Are there acratic readers amongst fantasy readers already?

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Callan S.

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« on: August 09, 2016, 02:23:25 am »
I was reading this : http://mythcreants.com/blog/fall-of-magic-is-the-rpg-tolkien-would-have-played/

And this line stood out for me "which is why he can expend virtually an entire book’s worth of words on “Sam and Frodo get to Mordor eventually.”"

Ie, he treats it as if Sam and Frodo couldn't just, like, die or have the ring nicked off them or whatever along the way.

A sort of just world fantasy where they are sure a just result will occur - and yet they still find some sort of trepidation and drama in the description of the characters getting past the 'hazards' of the world. Using scare quotes because if they WILL make it there, then those aren't hazards.

So part of them thinks the hazards are genuine

While another part of them thinks the pair will definitely make it - like it's a sure thing.

Acratic.

I presume story events like Ned Starks death were attempts to crack this bullshittery.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2016, 02:56:59 am by Callan S. »

mrganondorf

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« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2016, 05:52:30 pm »
I was reading this : http://mythcreants.com/blog/fall-of-magic-is-the-rpg-tolkien-would-have-played/

And this line stood out for me "which is why he can expend virtually an entire book’s worth of words on “Sam and Frodo get to Mordor eventually.”"

Ie, he treats it as if Sam and Frodo couldn't just, like, die or have the ring nicked off them or whatever along the way.

A sort of just world fantasy where they are sure a just result will occur - and yet they still find some sort of trepidation and drama in the description of the characters getting past the 'hazards' of the world. Using scare quotes because if they WILL make it there, then those aren't hazards.

So part of them thinks the hazards are genuine

While another part of them thinks the pair will definitely make it - like it's a sure thing.

Acratic.

I presume story events like Ned Starks death were attempts to crack this bullshittery.

Cool word!  I think part of it was that JRRT had to cheat on his beliefs a little to make a story worth reading.  Christianity holds that the end is positive and inevitable and JRRT carried that over into his work.  At the beginning of the Silmarillion, all attempts to upset Eru's plans were doomed all along, but Tolkien must have know that LOTR would have been goddamned boring if it was presented as impossible for the good guys to fail.  I think that's part of the appeal of TSA--that we don't know if Heaven's Will will be subverted or not. 

MSJ

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« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2016, 11:48:11 pm »
@Callan S, that's certainly 99%/of the genre. And that's the type of readers that it creates. Thanks for the link, interesting.
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

Callan S.

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« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2016, 09:58:58 am »
Gentlement, you must write and break them from this!

Be breakers of authors and men!