I once saw a comment on Youtube comparing the worldbuilding of George R. R. Martin to that of J. K. Rowling. It was like this: Tolkien on worldbuilding: this is the deep tradition behind it all, in the world of the elves and the dwarves... George R. R. Martin on worldbuilding: this is the way the economy works, this is the kingdom's history... J. K. Rowling on worldbuilding: oh, they crap in the halls and magic cleans it up.
And I'm like... okay, so J. K. Rowling is not as good as George R. R. Martin at worldbuilding.
Well, that's okay. Because George R. R. Martin is nowhere near as good at deep meaning as J. K. Rowling.
That's what makes the Harry Potter stories great.
The deep meaning.
The moral core.
You want to learn how to face the darkness without loosing hope, read Harry Potter.
You want deep meaning, read Harry Potter.
J. K. Rowling paints a fantastic picture of her world, even if she is not as good at worldbuilding as Tolkien. She paints a fantastic, magical, fascinating picture.
And that's all her worldbuilding is supposed to be- just a fascinating, magical background picture for the moral and character storytelling.
But what makes Harry Potter great is the characters- and especially the deep meaning.
But also character. J.K. Rowling is an amazing writer for character.
Once you have read Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, the best place to find deep meaning in modern fantasy- modern, that is, not the Illiad or the Ramayana- is in Harry Potter.^
Like the Chronicles of Narnia, this is really adult ideas for young people learning how to be good adults.
As someone (I think it was Swift itself) said of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the words are for children but the meaning is for men.
And the words are certainly not just for children either!
So there you have it.
Deep meaning in modern fantasy.
Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and J. K. Rowling.
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
^The beauty of Tolkien, on the other hand... good luck. The only place I know of in modern written fantasy to find deep beauty like in Tolkien is in Tolkien and in the Chronicles of Narnia. I have not found beauty like Tolkien anywhere else in written literature since Abraham Lincoln's time. Maybe in The Secret Garden. You want to find beauty like Tolkien, look back to the Ramayana from ancient India, in Ramesh Menon's translation. For I haven't found it anywhere in modern fantasy save for Tolkien himself and C.S. Lewis. Watch E.T. and Miyazaki's Ponyo. Read Ramesh Menon's Ramayana. Go to Narnia. Don't look in written modern fantasy outside Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. At least, I haven't found it. Too much grimdark in the last 20 years (as of 2023) to have beauty like Tolkien.
That isn't to say that there isn't beauty. But... we're talking about beauty like Tolkien here. The radiant Sun among us mortals. The wonder and comfort of Rivendell. The beauty of Tolkien is far beyond most beauty. That you can find something like this caliber of beauty anywhere in Steven Spielberg and Miyazaki is a testament to Spielberg and Miyazaki as geniuses of incredible scope whose full significance will be more obvious 200 years from now!
P.S. I just read about the J. K. Rowling transgender comments controversy. This is what I think.
J. K. Rowling is not trying to disrespect anybody or threaten anybody or take away anybody's rights. She is trying to wrestle with some very difficult philosophical questions concerning gender. The public reacted with knee-jerk oversimplification and anger. She is trying to wrestle with the philosophical equivalent of nuclear physics, and we are crying out to her like babies. She is not trying to disrespect anyone, and she is not taking away anyone's rights. If we look to her as an authority and expect her to try to answer these kinds of difficult questions concerning gender, we owe it to her to not be mean to her. We are the one who asked the question. We are the one who looked to her to be an authority. She is not trying to be mean. She is trying to answer some very difficult questions. She deserves our respect and support and not our hate and knee-jerk anger. It is not her fault if she does not have all the answers, we are asking her some very difficult questions. It's like asking someone to single-handedly invent Calculus or something. She figured out the women's rights part of it, someone else will have to figure out the trans rights part. I doubt many of us could do any better.
We created all these insane political correctness categories, and J. K. Rowling is wrestling with the consequences. I think that the answer is this: forget the damn political correctness categories. Simply treat everyone with respect and support with your love everyone who is being picked on, for whatever reason. Women, transgender, whatever. I'm sure J. K. Rowling would agree with this.