I see the article as a kind of old-school hipster take. High fantasy has had an amazing gain in popularity in mainstream culture since the LOTR movies 20 years ago. I think the author was trying to find a contrarian take, as in "yeah actually this is just dorky nerd shit." Maybe he sensed a moment where the Amazon series, including the W…
I see the article as a kind of old-school hipster take. High fantasy has had an amazing gain in popularity in mainstream culture since the LOTR movies 20 years ago. I think the author was trying to find a contrarian take, as in "yeah actually this is just dorky nerd shit." Maybe he sensed a moment where the Amazon series, including the Wheel of Time, weren't quite the smashes that were anticipated, and felt it was the time to pounce. Then again, "Honor Among Thieves" seems to be having a pretty decent opening weekend.
Old-school hipsterism feels like a solid assessment of it, but it also felt like regular old elitism at times, which is sort of weird given that the writer talks about how much money Sanderson makes. The disdain of dorky nerd shit was definitely palpable, but it also had this attitude of "look at these middle of no where rubes" that was additionally off-putting.
You say potato, I say potahto. What else is hipsterism than cultural elitism? I guess there's still a certain amount of disbelief that fantasy is a popular and successful genre.
I see the article as a kind of old-school hipster take. High fantasy has had an amazing gain in popularity in mainstream culture since the LOTR movies 20 years ago. I think the author was trying to find a contrarian take, as in "yeah actually this is just dorky nerd shit." Maybe he sensed a moment where the Amazon series, including the Wheel of Time, weren't quite the smashes that were anticipated, and felt it was the time to pounce. Then again, "Honor Among Thieves" seems to be having a pretty decent opening weekend.
Old-school hipsterism feels like a solid assessment of it, but it also felt like regular old elitism at times, which is sort of weird given that the writer talks about how much money Sanderson makes. The disdain of dorky nerd shit was definitely palpable, but it also had this attitude of "look at these middle of no where rubes" that was additionally off-putting.
You say potato, I say potahto. What else is hipsterism than cultural elitism? I guess there's still a certain amount of disbelief that fantasy is a popular and successful genre.