Joe Abercrombie's response

Crap, just realized that Abercrombie had also responded to Leo Grin's article on his website. Here's an extract:

I’m a little suspicious, I must say, of any argument that lumps Tolkien and Howard together as one thing, although Leo has made the photos of them in his piece point towards each other in a very complimentary fashion. I think of them as polar opposites in many ways, and the originators (or at least key practitioners) of, to some extent, opposed traditions within sword-based fantasy. Tolkien, the father of high fantasy, Howard the father of low. Howard’s work, written by a man who died at thirty, tends to the short and pulpy (as you’d expect from stories written for pulp magazines). Tolkien’s work, published on the whole when he was advanced in years, is very long and literary (as you’d expect from a professor of English). Tolkien is more focused on setting, I’d say, Howard on character. Leo’s point is that they both celebrate a moral simplicity, a triumph of heroism, but I see that too as a massive over-simplification. Howard celebrates the individual, is deeply cynical (could one even say nihilistic) about civilisation. Tolkien seems broadly to celebrate order, structure, duty and tradition. And I celebrate, well

Follow this link to read Abercrombie's post.

13 commentaires:

Anonymous said...

It would be infinitely more interesting to read your own thoughts on this.

Drop off the publicity machine aspect.

Patrick said...

I'm chilling out in Mendoza, Argentina. Eating big juicy steaks and drinking vino tinto and Quilmes beer like it's going out of style. I'm in no condition, nor do I have the time to think things through, to respond to this latest flame-up.

In any event, Abercrombie, Bakker, Wert, and I reckon many others have already done so, or will soon do, much better than I ever could. Sadly, the Mendoza wine region is not conducive to coherent polemic... =)

Sir Paucemanly said...

Make a collective entry of the responses then. I can't abide such spamming behaviour in a blog.

Zafri Mollon said...

Thanks to the link to Bakker's response.

Ryan said...

Abercrombie's never read any of Erikson's work? That is kind of sad!

amysrevenge said...

Yeah, the links are sufficient for me.

Anonymous said...

Ignore Sir Pauce, I like your links just fine.

Love Abercrombie's response the most yet. Total evisceration, and well-deserved.

Mike said...

I heart Joe A. Guess I'm a commie liberal college educated p.o.s. too. Oh well.

Anonymous said...

@Ryan

I don't think that Erikson has read any Abercrombie, so it goes both ways. Erikson reads very little within the genre. Writing his own massive tomes exhausts his energy for fantasy, as I understand.

Also, GRRM started reading GOTM but never finished. Scandalous.

Anonymous said...

Also @ Ryan

Do you visit the malazan empire forums?

We've been ripping into Grin over there.

http://forum.malazanempire.com/index.php?showtopic=20872&st=0

Anonymous said...

@Anon: Do you have a citation on GRRM not being able to finish reading Gardens of the Moon?

That's actually kind of... funny, in a way. I gather Erikson has read A Game of Thrones?

Anonymous said...

Grin: “Think of a Lord of the Rings where, after stringing you along for thousands of pages, all of the hobbits end up dying of cancer contracted by their proximity to the Ring, Aragorn is revealed to be a buffoonish puppet-king of no honor and false might, and Gandalf no sooner celebrates the defeat of Sauron than he executes a long-held plot to become the new Dark Lord of Middle-earth, and you have some idea of what to expect should you descend into Abercrombie’s jaded literary sewer.”

Abercrombie: "That sounds … kind of interesting to me, actually, but I dimly percieve that Leo doesn’t like it."

My love for Joe Abercrombie just grows and grows <3

AK said...

lol @ Breitbart media. Fail on every level. Search tag "Atheism" if you don't believe me.

Pat, why the HELL are you giving these idiots air time?