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Here's another monochrome study, this time of Tim Powers, my favorite living author. It's a little rougher than my last one, but I am very pleased that I was able to whip it out in single day. BTW, Declare, The Drawing of the Dark, and The Stress of Her Regard are all awesome.

This is why IQ and test scores are dropping. Why midwits are being admitted to colleges & simultaneously needing remedial reading and math to get them started. Once upon a time, you had to know Greek and Latin and the Classics to go there. And they taught them in grammar school.

Probably just because the internet has killed modern attention spans, making it very difficult for people to read older books with more verbose dialogue and description. Speaking from personal experience here.

Tolkien was a scholar of ancient languages and literature, and he wasn’t writing modern fantasy as we know it—he was trying to build a mythology for England. The prose reflects that goal: epic, grand, and timeless. For many readers, that’s part of the charm.

Aaron Irber It's possible that it's because it's not frenetic. Many children's books (and movies and TV shows) are. So are many books for grown-ups. Readers today don't know what to do with slow. To them, slow is a failure on the part of the author.

Aaron Irber I agree w/what someone else said… it’s about it’s poetic nature. If you don’t naturally think in metaphor &symbolism, it’s easy to get lost. That, plus the book requires a certain amount of “entering in” & big picture thinking, which is difficult in an external Twitter world.

Aaron Irber And those repeating the meme never even read Leaf by Niggle, the book where Tolkien technically does spend pages and pages describing a tree.

Aaron Irber Wow this really blew up. I think some lessons are: • Education has failed people profoundly. • People struggle to express preferences as preferences. • Tolkien genuinely isn't for everyone, though it might have been for many people who think it's not if they'd been educated.

It's possible that it's because LOTR is not frenetic. Many children's books (and movies and TV shows) are. So are many books for grown-ups. Many readers today don't know what to do with slow. To them, slow is a failure on the part of the author, not a design feature to enjoy.

Aaron Irber Hilary's analysis is largely correct. I'm old enough that I distinctly remember the advent of Del Rey books, the publication of The Sword of Shannara, and the horrible turn fantasy took at that point. Hilary is also right to point to the homogenization of genre publishing that

Every. Single. Time.

This makes me so uncomfortable

"He acted like an aging woman who thinks she can be young again by simply altering her birth certificate." -The Betrothed

📖 Discover “My Name Was Tom” by Tim Powers—featuring Gigi Hooper’s stunning illustration—in the #1 bestselling sci-fi & fantasy anthology Writers of the Future Volume 41. This visionary tale by acclaimed author Tim Powers explores life aboard a massive, infinite ship. Gigi

I find the lack of people's understanding of Tolkien’s prose to be genuinely tragic. The whole point of Fairy Land is to help us see the world with unfallen eyes and taste Eden's sublimity. Fantasy books weren't merely stories about enchantment, the words WERE the enchantment.

I read novels, I just don’t want to read The Sound the Hoptoad Made, Enravished Heart: Book 1 of the Ravisher Chronicles, or The Woman Who Was A Woman

The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a significant feast in the Catholic Church, celebrated annually on the Friday following the second Sunday after Pentecost, typically in June. This devotion honors the profound love of Jesus Christ, symbolized by His Sacred Heart,

"In life the violent were often stained by hot blood; in death they get what they freely chose in life -- the opportunity to be immersed in rivers of blood." - Jason Baxter in A Beginner's Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy