- Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen.
- The Howl Series by Diana Wynne Jones
- The Eye of the World, book #1 of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
- The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell
- The Cygnet Duology by Patricia A. McKillip
- The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill
- The Dark Is Rising and Greenwitch by Susan Cooper
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip
- The Healer's Keep by Victoria Hanley
- La Belle Sauvage, Volume #1 of The Book of Dust trilogy by Sir Philip Pullman
A fantasy author is just another name for one who has a foot within the borders of Faerie
Hall of Fantasy
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- GRRM the Anti-Tolkien
- Rumors of the Wheel
- Race in Fantasy
- Here Be Dragons
- The Power of Names
- LGBTQIA+ in Fantasy
- The History (& Golden Age) of Fantasy
- Artist vs. the Art
- Magic vs. Mental Illness
- How to make your own System of Magic
- The Final Lesson
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- AI's impact on Fantasy Art & Writing
- Misc
Monday, December 31, 2018
New Year's Eve
Sunday, December 30, 2018
My father and I just finished Greenwich
Lovely to see the Drew children again as we return to Cornwall to tack back something of the Light that was stolen by the Dark and the neutral Wild Magic. Lovely to see that sometimes a little kindness can do what great magics cannot, so a special salute to Jane.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Saturday, December 15, 2018
The Dark Is Rising
Thursday, December 13, 2018
A girl and her white snake
Thursday, December 6, 2018
The Treason of the Intellectuals and Isengard
Of course, one who has read my opinion of GRRM the Anti-Tolkien already knows that I wholeheartedly agree with this. However, this post is not just another long rant regarding A Song of Ice and Fire but, rather, an attack on the cynicism that fuels it and which goes beyond George R.R. Martin. A cynicism which amounts to another concept known as the Treason of the Intellectuals, in which academics accept and espouse cynicism because – in a nutshell – they believe that Power and Politics will near-always emerge triumphant over morality. Hence the best, wisest, course of action is to embrace this truth and put forth one's intellectualism to working with thus shaping the policies of the Powerful until they resemble/accomplish the political agenda of the academics.
Permit me to offer a quote from the J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings:
"A new Power is rising. Against it the old allies and policies will not avail us at all. There is no hope left in Elves or dying Númenor. This then is one choice before you, before us. We may join with that Power. It would be wise, Gandalf. There is hope that way. Its victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those that aided it. As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means."
Sound familiar? If not, then recall these words as the ones spoken by Saruman to Gandalf when trying to convince him to join him in an alliance with Sauron. What is striking, however, is how neatly the Treason of Isengard matches the description of the Treason of the Intellectuals. Saruman and Gandalf had been sent to Middle-earth with the purpose of overthrowing Sauron, something that Saruman clearly still intends to accomplish, except that rather than fighting Mordor he now means to become Sauron's ally so as slowly twist and replace him on his dark throne.
Naturally Saruman is an very extreme case, as it would be far from fair to call cynical intellectuals ambitious agents of clear evil. Yet the crux of the matter is that, like Saruman, those academics who engage in intellectual treason believe that fighting Power and Politics with human determination and basic morality is a fool's errand and thus join the other side if they see any hope in altering it from within to suit their visions. In short, it is the temptation to accommodate oneself to the nature of the times, as Niccolò Machiavelli would have put it, and to ally – cautiously but definitely – with the Power that is rather than the principles that were. Saruman's mad vision may have been to replace the Lord of Mordor as the tyrant of Middle-earth, but, as can be seen, when striped down to their essential organs there is very little separating Treason of Isengard from the Treason of the Intellectuals.
Which, to bring this post to a full circle, is one of many reasons why I am the Enemy of the Grimdark. Because A Song of Ice and Fire and the genre as the whole offers a cold and cynical view of humanity coupled with the apparent lesson that the honorable and compassionate usually end with their heads upon a stake. It teaches that treachery is profitable; that morals do not pay and are near powerless to effect the wider world.
"Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost." - Charlie Chaplin
"Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us." - Stephen Colbert
The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. The cynic puts all human actions into two classes — openly bad and secretly bad. - Henry Ward Beecher
"A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future." - Sydney J. Harris
"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were...and ask why not." - John F. Kennedy
"Cynicism isn't smarter, it's only safer. There's nothing fluffy about optimism." - Jewel Kitcher
"The greater part of the truth is always hidden, in regions out of the reach of cynicism." - J. R. R. Tolkien
Saturday, December 1, 2018
I think the Universe is mocking me...
Plenty of time to read The Wheel of Time, right...?
Well, once again I see why getting to the new Fantasy books that have long graced my shelves is proving so difficult... IT IS BECAUSE THE OLD BOOK SERIES' REFUSE TO END!! On 10/10/2018 Paolini announces The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm out of nowhere. And today I go to the bookstore and find The Red Fox Clan, book #2 of the new Ranger's Apprentice: The Royal Ranger which is nothing less that an entire sequel series follow-up to the now-old book #12 (called The Royal Ranger) of the main Ranger's Apprentice series.
My reaction: YAY!! HELP!! AUGH!! (all at once).
Seriously, the minute I finally begin moving through Robert Jordan's heavyweight what happens? All the my careful planning goes out the window as two of my dearest other series leap out like the unexpected ghosts of departed and beloved friends returned to life and calling to me 😲😵 Tis a cruel and unusual literary punishment and blessing by every definition of the words as I leap for joy and curse the skies with a single breath: the first for the sequels and second for the timing of this which is nothing short of maddening. Naturally I intend to follow my own long-held rules and finish The Wheel of Time before starting these others, but...😩