Pyriel wrote:If I remember correctly, Tolkien didn't necessarily dislike it, but he was disappointed by the fact that Lewis and some of his other contemporaries who wrote fantasy didn't sit down and flesh out their worlds more. Tolkien created entire languages, mythological backgrounds, and concrete histories of his world while he was in the process of writing his books. Meanwhile, C. S. Lewis created a fantasy realm where everybody speaks English (aside from maybe some "ancient" carvings; I don't remember); geography was created ad hoc; and the only extant history was covered in blurbs to provide background for the current narrative.Lemmy Claypool wrote:I wasn't aware of that, I was always under the impression he was quite encouraging of Narnia. I do know he was disappointed Lewis went C of E instead of Catholic upon his conversion to Christianity though ha.
I never had any trouble with Tolkien. I think it's because I read Victor Hugo long before I ever touched The Lord of the Rings. Get through the unabridged version of Les Miserables, and Tolkien's descriptive passages will seem like the emotive text between lines of dialogue.
Tolkien and Lewis were part of a writer's circle called the 'Inklings' and Tolkien made it clear that he thought Lewis' work was pretty crap when Lewis showed it to him; apparently this was the reason Lewis put Narnia down for a LONG time afterwards and he only resumed it when another friend mentioned it was excellent. And thank god for that friend. Also, Lewis might not have gone OTT with the whole language/maps/etc etc like Tolkien did, but he did create a timeline of the land of Narnia from its creation to its destruction and he didn't even need to go into all those tiny, minute details because his imagination alone and style of writing was enough to grip everybody. Really Tolkien had no right to criticize Lewis' work, especially when there are plenty of people who believe that Narnia was better (though I admit the LoTR films are excellent and I suspect the description Tolkien put in his books is what contributed to the films being so well-done.)