31 December 2014

Michael Moorcock, the Anti-Tolkien

There is a nice piece in the current The New Yorker on Michael Moorcock entitled "The Anti-Tolkien."

While Moorcock's style of fantasy is radically different from Tolkien's in almost every respect, and Moorcock himself famously criticized Tolkien's work, I have been a great fan of both authors for at least three decades now.  Indeed, I can't imagine what contemporary fantasy literature (or role-playing games) would be like without both of them!

Anyhow, happy 75th, Mr. Moorcock.  And happy 2015 to all lovers of fantasy!

1 comment:

  1. It's the same for me. I like both Tolkien and Moorcock. A lot. If I were to name just two authors defining what is fantasy literature for me I would name JRRT and MM. Extending the list, Fritz Leiber and RE Howard would share a distant third place.

    Ironically, different as they may be, they have a shared RPG and literary offspring: D&D, and more emphatically Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play are a mash up of JRRT and MM elements. The hilariously entertaining novels of Polish author A. Sapkowski - the Witcher series - would not exist without a mix of Tolkien and Moorcock tropes.

    And maybe, just maybe. Turin Turambar and Elric, both brandishing a black sword, both killing themselves with it, aen't just superficially similar. They share a source in the character of Kullervo in the Finnish Kalevala, but maybe there is more...

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I'm a Canadian political philosopher who lives primarily in Toronto but teaches in Milwaukee (sometimes in person, sometimes online).