(no subject)
Monday, March 14th, 2022 05:43 pmSomeone on my FFL has been reading The Worm Ouroboros (cue chorus of "Mister, you're a better man than I") (The Yardbirds, you say? Amazing.) I could as soon read Spenser as Eddison, meaning my attention span is too short to swim through treacle like that. I *have* mastered our later speed and shortness, thank you Fenodyree, so I can't be having with the earlier leisurely prolix.
But the Someone quotes Le Guin as proposing "that all fantasy protagonists should speak in an elevated, heroic style." Good heavens, what *was* the woman thinking of? I hope it was a very early essay written when fantasy was still overshadowed by Tolkien and urban fantasy hadn't been invented. Though apparently she slammed Zelazny for making his 20th century America-dwelling Amberites speak like, good heavens, 20th century Americans. (That's not the reason I dislike Amber, btw. It's because they speak like wise-ass 20th century Americans. Likewise Eddings.) Equally, Paarfi's pastiche is all very well for the time he was 'writing', but modern man Vlad should speak in what we recognize as a modern idiom.
Perhaps she was indeed thinking of Tolkien's style, which is high and heroic a lot of the time but never, to my taste, turgid. It knows where it's going, and gets there. Possibly an English professor of English literature has a better grasp of the historic styles available to him than someone less familiar with the canon. Or his sense of style just knew to choose Tacitus' diction over Malory's.
But the Someone quotes Le Guin as proposing "that all fantasy protagonists should speak in an elevated, heroic style." Good heavens, what *was* the woman thinking of? I hope it was a very early essay written when fantasy was still overshadowed by Tolkien and urban fantasy hadn't been invented. Though apparently she slammed Zelazny for making his 20th century America-dwelling Amberites speak like, good heavens, 20th century Americans. (That's not the reason I dislike Amber, btw. It's because they speak like wise-ass 20th century Americans. Likewise Eddings.) Equally, Paarfi's pastiche is all very well for the time he was 'writing', but modern man Vlad should speak in what we recognize as a modern idiom.
Perhaps she was indeed thinking of Tolkien's style, which is high and heroic a lot of the time but never, to my taste, turgid. It knows where it's going, and gets there. Possibly an English professor of English literature has a better grasp of the historic styles available to him than someone less familiar with the canon. Or his sense of style just knew to choose Tacitus' diction over Malory's.
