# Donaldson, Moorcock etc

*The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 07 Aug 2011*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6046>

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### Sergei SOLOVIEV
*07 Aug 2011, 12:20*

Dear Jeff,

I didn' t write that the heroes (or anti-heroes) - Covenant and Elric - 
were repulsive to me. I wrote
that the books were (their authors writing style). I don't remember to 
be shocked by the "rape
scene" from Donaldson (I was not a teen), but I remember an intense 
dislike of how the
book was written.

I glanced at the "Elric". I have to admit that this time (after many 
years) my dislike
was much less, I was just bored.

I'll try to explain. There is no doubt that Moorcock is quite an 
erudite. But I don't like
how he uses his erudition. To me it is like a badly done theatric 
background - the pieces
of this and that squeezed into some rough picture.

It is told that Elrik is in some way antagonist to the heroes of 
Tolkien. To Conan, that
you mention, as well.

But Tolkien used his knowledge of history, folklore, languages to create 
depth,
what is most impressive in his "Lord of the Rings" is more than 10000 
years of
history subtly influencing the present

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### Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
*08 Aug 2011, 16:40 · in reply to Sergei SOLOVIEV*

> Sergei SOLOVIEV  wrote:
> But Tolkien used his knowledge of history, folklore, languages to create
> depth,
> what is most impressive in his "Lord of the Rings" is more than 10000 years
> of
> history subtly influencing the present

If you like that aspect of JRRT, you should definitely check out
Steven Erikson. He is an anthropologist/archaeologist rather than a
linguist, but he uses his own areas of expertise, much as Tolkien did,
to create a huge sense of the abysmal past and how it continues to
influence the story's present.

```
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
```

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