I agree with several comments on this thread arguing that the first two series could be made into films. An HBO series with perhaps a season for each book might be easier than a feature-length movie but the technical parts of portraying a fantasy world are no problem now. The internal thought parts ...

thanks, I sort of thought they went together and were mutually reinforcing. But whatever is easier for conversation is fine!

7. In psychological terms, Donaldson has also interpreted expressions of Earthpower as outward manifestations of willpower or freedom coupled with committed effort. This is Mhoram in a nutshell. Although his ends and motives are good, constrained by Kantian duty to each individual (rather than only ...

6. But in ethical terms, such power can be corrupted or turned to evil purposes. “Law is not the opposite of despite.” That is why the Earthpower does not have to respond to moral commitment; it can respond to any volitional upsurge (see #7). Likewise, the Elohim are not morally good in a human sens...

5. Donaldson’s most original development of earlier themes in the fantasy - romance genre(s) is the Earthpower itself. For many readers, it is this theme that makes these works worth reading. There is much more positive experience of earthpower manifestations in the first trilogy, with its best expr...

4. In ethical theory terms, Elena’s role is very different: she articulates utilitarian views (opposed by Mhoram) and even belief in the possibility of power arising through desecration. There is an often-missed link with the Narnia series here. Lewis’s “white witch” begins as Queen of a world laid ...

3. The Land and its Earthpower is also in some sense archetypally female, making Lena a fit symbol for it. The Blood of the Earth (in IW) is the most awesome and original manifestation of this archetypal idea – to me, the most mythic innovation in the whole series, which also plays a key role in the...

2. But these elementary points about “the philosophy” of the Chronicles still hardly settle the meaning(s) of Covenant’s story, which has many facets. The mythology and symbolism are eminently important and remarkably fertile. The key to my whole reading of the first series is the following: Lena is...

Thanks, it would be interesting to gather a website with a medley of published papers and manuscripts on Donaldson. This might be useful too if a Hollywood movie house ever became interested, which is a priority in my view. Does anyone know someone at HBO? I can write the letter to them! Lately they...

I have had in my drawer for 30 years parts of a manuscript on the First Chronicles, but while in an academic career, I have never had time to edit it into presentable form. I need to rewrite major portions because I adopted questions as a format (like a guide for students). At some point I will cull...

I think this is pretty good at capturing the spirit of this scene!

This is a great thread, people. I think it has to be a big blockbuster movie trilogy. That requires some big actors. Your definitely into figures like those for the first Lord of the Rings movies here, hundreds of millions. A lot of the hurdles mentioned earlier do come down, in my view, to a creati...

HBO might be able to do this, but they would seem cheap. I'm afraid that one of the hardest things to do well would somehow be to indicate the presence of earthpower in the Land. There is no way directly to depict the extra senses of health and ill that this gives, but somehow it has to be indicated...

It should be a serious topic. These works really need to be made into real blockbuster movies to survive for another generation. People with Hollywood contacts need to take note. I have a plan to get to speak with Peter Jackson (not that he'd be my first choice, but still....).

I had never thought of this before, but yes Mordant's Need would make great movies. And if they were hits, that would surely pave the way for movies of the First Chronicles. I do not see insuperable obstacles in the sex and violence in LFB or IW; my kids inform me that movies have changed so much th...

Thanks for all the welcomes. I'll definitely look at the "Tank" (whatever that is) the Close, and Hall of Gifts. Believe it or not, I'm still reading Fatal Revenant (it was a busy spring). The scene with Linden under Skyweir blew me away; it was like the best stuff he's ever written. Maybe...

Thanks very much; yes I would consider coming to a meeting; the last time I saw Donaldson in person was in the summer of 1988, I think. Before such a meeting, I'd love to have made some breakthrough with Hollywood that could be useful to him -- will have to work on that, though my connections are fe...

To say I'm a Donaldson fanatic would be an understatement. Since I was in 9th grade and first read The Illearth War (by mistake, then going back to LFB), I've been hooked. There is nothing else in epic fantasy that compares to Tolkien's work that I've found. I teach Philosophy at Fordham University....

The GAP series could perhaps be made into a good series of movies, but the sexual violence in the first couple books would be harder to overcome, I think, than the issue with Lord Foul's Bane. I'm a long time Donaldson reader who has used ideas from his books as inspiration for philosophical work on...