Pratchett disses Tolkien, swipes at Rowling, needs a good spanking if you ask me...

What's the deal with Terry Pratchett? Since he earns a very excellent living using the fantasy tropes set up in LOTR, he has a real downer on JRR.

I remember watching a very frustrating documentary on TV just before FOTR came out, where he was saying that while it was okay to think that LOTR was the best book in the world when you were 14, to still think that into adulthood was... I forget the rest but along the lines of "mentally ill". He also said (I'm sure it was him, there were various other condescending literary types on) that the use of the declarative voice in the later third of the book was "unbearable".

I don't know if I'd call it the best book in the world, but considering how he earns his living, the remarks were ungenerous to say the least.

In all justice, however, he did point out (again, I'm sure it was him) that critical arty types hated the fact that the book was so popular because it was something they couldn't control, or take away from people.

Now I'm not saying that everybody has to love Tolkien (I get the whole free country thing) but his remarks here seem a little mean-spirited. When I win an award, I do not shit on other authors, dead or otherwise:

<a href="http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_627266.html?menu=" target="_blank">http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_627266.html?menu=</a>

On the other hand, maybe his remarks here are shorn of their context by Ananova to seem controversial.

On the other hand again, I know from listening to Pratchett speak a couple of times that he does have issues, valid issues, with the way that people who work with fantasy and sci-fi are overlooked and marginalised, and he's an opinionated character. I'm not taking away from his work, which I really enjoy and which he genuinely infuses with a passionate moral worldview.

But I do also feel that he sees so far because he stands on the shoulders of giants, and that he would do well to keep this in mind. My understanding is that he's been more or less continuously in print from a very young age, and this might have had an affect upon his sense of perspective.

Verdict: A sound thrashing and a caution is in order.

Would the other judges like to speak?

&lt;Rapidly thrusting various alien appendages back in her pockets, whilst holding out the two "dummy" hands&gt;

Just two... why do you ask?

I see Terry's defense lawyer is late. He better not try to appeal or else I will be forced to raise his sentence to a damn good stomping, to be honest. More I think about it, the more his behaviour sucks.

Well, I think he is joking, in the main. His remarks about action figures and so forth are purely facetious.

But I don't think he's joking when he implies that Tolkien's take on good and evil is more shallow than his own. Like I say, I've heard him diss the Prof before.

There's nothing wrong with one author not liking another one's works (and he doesn't say he doesn't like him, but he implies constantly that enjoying Tolkien is a pleasure fit only for juvenile minds).

What I do question is dissing said works when the majority of your own body of work is an almost direct stealing of the conventions set up in said works.

And besides, Pratchett has a distinct 'tude. I've met him a few times in my bookshop life, and heard him speak publically on numerous occasions. At one signing, I remember that if a fan brought in dusty old paperbacks (clearly much read and loved) to be signed, he would sigh and put on plastic gloves in order to sign them.

He said the dust irritated his skin. Very possibly it did, I work with books and know this happens. However, there was just *something* in the way he did it. Something I thought was disrespectful. He struck me as someone that didn't have a lot of time for the teenaged wanna-be-rocker, D-and-D playing (and dare I say it, LOTR-loving) boys that constitute his main fan base.

But, I could be wrong. He was certainly never rude to *me* or the other till monkeys, and I've met authors I've liked a lot less. But I've met him a few times now and I'm quite sure that there is a bit of a 'tude there. Most definitely.