[LMB] Moon and Paksenarrion (was first LMB) OT:

[Paula Lieberman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Timothy Collett" <tcollett at topazgryphon.org>
To: "Discussion of the works of Lois McMaster Bujold." 
<lois-bujold at lists.herald.co.uk>
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: [LMB] Moon and Paksenarrion (was first LMB) OT:


> On Apr 16, 2009, at 12:31 PM, Peter Granzeau wrote:
>> The source of most of her world was probably Tolkien--I thought it
>> was the land that was found to have replaced the island in the West
>> (forget names), but evidently not so.
>
> The shape of the world is pretty plainly North America-esque, with a
> mountain range along the US-Canada border.
>
>> Frankly, I'm sick and tired of this "Moon copied AD&D" crap.
>
> I don't see anything wrong with "copying/"being inspired by" AD&D, or
> whatever you want to call it...so long as you're not too blatant about
> it.  Moon wasn't.
>
> (And if you think she was...trust me, I've read some dreck that was
> pretty blatant.  Paks was NOT blatant.)

A point that Pete and I are in violent agreement on, is the Moon's fantasy 
universe is NOT based on D&D!  D&D copied essentially shamelessly from 
Tolkein for all sorts of things, and Tolkein was the major influence on all 
sorts of things, including e.g. books by Terry Brooks and Dennis McKiernan. 
D&D substituted "halflings" for hobbits, but the elves and dwarves and such, 
no camouflage whatsoever.

Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword used the same source materials as Tolkein, 
and came out with a MUCH darker in general set of societies--there was no 
Sauron and Mordor, but the elves in The Broken Sword were NOT Tolkein noble 
elves, and the "monsters" were not as monsters--the trolls had affection 
amongst one another, for example.

Then there is the laughable, "Tolkein is like reading copying of [Tolkein 
imitations].

Take the same source and influences, and very often there are lots of 
resonances in ORIGINAL works of fiction... note how much paranormal romance 
and urban fantasy is around, and how so many of them have vampires and elves 
and shapeshifters and witches and similar rules and magical systems.... 
they're not copying from one another, they're copying from the collection 
knowledge and imagination bases...