Top 3 Most Influential Works.

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Mr. Broken
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Top 3 Most Influential Works.

Post by Mr. Broken »

Almost all new works, those written within the last 40 years, have been influenced at least in format, by previous works. Give us the 3 most influential.
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Fist and Faith
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Post by Fist and Faith »

The Bible, LOTR, and... something else.
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And disregards the rest -Paul Simon

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Post by Menolly »

Hyperception was asleep when I read this question out loud quietly to myself. Within a minute, he started muttering strange words...

Those words are...
Kalevala...Mabinogion...Chaneon du Roland
...anyone???
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Post by danlo »

Have to agree with LOTR and Roland, mine:
A Once and Future King
The Worm Ouroboros
The Stars, My Destination
fall far and well Pilots!
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Post by I'm Murrin »

Speaking of the fantasy genre, you cannot deny the influence of Lord of the Rings.
Peake's Gormenghast has been a major influence on a large segment of the fantasy genre, distinct from much of the Tolkien-influenced work, since it was published.
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Post by stonemaybe »

Wagner?
Aglithophile and conniptionist and spectacular moonbow beholder 16Jul11

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drew
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Post by drew »

uh, what about Arthur?

How many books are about young men reclaiming their kingly birthright?

How many books have a Lancelot type knight?

Or a Merlin type wizard?
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Post by Holsety »

Menolly wrote:Hyperception was asleep when I read this question out loud quietly to myself. Within a minute, he started muttering strange words...

Those words are...
Kalevala...Mabinogion...Chaneon du Roland
...anyone???
Only one I'm familiar with is the Mabby. If you've ever read Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series the names and some of the themes draw heavily on it, for instance I'm pretty sure the horned king is in there (he can't be defeated unless his name is spoken. And I think Hen Wen comes from the welsh triads.

Another good choice for most influential might be the greek myths (maybe all of them) and stuff like that. Maybe Homer's Iliad, or Ovid's Metamorphoses (I realize that's influenced by roman philosophy but still).
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Post by Fist and Faith »

Yup, that'll be my third: Arthur. I suppose Mallory's?
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon

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Post by Menolly »

Stonemaybe wrote:Wagner?
Yes?

;)
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Post by Holsety »

Fist and Faith wrote:Yup, that'll be my third: Arthur. I suppose Mallory's?
NO! TH WHITE'S!!!

Ok, probably not, but it still kicks incredible amounts of ass.

I'm going to say that Chretien de Troyes is probably more influential than Mallory, being (AFAIK) the vast majority of the content of the Arthurian legends (lancelot, for instance).
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Post by Wyldewode »

Of influences not already named, I will say that the following works were influences on Tolkien, who was (I believe) one of the forerunners of the genre. Regarding Tolkien, I read that in a poll on Amazon.com in 1999, Lord of the Rings was voted Favorite Book of the Millennium. Pretty high praise. :D

1) George MacDonald (Phantastes, The Princess and the Goblin, At the Back of the North Wind, Lillith) MacDonald is an acknowledged influence on Lewis Carroll, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Madeline L'Engle.


2) Beowulf


3) I also want to nominate Tolkien's friend CS Lewis for his influential books: the Chronicles of Narnia.
Wikipedia wrote:Modern children's literature such as Daniel Handler's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter have been more or less influenced by Lewis' series (Hilliard 2005)
. . . .
Authors of adult fantasy literature such as Tim Powers have also testified to being influenced by Lewis' work.
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Post by Mr. Broken »

Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H.P. Lovecraft.
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Post by Mr. Broken »

Of course the best ones were already taken.
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Post by Avatar »

Jules Vern?

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Post by Seeker of Truth »

LOTR - defined a genre

also L Frank Baums entire OZ series - not just the Wizard of OZ - most written pre- Tolkien

I Robot by Issac Asimov

Most books written by Peter Hamilton - some of his ideas on future lifestyles are very visionary..

Jules Verne as well - some of his visions were eeriely accurate
(ie launching rocket to moon from florida etc)
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Post by danlo »

If you're going to say Verne you must say Wells as well.
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Post by CovenantJr »

Menolly wrote:Hyperception was asleep when I read this question out loud quietly to myself. Within a minute, he started muttering strange words...

Those words are...
Kalevala...Mabinogion...Chaneon du Roland
...anyone???
From the ever-inaccurate but nonetheless useful Wikipedia:
The Kalevala is a book and epic poem which the Finn Elias Lönnrot compiled from Finnish and Karelian folklore in the 19th century. It is held to be the national epic of Finland and is traditionally thought of as one of the most significant works of Finnish language literature. Karelians in the Republic of Karelia and other Balto-Finnic speakers also value the work. The Kalevala is credited with some of the inspiration for the national awakening that ultimately led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917.
Clearly Hyperception knows his Finnish literature...
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Post by Menolly »

CovenantJr wrote:Clearly Hyperception knows his Finnish literature...
...

*news to me*

I would understand if it was Czech, as his dissertation is focused on Johannes Kepler. But Finnish?

However...at times he reminds me of Isaac Asimov, as he seems to know a little something about everything...
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Post by Damelon »

The Kalevala was an inspiration for Sibelius and his music, and indirectly helped the cause of Finnish independence by the creation of a national epic; though I'm not familiar with the individual tales.

Finnish was also the language that Tolkien used for the model for the High Elven speech, Quenya.
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