>>6254923

fun rambling, and overall agreeable.

>Tolkien was too good

this is generally true, but a the same time I'd rather for people to go back to the roots that inspired him - languages, myth, traditions, etc, and maybe filling the spots where he was admittedly lacking (a certain tendency to allow things to stay in a static equilibrium notwithstanding the forces at play. I often cite the war between Angmar and Arnor, which was mostly fought on a flat plain and somehow lasted centuries instead of a few years of campaigning, or Arnor's population loss etc), without falling to the retarded extremes someone like Martin is infamous for.

>I think a big cause of the popularity of Cultivation/Xianxia/Wuxia stories is because it essentially is the mythological background of the far east in fantasy fiction, without the hangups of trying to do Tolkien again.

I agree. though orientalism seldom produces good works. I tend to stay away from Cultivation stuff because I find it retarded. then again so am I so make of that what you wish

>So how do you make fantasySLOP good?

read pre-Tolkien or not-Tolkien authors

(Howard, Ashton Smith, Vance are the first three that come to mind in the English tradition; De Maupassant in French, for example)

personally I add the three 'A's:

>Action
>Adventure
>Atits

it has worked so far.