sarantine

@sarantine

they/she

show a little faith there’s magic in the night

bluesky

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ffxiv

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sarantine @sarantine1/15/2024, 6:34 PM

Frank Hecker @hecker

@thaliarchus1/15/2024, 4:15 PM

I do not think that in a book you could get away with coming up with a writer of strange stories and calling him 'Lord Dunsany'.

Frank Hecker @hecker1/15/2024, 5:09 PM

There is a rich vein of fantasy buried under the overburden of Tolkien and Lovecraft

Lord Dunsany and The King of Elfland’s Daughter, William Hope Hodgson and The House on the Borderland, E. R. Eddison and The Worm Ouroboros, Mervyn Peake and the Gormenghast trilogy — would that more modern-day writers would mine some of it for inspiration, instead of giving us nth-generation copies of LOTR as filtered through D&D, or yet another mutated descendant of Cthulhu.

#fantasy #horror #Lord Dunsany #william hope hodgson #E.R. Eddison #Mervyn Peake #The King of Elfland's Daughter #The House on the Borderland #The Worm Ouroboros #Gormenghast

sarantine @sarantine1/15/2024, 6:34 PM

Would also like to mention Hope Mirlees’ Lud-in-the-Mist, whilst we’re talking about pre-Tolkien fantasy. Absolutely worth everybody’s time to read.

#fantasy #lud-in-the-mist #hope mirlees

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in reply to @hecker's post:

@CasReadman2/7/2024, 3:32 PM

And for children's fantasy could people please look to writers like Diana Wynne Jones and the Dutch author Paul Biegel instead of Harry Potter.

Frank Hecker @hecker2/8/2024, 2:16 AM

Thanks for stopping by to comment! You are absolutely correct. Anime fans in particular should know Diana Wynne Jones, since she wrote the novels that Miyazaki adapted as Howl’s Moving Castle. (But Paul Biegel is new to me; I'll have to look into his work.)

For children's fantasy I would also recommend Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series, based on Welsh mythology.

Thanks again for commenting!

@CasReadman2/8/2024, 10:37 AM

Thanks for replying. I love that you can actually talk to people on this site. :)

Love the Chronicles of Prydain and read them all as a child. Though in the Dutch translation. I should probably find the original and give it a re-read.

My fav Paul Biegel books are De Kleine Kaptein (The Little Captain) series. About a young boy who builds a boat to try to sail to the land of "Groot en Groei" where you grow up overnight. On their journey the Little Captain and his crew of friends encounter many weird and wonderful places. There's a land where all colour has been banned, an island where they're forced to complete 7 works and more. The books clearly take inspiration from Greek myths of travels to wonderous islands. There are 3 books and it looks like they've all been translated into English.

Frank Hecker @hecker2/8/2024, 5:25 PM

Thanks for the recommendations!