Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 22:38:24 -0500 To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> From: Samuel Lubell <lubell at cais.com> Subject: [WSFA] Re: Talking SF, oh my; Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> At 10:43 AM 3/21/02 -0500, Lee wrote: > The book itself is innocent. The author is guilty of arborcide. > >-----Original Message----- >From: Michael Walsh [mailto:MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu] > >Sword of Shanara is not an innocent book. > >mjw Actually Sword of Shanara is responsible for the birth of the modern fantasy genre. Tolkien showed that a genius could make a fantasy world his life's work, and it will sell. Brooks showed that any idiot could *copy* Tolkien and still have a hit. Since there are a lot more idiots than geniuses, we have floods of Tolkien clones.