Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2015-03-02 06:56 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2015-03-02 06:56 pm
[ SECRET POST #2980 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2980 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Lots of multiple secrets in one comment this week, throwing off the count!
Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 083 secrets from Secret Submission Post #426.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Re: Your Favorite Worldbuilding; Your Own Worldbuilding
First, I can imagine circumstances in which some of those questions would have interesting stories attached to them. But I can't imagine them being interesting in themselves, or a consistency between them mattering.
Second, I don't care about realism. I care about emotional realism, I guess, and things like that, but ultimately, I don't care about realism or whether Tolkien's world really could exist. And I think, in regards to your example, that the consequences are already so weighty and immediate in that situation that a more ground-level explication of the economic situation there doesn't actually add anything. We know that this is tremendously important for many reasons already. I know that's just an example, but in general, I don't find this kind of thing compelling.
Third, to the point about the weight of the history - I think that's compatible with my point. Because the existence of these legends, and of some kind of broader history, is important to Tolkien's literary aims and to the aesthetic of the work. But a detailed, comprehensive working-out of those legends, I would argue, is unimportant. It's not necessary for the legends to all make sense and leave no unanswered questions for them to do what they need to do. In the same way that I don't think the details of orc society add much to the story.
Of course, Tolkien did do quite a lot of worldbuilding. But to me much of that worldbuilding is fairly separate from the reasons that LotR is good.
Re: Your Favorite Worldbuilding; Your Own Worldbuilding
(Anonymous) 2015-03-03 02:20 am (UTC)(link)When I talk about realism, I mean that for Tolkien's world, realism is a big selling part for him. For Harry Potter, for instance, I would not expect such details because Rowling's world is kind of a mess and doesn't feel like it could really sustain itself. It might have your "emotional realism" but it's not a "real" world and that's fine. But Tolkien was going for a history. He originally intended his world would be the mythology for England. So, when something happens that's counter to that (like the Mirkwood Elves), it throws me out of the story. Putting it back in line with the rest of his works makes it less jarring.
I don't personally need all the extra stuff. The thread asked what did you wish was included -- I like this extra stuff. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean you need to shit on someone else's interests. I find that all these little details adds to the characters and helps enrich the story. You may not feel that it's necessary or that it couldn't be put in in a way that added something but I disagree. There are lots of details that are already in the books that you are clearly ignoring as uninteresting to you but that helped to set up the world that existed in the book and had an effect on how you viewed it, whether you realized it or not.
Re: Your Favorite Worldbuilding; Your Own Worldbuilding
Re: Your Favorite Worldbuilding; Your Own Worldbuilding
But I do think, for me, realism is not at all a selling point in Tolkien, and I don't think he is particularly realistic. Fascinating yes, realistic no. I think - just for me - that what adds to Aragorn's character is the basic weight of what Numenor was and what it represents, and the idea of a lost kingdom, and a long time in exile, more than the historical basis of it. And the more that you get down to the nitty-gritty, the more consistency you demand, the more and more you lose me. I'm not trying to shit on it, and I apologize if it came off that way.
But worldbuilding, and especially the idea of consistent, realistic worldbuilding, is a huge part of a lot of modern fantasy that honestly just really loses me.