Nicholas Kotar is an author of epic fantasy inspired by Russian fairy tales. This channel includes author interviews, book trailers, and live Q&A's with the author
There are some poems in Virgil's corpus that suggest familiarity with the Septuagint, yes. In particular some paeans to Augustus use very clear Jewish imagery. It's pretty interesting.
I won’t spoil it in case you haven’t finished the trilogy, but I can assure you the final installment of the First Law trilogy is just as deterministic, nihilistic, and depressing as you’d have expected it to be going into it. I felt the same way about The Blade Itself as you did. I was disappointed in the finale.
I think that to say Boromir is a villain is an exaggeration. Boromir is an anti-hero with tragic elements who redeems himself, my favorite kind of character. He functions as antagonist only briefly, and his role is much more complex. He's a foil to Aragorn (like Faramir), and is also a prelude to what happens to Frodo (who does fall in the end as well, but who repents). I hated the character of Boromir when I was child (and I thought Sean Bean ugly). But Boromir represents the heroic ideals of pre-christian Europe, and there is something to love about him as he tries to do the right thing.
After hearing your videos, I begun noticing the Heroine's Journey in stories ...or At least I think? 😅 I recently read the Snow Queen, and it seems to largely fit: Little girl is best friends with a boy, the boy goes missing, the girl travels and is helped all along the way through all the trials, and she finds and heals the boy and they return home, and the home is likewise restored. (they are older, but still childlike.) Happy ending. There's also George Macdonald's Papa's Story/A Scott's Christmas, which is a fictional tale of a girl who goes out to find her prodigal brother, she too is helped by all the good hearted people she meets, and it ends in a beautiful restoration of the family. Both lovely stories. Though since both of these aren't compromised endings, (as the endings are undeniably happy and goal to restore the home is achieved) would these still be Heroine's Journeys or something else?
Really good video Nicholas, though per the thumbnail being politically smarter than the NYT is an abyssaly low base line. Re your point on autocracy being too weak to stop abuse, would you say this isn't true of democracies? Epstien was a thing remember, as is the Hollywood system among multiple abusive power centers in the US
Other than some of the classics like MacDonald, Tolkien, and Lewis what are some fantasy novels, Christian or otherwise, that explore themes and questions of faith really well?
@@NicholasKotarauthor thanks for the recommendation!! I’ll have to check them out. I’ve read Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, but that’s it. Is that his best work or do you have other favorites?
Nicholas Id be interested to hear your thoughts on The First Law once you read book three. I think a lot of Abercrombies message comes into focus in the last volume.
I’ve tried some “noble bright”. There’s a quality I call “flavored mush.” There’s no “edge” as opposed to the try-hard edginess of the worst grimdark. Like you said, no recognition of the harsher elements. Is there any really good noblebright you can recommend?
Здравствуйте, Николай! Прослушала Вашу беседу с Павлом Щелиным о сказке. Здорово! Спасибо Вам! Извините, что пишу сюда, может, это не совсем туда)) но Вы, я уверена, поймете и простите. А вдруг Вы сделаете версию своего канала на русском языке?! Право, это нужно нам...
The RU-vidr The Distribtist did an analysis on GOT years ago and concluded that the series heartened back to tragedy, but it could have no cathartic ending because Martin himself was caught up on nihilism. I recommend watching his two vids on GOT, on the story itself and his analyst after the show's finale.
@@NicholasKotarauthor I think the title of his first vid is “Why Game of Thrones Jumped the Shark and why Martin will never finish the series” but the good stuff doesn’t start until about 10 minutes in, after going over some plot points and characters. The other one, “Game Over” after the end of the series, is more entertaining and looks at the finale, the story as a whole, and modern storytelling in general, and why a lot of grimdark can’t aspire to tragedy, because tragedy implies that there is. A right standard that the characters failed to attain.
there are no new mythologies a mythology is something literally in every aspect real buddhist cosmollgy and Chritianity are two literall REAL and true mythologies amoung many. so called modern mythologies like science fiction comics etc.. are not true mythologies in any form and could be cosdered Pseudo mythology.
Completely agree about the two towers scene. It also invokes imagery of the return of Christ in Revelation 19. A white haired rider descending on a white horse, bathed in light. It’s just so beautiful.
Hoping to by your books soon. Your Channel has been very helpful for me since 2020-2021. May this Passion Week and Pascha be most fruitful for you and your family .
Thank you so much, this is really inspiring for me! I agree, the internet is a place where people find it easy to complain about things, rather than actually do something. So grateful for creators like you who are out there crafting something beautiful, rather than denigrating that which is, objectively, silly or subpar. Thank you. Again, this inspires me.
Hello, I have a random question) I'm just interested what do you think about John's Truby four corner opposition method? Does it align with the traditional storytelling?
I don't know his four corner opposition method, but I have read his book on genres, and I would say that yes, he has a very good handle on traditional storytelling.
Just wanted to say that I really love your vision, love what you're writing, and I love your understanding of and insights on fantasy and the mythic. I'm living paycheck to paycheck right now but I'm looking forward to backing this as soon as I can, and I most certainly will! Cheers!
I just fell down the rabbit hole just a little bit more with this. Been into Alice recently and after listening to Bowie I wanted to see if he made a somg about said Alice in Wonderland. Well, he was I'm Labyrinth which is a heroine's journey of course. Then.... I saw it was released in 1986... my birth year. Gets even weirder. It came out on the day I was born!!! The. Exact. Day!
Very, very profound insight. Is this a clip from a podcast? Also, do you think this new mythology is a result of the "death of God" in the hearts and minds of younger generations?
Recently, Jonathan Pageau has talked about. I think in the Exodus series, he did with Jordan and friends. That the old Greek epics were used to reincorporate warrior or soldiers back into civilization, Through the Illiad and the odessey. Which acted as a collection of narrative archetypes. And if Nicholas is right here, we no longer have that. It's like if every soldier has to burden his cross, on his own, without the knowledge of the cross, if that makes sense.. like a child in the woods with no fire to guide. Humanity has become, a rumourmill of narcissistic rights. The child, the soldier now writes his own Illiad and Odessey, if you point out otherwise, you are a heretic, a scapegoat in this modern world. Which, I think is a reaction to the overly hierarchical, nature of the sixties, which had no role for women, or margin, what we are seeing is an overeaction to the other side. Since, the end of the second great affair. The former point is also something Mr. Pageau has talked about. So, not completely my own thoughts, but I do agree. Does the rambling make sense, Jochoa? And does is answer your question, about the lack of purpose in God?.
Hey Nicholas 👋 If you put the subtitles in the middle it would be easier to read them, which might help you get more views. I am a big fan of your work and i hope it spreads more.❤
Philosophy is an excellent training ground for encountering ideas you hate. It's a place where you can see Nietzsche predict the entirety of 20th century Europe, but also see what a bitter, spiteful man he is. You can read Hegel and Marx and think that man is more than just a change against acting histrionically on behalf of the progression of the dialectic. You can read Heidegger and despise nazism. Philosophers are almost universally pieces of crap and their personalities are just as rotten as most their ideas, but when you tap into the well spring, you can see the generational dance of thought, the universal human narrative they are engaged in.
I am so thrilled to hear the name Chaunticleer. I grew up loving myth and fantasy and ancient history. But I struggled in the school setting and grew up assuming I was stupid until my mom began her degree in English literature. That's when she really started sharing those great old stories with me, and revivified my love for reading. One day she brought home a porcelain rooster, and told me his name was Chaunticleer. I thought this was perfectly hilarious and asked her why he might have been given such a name. And she went on to explain what she could of this rooster. And there began my love for literature. .
It should come as no surprise that Moorcock had a huge influence on George RR Martin. George has referenced him so many times in a song of ice and fire.
I absolutely love the Farseer books. So much so that I named my dog Fitz. I just remember the way he looked at me the first night i brought him home, confused and thrust into the care of this strange rough man, and i felt like Burrich. You're absolutely right about the middlebook syndrome as well as her way of bringing everything together in these charged scenes. There are a couple scenes in particular that are unlike anything I have ever read. One is of a rock slide on their way through the mountains and the other is underneath a building that is on fire and collapsing while the tide is coming in amd fludding the tunnels they are using to escape. They are just remarkable. Her ability to hurtle you through this insane event with so much detail but not fall into a self aggrandizing language diarrhea trap. Like you just feel them gripping this sheer rock that is just turning to powder all around them and ever boulder flying by, or great beams on flames collapsing and knocking you so that you dont know which way is up and finding yourself pinned under water. Its just incredibly how much she can pack into those scenes, and not just the physical description, but the emotionality. How their everyday descisions and motivations lead them to that place. I just loved those books. That being said, i completely agree with your analysis of Buck not being a medieval society. Buck is without culture or history and myth is reduced to nursery rhymes and curse words. And I mean no slight on nursery rhymes. Its just her myths are either actually tangible historical events reduced to nursery rhymes through centuries of retelling or are just narrative devices to hint at a common vision. Like crying 'Edda and Elle' as if any character has the vaguest notion of who they are.
I've seen an opera (albeit online) based on Tolkien, about Finrod. And it's kind of implied there at one moment that for Sauron Finrod and Feanor's host are the invaders from the West :) Which is kind of interesting. And that they've comitted evil themselves, particularly at the Kinslaying at Alqualondë.
you can understand sauron as basically every schoolshooter ever, it's that resentment. but you wouldn't know much about him if you hadn't read the silmarillion, that's why tolkien has to constantly drop hints through Gandalf and the palantir.
24:08 on the tolkien topic, it's all nice to talk about the ambiguous world of spirits in myth, until you find yourself in WW1 and the carnage goes from one horizon to the other, in tolkiens myth of the Ainulindalë you get a song version of our world, in the start the song has all sorts of voices and it all kinda works together, but with time the diversity of voices dies down and it gets down to two voices, so this grey element is in there, but that includes the purest evil, the Egyptians for example could never had imagines this level of carnage, if there's such a terrible thing in our world, then it must come from somewhere, it comes from morgoth that's what tolkien's showed us. for the most part we don't get the motivation for sauron, because it's a novel, which normal myths are not, but we can understand sauron through saruman, and saruman through gandalf, in that way we can understand sauron, but we have to do a lot of guessing. you also get the points of view of orcs by the way, yes they're the obvious villains, but so is the pharaoh.
there's another reason why tolkien's story is so good vs evil, it's because he was imitating old norse legends, that he characterized as "we stand for the good, we know we'll be wiped out forever, and that we have no hope, but we're going to fight evil anyway" and tolkien adds a modification to that, he says that the evil is not stronger than the good, and in the end they will lose.
