The Sword and Laser discussion

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics...

Read and discuss? (Is there anything to discuss?)

Added to Instapaper. Will let you know when I get to it... :)

That was actually a pretty insightful article. Seeing it written out like this I realize that my own thoughts on fantasy mirror largely what this article says.

[quote]As the boring old professor knew, the backstory is the biggest one of all. That’s why he was scribbling old words on the blackboard, if only for his eyes alone.[/quote]

This touches on why I like big sprawling epics like the Wheel of Time so much and why I get so annoyed at people who say: "They could have cut half of it out and still have the same story." No they could not. The back story, the sense of history, the scale of it is what makes it so awesome, far more than the main story line does.