: Re: In fiction, is the use of old-fashioned verbage or voice (ex. Tolkien, Le Guin) advisable? If my genre lies somewhere in the fantasy-fiction spectrum, is the use of a more "dated" narrative

@Hamaas631

Vote Up Vote Down

What you describe is mostly what the genre of High Fantasy is about.

I have never found Le Guin or Tolkien to be archaic, or “dated”, it reads natural to me. I have more issues with Zelasny’s Princes of Amber series, or Moorcock's series, though.

Also some fantasy authors try to inject artificial “old style” and that is glaring and distracting to the narrative. The worse culprits try to mimic Shakespearian or pretend-medial “thou art…” type of diarrheic horse manure in dialogues.

Otherwise using “poetic, near-lyrical quality” is fine, it is bluring the line between litterature and fantasy and is quite common in the high-fantasy field.

(0)

Login to post a comment!