really there.” Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:28:49 +0000 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/19/sanity-and-sanctity-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-1/#IDComment129459714 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/19/sanity-and-sanctity-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-1/#IDComment129304048 Leo, I loved the first half of this piece and respect and agree with your assessment of Tolkien. But that doesn't make modern writers unworthy of reading. I'm a huge fan of both Martin and Abercrombie. You should read Abercrombie's latest book, The Heroes, and not rely on quotes from The Guardian to criticize the author. The Heroes is centered around the story of Beck and the moral dilemma he faces as the story unfolds. It is as poignant and meaningful as any work of fantasy I've read. What I like about it is that the entire world isn't at stake, it's just the choices of a boy and how they matter to him and his family. Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:02:27 +0000 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/19/sanity-and-sanctity-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-1/#IDComment129304048 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/12/the-bankrupt-nihilism-of-our-fallen-fantasists/#IDComment128617358 DYD, you should try Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes. It's got everything you're asking for in the character of Red Beck. And it's a great read if you don't mind books with a moral message. Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:58:34 +0000 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/12/the-bankrupt-nihilism-of-our-fallen-fantasists/#IDComment128617358 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/12/the-bankrupt-nihilism-of-our-fallen-fantasists/#IDComment128384932 I recently finished Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes, and I have to say it's brilliant. There's some fighting, but nothing that would have shocked Conan, and nothing else racy or obscene except for a few cuss words. If anything, this is a morality tale about war and its cost. The story of Red Beck is as sad and powerful as any combat memoir I've read (and less profane). Take a step back from the overheated rhetoric and take another look at modern fantasists. This is a golden age of fantasy ushered in by George RR Martin and being carried forward by writers like Rothfuss, Abercrombie, Peter V Brett, and Steve Erikson. Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:14:41 +0000 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/12/the-bankrupt-nihilism-of-our-fallen-fantasists/#IDComment128384932 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/12/the-bankrupt-nihilism-of-our-fallen-fantasists/#IDComment128166260 You seem to want stories with straightforward good and evil, everything neatly tied up and labeled. Most good fiction doesn't fall into that trap, because the world isn't that easy. We'd all like it to be, but it never is. Compare Jane Austen or even Dickens to George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. Austen was a brilliant writer and observer who is still worth reading when you need a happy ending, but we all know her stories are ultimately pretty fantasies. Eliot and Hardy wrote books about grown ups for grown up people. There may be a marriage, but that rarely means a happy ending. Life is messy and even sometimes ugly and brutal (Tess). And there are moments of beauty, too, though usually fleeting. What's happening in fantasy is the same thing that happened to "serious" literature. Fantasy writers like Abercrombie are getting beyond straight-up good and evil and writing about characters who might inhabit our own world in situations every bit as messy and painful as real life can be. In fact, maybe they're just guilty of writing serious fiction in the guise of fantasy. There's a time to put away childish things, even in the realm of fantasy. Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:54:28 +0000 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/12/the-bankrupt-nihilism-of-our-fallen-fantasists/#IDComment128166260