I actually finished FOTR the book last night. I agree about the Council of Elrond. Long, but it's so good. Tolkien was a master at world building and making the place feel like it had real history and myth. I also LOVE A Journey in the Dark and The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm chapters. Full of adventure, tension, and thrills.
Something I still like most about Tolkien is how he told this sweeping epic in 1,000 pages. Today fantasy series run 8,000-10,000 pages and I feel like it's just overkill.
Tolkien had the advantage where he already had a lot of this world building established, so it became a little simpler to draw on when writing the actual stories. The mass subtext, at least most of it was there.
See here's what I've noticed about modern fantasy these days:
Whether it be Dragon Age or the Wheel of Time, I feel like these just look at LOTR. Now LOTR did set a new precedent in terms of literary fantasy and just fantasy in general, so it is easy to be influenced. However, I am growing really jaded about all of it. They just look like mere influences and not so much their own stories in terms of their rudimentary principles. That is the single most important thing lacking.
I realize that it's about execution in those ideas, but my problem lies in the fact that these broader concepts and archetypes are nevertheless still copied from Tolkien. The group joining up, a singular powerful object, elves, dwarves, men, a dark lord, etc. I feel they are just looking at Tolkien and not looking at why LOTR worked so well in the first place. Tolkien went back to ancient mythology, religion and languages from centuries ago and was influenced by them and he still created his own thing in the process. Lucas did the same with SW, hence why that also set a precedent of its own and you see SW influences to this day.
I feel we are in need of another great type of fairy tale story. I see parallels as to how Tolkien saw a lack of English folklore and how Lucas saw a lack of fairy tales in the context of the jaded and cynical 1970's landscape that aren't too dissimilar today.
The problem with this is that it takes YEARS that these people don't really have or maybe even think about to dedicate. Tolkien spent nearly two decades writing the books, not counting when he started The Book of Lost Tales back in WWI. Lucas's influences started back to his childhood that held consciously in his mind throughout college where he studied folklore and mythology and religion, to all the way up to writing the scripts in the early 70's. Also a couple decades in the making in hindsight.
Again, I feel like people are missing the point to what these two guys did. They hope to make the next type of fantasy but they don't understand why those fantasies became what they became in the first place. Or they just are content with using influences and don't really think about this. I don't know, this is what I've observed.
I would really like the next great tale to come along. I think it's time. Or maybe it will come along someday. But the issue shouldn't be to make the next LOTR, the issue should be to make another great tale in of itself.
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