More Babble Than Clash?

6 Responses to More Babble Than Clash?

1. marycatelli says:

   October 13, 2009 at 2:57 pm

   eh

   While I agree that elves can be dangerous — (I ramble about the great question Is this elf necessary? — and Tolkien was a bad influence on me there — I don’t see where you can claim that Tolkien presented them always as the good guys. Where in The Hobbit does Tolkien present the elves’ nasty deeds as something good?

   Though, to be sure, reading The Silimarillion ensured that I knew he knew how bad they were. (One explanation of the relative niceness of elves, later, is that all the bad ones got themselves killed.)
   • JE says:

     October 13, 2009 at 7:55 pm

     Re: eh

     It’s not that JRRT presents (in The Hobbit) the bad things that the elves do as good things–it’s that he presents them as being “Good People” irrespective of whether they are doing good or not. It’s his phrase, not mine, and that’s a free pass Tolkien doesn’t usually give his non-elvish characters.

     I like the elves in Silmarillion much better for that very reason: they don’t get a free pass. “The Flight of the Noldor” is one of my favorite stretches of Tolkien’s writing.
2. burger_eater says:

   October 13, 2009 at 9:44 pm

   Why do you hate fun?
   • JE says:

     October 13, 2009 at 9:51 pm

     I love fun, but it’s a tragic unrequited love.
3. Anonymous says:

   October 14, 2009 at 6:59 pm

   There was a long-running ad in White Dwarf somewhere in the mid-to-late 80s. The eye-attractor was “Best of all, no elves!”

   I, however, am not above using them. Trust me, you’ll like them. I insist, and I am the author.

   –Jeff Stehman
   • JE says:

     October 15, 2009 at 5:18 am

     I wouldn’t believe every author–but I believe you, having seen what stories you can spin with goblins.

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