Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 09:11:13 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Talking SF, oh my;
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Sam Lubell cut a swath with this:

>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.
I would suggest two different names: Donald Wollheim and Lin Carter

DAW for taking advantage of the strangeness of US Copyright law which cast =
the LOTR into the public domain (this was changed with a court ruling I =
believe), thereby forcing the hand of JRRTs US & UK publishers to finally =
authorize a lowly mass market edition of the books.

Lin Carter for his Adult Fantasy series which showed that there was a =
market for good solid fantasy, a lot of classics, plus some new writers.  =
In general a set of carter's Adult Fantasy novels is a fine selection of =
fantasy.  Carter himself could barely write himself out of a wet paperbag, =
and it's bizarre to know that posthumous sequels to the Thongor books are =
being planned.

>  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.

Isn't there a quote that begins: "Never underestimate . . ."

> Since there are a lot more idiots than
>geniuses, we have floods of Tolkien clones.
>

mjw