Posted on 05/31/2013 12:43:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
With the end of the third season of Game of Thrones in sight (June 9th), a global audience of over 5 million is debating whether or not George R.R. Martin is the rightful “American Tolkien.” I argue that while The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones have striking similarities, Martin is actually pioneering a distinct genre—a new kind of fantasy novel informed by historical fiction and politics. Martin admits that he was influenced a great deal by Tolkien, and mirrored the structure of his novels off of Tolkien’s work:
“Tolkien begins his story in the Shire with one group of inhabitants, hobbits, but eventually expands the tale in ever-widening orbits to cover many races and huge tracts of land. That’s what I wanted to do too. I wanted to start with a tight focus on a few characters and one place in the world, and as the story is told, the world will continue to get bigger and bigger and more people get drawn into the conflict,” Martin told the Detroit Free Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
He seems to bring some of them back.
I see Westeros as England just before the final ice advance. Watch out for the Red Comet too (it's coming back).
All of this.
Thank you.
At the rate he is going, Martin, the “Antitolken” will be dead before he completes the story.
I only messed up a title, you only read 1/14th of a series and decided you knew everything about it. You are simply incorrect.
No, I’m not incorrect. I also did not decide I knew everything about it. I simply knew enough to make a correct conclusion. That’s all it takes.
Everyone else seemed to understand what I was talking about. Then you come in here and ruin it for him too by confessing that you know just what I'm talking about.
So, now THAT'S settled ... If you're petitioning me to understand that the HBO-adapted series brought all the filth into the story where it didn't exist in the Martin's book, are you really armed with the truth here?
You can’t tell the depth of story, depth of plot, and character development reading 1/14th of a series. That doesn’t even make sense. It’s like walking in the surf and deciding that the ocean is shallow compared to a pool you once dove into.
That being said this is a book for grown ups. Evil is quite clearly portrayed but it is not glorified while Honor, courage, and intelligence is.
That person went a little further than just saying I’ve never read the books, and I confess outright that I haven’t read every novel that my wife handed over to me. She’s dog-eared the books on just about everything GRRM has written, and she’s a huge fan. I’m interested enough to watch GoT episodes over and over. I was told I’d never read nor watched anything and its just not so.
Now honestly, I have read in his books quite a lot of over the top pervyness. I’m hardly the only one saying this either, even amongst his fans. So, please.
Never heard of him and never read anything he wrote. I guess I’ll stick with real Science Fiction instead of the fairy dancing fantasy shtick. One thing is sure, an American Tolkien, he is not.
You can say “so, please” as if I’m making things up all you want. The fact still remains that virtually every explicit scene in the HBO series was either inserted whole cloth or made explicit from something that is hinted at. As a fantasy author GRRM is pretty tame. He might be a sadist to his readers, and his characters, but otherwise he isn’t that much of a perv.
&$@$, NO!!
Popularity-wise I can see it. JRRT didn’t have the benefit of all the media GRRM has access to-the internet, HBO, conventions. But more people read books in general back then I would imagine, at least as a %. I wonder what the ratio is of JRRT/GRRM who have only seen the HBO series/movies vs those who have also/only read the books.
Quality-wise, the closest to an American Tolkien is probably Gene Wolfe. Also Catholic, also writes about spiritual matters/faith using fantasy/sci-fi. He’ll never be as popular as JRRT/GRRM. I recall a story where Wolfe wrote a letter to JRRT and got a letter back in response.
FReegards
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