Science Fiction and Fantasy Author Fonda Lee Decries Barnes & Noble Stocking J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Jordan Books: We are Competing with “Dead Guys”

GURPS

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Science Fiction and Fantasy author Fonda Lee, the writer of the Green Bone Saga, decried Barnes & Noble for stocking popular fantasy authors J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Jordan.

For those unfamiliar with J.R.R. Tokien, where have you been living? Tolkien is the writer behind the Hobbit and theLord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings has sold over 150 million copies since it was first published in the mid 1950s. Robert Jordan is the man behind the popular Wheel of Time series. Jordan’s Wheel of Time series had reportedly sold over 44 million copies by 2007 when Jordan passed away. Brandon Sanderson would complete final three books in the 14-book series based off Jordan’s notes.

Lee would write on Twitter, “This is what modern fantasy writers are up against. In my local B&N, most authors are lucky to find a copy of their book, super lucky if its face out. There are 3.5 shelves for Tolkien. 1.5 for Jordan. Here’s who we compete against for shelf space: not each other, but dead guys.”
This is what modern fantasy writers are up against. In my local B&N, most authors are lucky to find a copy of their book, super lucky if it’s face out. There are 3.5 shelves for Tolkien. 1.5 for Jordan. Here’s who we compete against for shelf space: not each other, but dead guys. pic.twitter.com/fLUagKPIUX
— Fonda Lee (@FondaJLee) March 9, 2019
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boundingintocomics.com

Science Fiction and Fantasy Author Fonda Lee Decries Barnes & Noble Stocking J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Jordan Books: We are Competing with "Dead Guys"

Science Fiction and Fantasy author Fonda Lee, the writer of the Green Bone Saga, decried Barnes & Noble for stocking popular fantasy authors J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Jordan.
boundingintocomics.com boundingintocomics.com



Gheez what a wimp
 
GURPS

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Tolkien and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Accused of Promoting Racism Due to Orc Discrimination

J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous and influential series, The Lord of the Rings, has been accused of purporting racism and discrimination due to its depiction of orcs.
Appearing on the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, hosted by Wired magazine, science-fiction author Andy Duncan states his views on The Lord the Rings concerning racism during a conversation about his work Senator Bilbo:
“But it’s hard not to miss that repeated notion in Tolkien that some races are just worse than others. That some peoples are just worse than others. And this seems to me, in the long-term, if you embrace this too much, it has dire consequences for yourself and for society. So, Senator Bilbo is a parody in which you have a racist demagogue stomping around the world of the halfings in a sort of desperate holding pattern to keep at bay all the change that is coming about as they resolve the Lord of the Ring.
Think about it this way. I’m not questioning that in this parodic middle-earth-like setting that I am imagining, I am not questioning that there was a Sauron, anymore that I am not denying all that bloodshed and all that wickedness that needed to be beaten back any more than I would be, in our world a holocaust denier. On the other hand, I can easily imagine that many of those people that were doing the Dark Lord’s bidding were doing so out of simple self-preservation and so-forth. That a lot of those creatures that were sort of raised out of the Earth by Sauron, had not a great deal of choice in the matter of what to do. So, I had this very complicated sense of the politics of all that.”
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:twitch:
 
GURPS

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
gemma_rae said:
And that George Orwell guy, he's never done anything!
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Homage to Catalonia was a great read However the book really needs a HUGE Appendix on NKVD being sent by Stalin to suppress any opposition to the Communists from any of the splinter groups ... at the time all anyone knew it was some Secret Police from the Communists
 
SamSpade

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
I used to be a very avid sci-fi reader, so I only occasionally browse the sci-fi sections of bookstores.
(To which I might add - bookstore shelf space might soon become irrelevant as the stores themselves keep shutting down).
But whenever I've gone, what I find is, the old authors I am looking for - Howard, Lovecraft, Burroughs (yes, I do check
the horror and fantasy sections) are often represented by a single book. IF there's an Asimov or Clarke at all, it's Asimov's
Foundation books and 2001 books for Clarke. Ellison gets a couple. And the rest of the space is fully populated by
authors unknown 30 years ago.

That's not to say they're not any good. A bookstore sells what people want, and fans are likely to have read E.E. Smith
and Bester and Pohl and Simak. But were it not for Amazon's "The Man in the High Castle" and "Electric Dreams" modern
readers would not know Philip Dick even though more of his stories have been adapted to very popular movies than any
other author (Bladerunner, Total Recall, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, Next, Paycheck - to name a few).

It's just sales.
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
Funny, I recently bought an e-copy of a lot of E.E. Smiths stuff and am reading it now. Collected Galactic Patrol and I think the Lensman series.
 
SamSpade

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
glhs837 said:
Funny, I recently bought an e-copy of a lot of E.E. Smiths stuff and am reading it now. Collected Galactic Patrol and I think the Lensman series.
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I thought I had misplaced my copy of Triplanetary and ordered a new one off Amazon. I found out that my copies are sort of collector's items, because you can't find the editions, and each are selling for about 40 bucks on eBay (It's the paperback with the same cover as the first edition). Who knew? Anyway, I found my copy AFTER the new - different - one arrived. The new Triplanetary skips over the first six chapters - the "history" from the beginning of time through Atlantis and WWIII. I can't figure out why that would be unless Smith didn't include that part when it was released in Amazing Stories. But why leave it out?
 
SamSpade

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
glhs837 said:
Funny, I recently bought an e-copy of a lot of E.E. Smiths stuff and am reading it now. Collected Galactic Patrol and I think the Lensman series.
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Galactic Patrol is really where the Lensman series takes off.
BTW - did you know that Straczynski based Babylon 5 partly on the Lensman series?
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
Did not. Was mentioning to the wife that he had a character using retinal scan to access a high security zone. And that was the mid-late 30s. Adult kids were hesitant to mention that someone they know was in a relationship with two other people at the same time. All three the same sex. I was like, "Kids, if you had ever read all the Heinlein I told you to, you would understand my lack of surprise" :) Be happy, don't hurt other people. All three of them seem happy, no skin off my nose. :)
 
Merlin99

Merlin99

Visualize whirled peas
PREMO Member
glhs837 said:
Did not. Was mentioning to the wife that he had a character using retinal scan to access a high security zone. And that was the mid-late 30s. Adult kids were hesitant to mention that someone they know was in a relationship with two other people at the same time. All three the same sex. I was like, "Kids, if you had ever read all the Heinlein I told you to, you would understand my lack of surprise" :) Be happy, don't hurt other people. All three of them seem happy, no skin off my nose. :)
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Heinlein is probably more responsible for my libertarian bent than anyone, his paper "Who are the heirs of Patrick Henry" was one of my reasons for joining the navy. I admit though he had some odd ideas on sexuality.
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
Merlin99 said:
Heinlein is probably more responsible for my libertarian bent than anyone, his paper "Who are the heirs of Patrick Henry" was one of my reasons for joining the navy. I admit though he had some odd ideas on sexuality.
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But the basic tenet of be happy and dont hurt others is pretty basic.
 
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