The Lord of the Rings versus Dungeons and Dragons

There are a lot of fans of fantasy who have come to the genre so recently that they don’t know its history. In not knowing the history, they end up making unwarranted, disparaging comments about classics in the field. Let me give you a few examples.

• When the Lord of the Rings movies came out, I heard people say that yes, they were good, but they were “derivative” of Dungeons and Dragons.
• In reviews of the television version of Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea books, many reviewers commented that it was okay, but man oh man, the school for wizards—that was soooo derivative of Harry Potter. (The Earthsea television series was, in fact, rather horrible and bore very little resemblance to the books; the wizarding school was one of the few elements that it retained.)
• The Spiderwick Chronicles series of books has also been accused of being derivative of Harry Potter as well, because it has magic and magical creatures in it.

Tolkien versus Dungeons and Dragons

J.R.R. Tolkien’s magnificent work, The Lord of the Rings, was first published in three volumes in England in the mid-1950s. Note that date. It was later published in the United States in the 1960s, first in an unauthorized edition, and then later in an authorized one.

The Lord of the Rings was enormously influential on a number of writers, including game designers E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, who created Dungeons and Dragons in the early-mid 1970s—about 20 years after the first publication of The Lord of the Rings. Although Gygax says he was only minimally influenced by the book, he did definitely take the concepts of halflings, orcs, treants, elves, dwarves, etc. from it. (Initially, he used the terms hobbit and ent, for example, but was forced by the Lord of the Rings copyright holders to change those terms. Also, he changed the height of halflings from Tolkien’s description of being about the height of a ten-year-old boy to about the height of a two-year-old toddler.)

In a nutshell? The Lord of the Rings story can in no way be derivative of something that was published twenty years later.

Earthsea versus Harry Potter

The Earthsea books, including the school for wizards, were first published in the 1960s and were rightfully very popular. They were about a young man who discovers that he has wizarding powers, and about how he grows in wisdom while using them.

The first Harry Potter book, on the other hand, was published in Britain in 1997. With almost 30 years between the first publication of Earthsea and the first publication of Harry Potter, there is no possible way that Earthsea could be derivative of Harry Potter.

If you haven’t read the Earthsea books, I highly recommend them.

The Spiderwick Chronicles versus Harry Potter

Although in the case of Holly Black’s Spiderwick Chronicles, the publication date of the first book (2003) came after the first of the Harry Potter books, the books cannot in any way be called derivative of the Harry Potter books. The books are about some children who have adventures in the world of the fairies (using well-established fairy types from long before Harry Potter). The only way you could even come close to calling Black’s books as derivative of Rowling’s is if you then also claim that any fantasy story that uses well-established fantasy elements is derivative of any previous fantasy book that used the same elements. In which case, the Harry Potter books (and, in fact, pretty much every fantasy book) would also have to accused of being derivative as well.

What is Behind These Accusations?

Setting aside ignorance, which clearly is at play here, there must be some other impetus behind these “derivative” accusations. If someone is neutral on a subject, they might mention similarities between the works, even if they mistakenly believe that the older work is actually younger, but they wouldn’t heap scorn on the older work.

If I were to guess, I would say that much of the impetus behind these accusations is the desire to have been first in doing or finding something. Some people who started their fantasy reading habits with Harry Potter don’t want to believe that Harry Potter wasn’t the first fantasy book ever written, because then they would have to admit that other people may actually have enjoyed fantasy long before they did. This would make them late-comers to a genre (which, of course, they are—fantasy works have been around a long, long time), and they don’t want to think they weren’t the first. In short, it is an ego problem complicated by fear—fear that, if they can’t be unique in their tastes or in having discovered a genre, then in what way are they unique?

The answer is that we are all unique, and that sharing a liking for things, far from separating us or making us “less than,” is one of the ways in which we can connect with other human beings. Our lives can be so much richer if we allow others to also not only like the same kinds of things we like, but to have liked them longer or in a different way, because then we can find new books to read, new movies to watch, that we might also like and that we might otherwise not have found. The ways in which each of us are unique are many, including our perspective on things, our beliefs, and the way we express ourselves. Even if we are similar to others in some ways, there are ways in which we are not similar, or ways in which we take similarities from many different sources and make them our own.

So, the next time you encounter someone saying that something is derivative, think kindly toward them; maybe even extend a hand in friendship, if you are so moved.

Or, the next time you find yourself thinking that something is derivative, ask yourself what it is you are afraid of and why you are feeling so scornful. Save yourself some embarassment by doing a little research before speaking or writing. Then, think about it and ask yourself if maybe there might be something new for you to discover if you open your heart and mind a bit.

A New Essay: Television

Although many people have written about the evils of television, I felt I had something to contribute to the discussion. You can find my new article here.

Atlantis Redux

A few years ago, I started to write a series of articles on Atlantis. I have finally completed that series; you can find the first article here:

 http://www.thelighthouseonline.com/articles/atlantis.html

The topics are how Atlantis developed (very briefly), Atlantean technology and society, and how and why Atlantis ended. I hope you enjoy the series!

 There is a lot more information that I could write, but the articles as they stand give a good overview without overburdening you with words.