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Trampling the Legacy, Remaking the Myth - Page 6

© Michael Martinez

Nonetheless, we are expected to believe that, in any story including Elves and Dwarves, they won't like each other. Why? Because that is supposedly the way Tolkien made them up. But that isn't what Tolkien had in mind at all. His Elves and Dwarves experienced friendship on many levels, and they did have their differences. But they spent more time fighting side-by-side and working together than fighting each other. The reasons for their hostility exist in Tolkien's world. They don't really exist outside of it, but the hostility has grown and reached ridiculous proportions beyond Middle-earth. The rule of thumb seems to be that, whereas Tolkien thought matters through and wrote stories to explain things, many writers simply accept certain axioms and proceed from them without questioning whether the axioms are sound. One of those axioms seems to be, "Tolkien did it wrong so we can do it better." And yet, even a badly written book like The Sword of Shannara can become a best-seller because it so closely mimics Tolkien's world without really understanding it. The one flaw you won't find in The Sword of Shannara is that Terry Brooks doesn't presume to improve upon Tolkien. He just retells the story and has a rollicking good time butchering every rule of good story-telling one can imagine. There was nonetheless something compelling about Brooks' version of the story. Millions of people enjoyed it at the time it came out. Part of the process that he got right, was that he didn't reveal too much too soon. Sometimes he revealed too much too late, but the reader was kept wondering about the past. He used the mystery of the past effectively in his Magic Kingdom for Sale | Sold. Many things are simply not explained, but the hint that they could be explained is ever present. So many people are fearful of what harm might be done if someone were authorized to write more stories set in Tolkien's Middle-earth. But the harm has already been done in a million tiny, little ways. The bruising of Tolkien's traditions occurs every time someone tries to do it a little better than the master. No doubt someone will come along some century who can indeed do it better than Tolkien. But the masses haven't devoted the time to learning the craft of story-telling in the style Tolkien used, a style which they need to know. You have to do it Tolkien's way first before you can improve upon what he did. Too few people are actually trying to write like Tolkien.

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