High Fantasy vs. Sword & Sorcery

[Sir Perceval of Daventry]

Which genre you prefer?
High Fantasy--as in things like Lord of the Rings--
or Sword & Sorcery--such as the original Conan the Cimmerian stories?

[Lambonius]

It seems to me that the two examples you listed are pretty damn similar.  LOTR style High Fantasy and Conan/Willow style Swords & Sorcery are not really that far removed from one another.  Now, if we were comparing High Fantasy/Swords & Sorcery to the light hearted Fairy Tale atmosphere of King's Quest, for example--that'd be a much starker contrast.

[darthkiwi]

I wasn't aware there was a difference, but I guess you're right. But "High Fantasy" makes me think of incredibly detailed maps and thousands of pages of backstory, whereas "Sword and Sorcery" makes me think of luridly painted covers from the 60s (or whenever, I don't know) showing men carrying enormous swords and women wearing not very much.

To be frank, though, they're all massively derivative of Tolkein and I really don't find that stuff interesting.

[stika]

I've always liked Sword & Sorcery, always loved the 1980's art style for fantasy:

"Sword and Sorcery" makes me think of luridly painted covers from the 60s (or whenever, I don't know) showing men carrying enormous swords and women wearing not very much.

Actually Sword & Sorcery will usually have the males as naked as the females, sometimes even moreso:

[Lambonius]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoS1MCF8AeI