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02-28-2008, 11:09 AM | #1 | |||
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
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The Worlds Of Fantasy - BBC4 Series
There's a new three part series about fantasy fiction currently airing on BBC Four. In a spectacular display of non-joined-up thinking the BBC schedule this at 9pm on Wednesdays, same time as Torchwood...um...might a fantasy fan not be watching some sci-fi eh? Tch. And our DVD-R failed to record it.
Anyway. The first episode has now appeared on BBC iPlayer so if you're quick you can catch it. Marvellously, it mentions Charles Kingsley, E Nesbit and Alan Garner who always get forgotten about in these types of round up of fantasy fiction. If you think Pullman is the big bad guy about Narnia check out Alan Garner. Meh. I was quite taken aback actually as I love Alan Garner's books but I've hardly heard a thing about his opinions. Lots of stuff to think about in this documentary too. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0090blv.shtml Episode 1 - The Child Within Episode 2 - The Epic Imagination - next week. This is about Tolkien and Peake. Episode 3 - Through the Looking Glass Quote:
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03-06-2008, 03:47 AM | #2 |
A Mere Boggart
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Did anyone else watch this? I recorded it so i could watch Torchwood and then watched it afterwards - I thought it was good, if rushed! It was fascinating to hear a comparison of Tolkien and Peake though I completely disagreed with what that woman said about how they would not have liked each other's work.
They certainly weren't short of people to comment, including Tom Shippey and Colin Duriez. And my childhood fave, Toyah! They also included a lot of material of Tolkien talking, much of it taken from some of the older BBC documentaries which a lot of people will not have been lucky enough to see. It's now been made available to watch online at BBC iPlayer. For the next six days only! What did you think?
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03-06-2008, 04:08 AM | #3 |
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I really enjoyed it. Although I found myself saying 'Ooh. That issue is much more complicated!' and constantly thinking of threads on the Downs.
I missed the last ten minutes, but I think I got the general idea of what they were saying. Although, they did seem to try and portray Peake as in some way superior to Tolkien. I doubt there would be many on these here forums who would say so. But it is interesting to see how vast Tolkien's work is in comparison to others. The Silmarillion and the whole history of Middle Earth is something that really sets Tolkien apart from others. Its hard to find a world as fully developed as Middle Earth. Tom Shippey is always fun to hear talk about Tolkien. Also; Andrew Lang name check, very briefly. I was most pleased.
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03-06-2008, 04:40 AM | #4 |
A Mere Boggart
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There was a bit of sarcastic comment here when AS Byatt pronounced Rivendell as Riy-vendell
I liked how they got across that Tolkien is just inescapable for any fantasy writer. That's something I've been saying for a while, and it's why you get so many writers who will ferociously say how 'they' are not like Tolkien - an unfortunate thing, but he is just inescapable no matter how much a writer might deny him! It's interesting how you get people who can't read Tolkien because they find his prose too heavy, yet then you have Peake who has an even more ponderous style! Maybe people say they like Peake better urely because of this 'inescapability' factor to Tolkien? They feel they must say something else is better? Or maybe it is due to the way Tolkien portrays character, which is not in the modern style; we don't 'see' inside their heads like you do with Peake, we see what their characters are like via their actions, as in the Sagas and old epics. People seem to go more for psychological analysis with characters these days.
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