tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2012179240296572398.post6412333863560629712..comments2024-03-28T07:27:31.714+00:00Comments on Retro-Forteana: Retro TerrorismAndrew Mayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17073306343984931484noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2012179240296572398.post-83393586804832217642014-09-07T18:15:29.000+01:002014-09-07T18:15:29.000+01:00I've never had any desire to read Tolkien, or ...I've never had any desire to read Tolkien, or Tolkien-style fantasy, at any length. I prefer stories that take place in the real world! The only fantasy writer I can read with pleasure is Robert E. Howard, because he avoids the flowery mock-poetic language of other fantasy writers, and there are obvious parallels between Conan's world and the real geopolitics of post-Roman Europe. And his stories are short and to the point!Andrew Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17073306343984931484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2012179240296572398.post-21573160999560169852014-09-07T18:08:44.538+01:002014-09-07T18:08:44.538+01:00I always thought that The Lord of the Rings was ne...I always thought that The Lord of the Rings was needlessly long. Tolkien went overboard in his attempts to create middle-earth, and some chapters seem like mere retreads of others. Definitely a book that could've been abridged. The Hobbit is a much better read, 'though not without its faults.Kidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07224781868125924337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2012179240296572398.post-59457758976423125672014-09-07T14:55:57.354+01:002014-09-07T14:55:57.354+01:00Thanks Colin. I agree about Dracula, and have to a...Thanks Colin. I agree about Dracula, and have to admit I've never read it precisely because it's so long. I've got it sitting on my "to read" shelf, but it's not going to get read when there are so many shorter novels there.<br /><br />Historically, there seems to be a long-short-long trend in novel writing. Classic novels of the 18th and 19th centuries tended to be very long, but then they got much shorter in the early 20th century with the rise of mass-market genre fiction (murder mysteries, westerns, science fiction etc). But from the 1980s onwards huge turgid novels seem to be the norm again!Andrew Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17073306343984931484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2012179240296572398.post-35597747351574747242014-09-07T14:21:28.648+01:002014-09-07T14:21:28.648+01:00That's such a good point about the book being ...That's such a good point about the book being too long, there are so many books I've read that could be so much better if they weren't so long and it's not just modern books - I recently finally got around to reading Bram Stoker's Dracula as an e-book which I'd never actually read before. I know it's a classic but it's way too long in my opinion and could have been cut by half at least - the drawn out death of Lucy Westenra was absolutely interminable for example and there were plenty of other examples where some editing would have greatly helped (in my humble opinion of course). On the other hand I'm currently reading "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson as an e-book which only has about 170 pages and seems just the right length - I've always loved the film "The Haunting" (1963 version, NOT the crap 1999 version) and so far the novel seems just as good.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com