/lit/ - Literature

If GRRM were really such a genius he'd have figured out a way out of his narrative quandary by now. Everybody goes on and on about how he's written himself into a corner. Well, it's been almost 20 years, why can't he write himself OUT of that corner? Nothing is insurmountable if you have enough talent as a storyteller. It's merely a matter of creativity.

Which tells you something about old Georgey boy.

What kind of fast food do you think GRRM likes? He's a real fat fuck so you know he must have his preferences.

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2020/12/29/back-in-print-again/

Look! GRRM has been busy!

Does he have a scat fetish? He sure does write about shitting a lot.

As others have mentioned, the reason the book lengths start to get out of hand by Goblet Of Fire is that by that point, Rowling was rich enough and powerful enough that she could fire her editor, and she probably did.

The exact same thing has happened to George R.R. Martin. Why do you think The Winds Of Winter has taken so fucking long to come out? Do you think it's because it's particularly deep, meaningful, and complex? Fuck no. This shit isn't Ulysses. It's taking so long to come out because Martin is now rich and famous, and so no editor can get on his case about meeting his deadlines. Nobody can hold him to reasonable deadlines any more, and he's naturally lazy, so his progress has slowed to a crawl.

In this regard I actually find Stephen King pretty impressive, he's CLEARLY rich and famous enough that no editor can tell him what to do, yet he still keeps pretty tight writing deadlines. The man must have an impressive amount of self-discipline.

Thoughts on killing off characters? Obviously it's a bit of a trendy thing in popular fiction these days to say "anyone can die" and to kill off characters without much preamble. I suppose GRRM popularized it.

But for me, I think it's better to keep the bulk of the cast alive as long as possible, and when you do kill one of them off, you do it very dramatically and pointedly, rather than making it feel offhand or random. I think, somewhat paradoxically, avoiding killing the cast members off heightens the surprise and the emotion of when one of them actually does die. The reader gets so used to seeing all these characters escape danger over and over, that all of a sudden when one of them DOESN'T escape, the shock of it and the emotional weight of it will be that much greater.

Basically I think Martin has the wrong approach.

So, we all know the story that he has it stipulated in his will that nobody else will be allowed to finish the books.

But is that honestly going to get honored? There's gotta be pretty decent odds that his wife, or his publisher, or somebody, just rips that clause up and gets another writer to finish things, right?

>>15557968
>What’ll really happen though is it’s gonna become a pop-culture board with tons of threads about Martin vs Tolkien, Dune and Harry Potter

/lit/ has always talked about popular literature to a limited extent. Heck, /lit/ actually used to LIKE A Song Of Ice And Fire. We didn't turn on GRRM until the wait for TWOW really started to drag, and Martin's hackery became obvious to everybody.

/lit/ has never been a purely highbrow board, there's always been room for talking about popular books, young adult, fantasy, science fiction, and schlock. And I honestly don't mind that. At least that's discussion about actual books, which is more than I can say for the political threads. I'd rather talk about GRRM than talk about Trump on this board any day of the week.

>>15542686
>>15542694
Exactly. GRRM might be shameless but he's smart enough to have an eye towards posterity. He's been called "The American Tolkien," but Tolkien at least told a complete, coherent story about his main characters in LOTR, a story that had a beginning, a middle, and an end. All the extra stuff, the Silmarillion and the other things, he never had any real interest in publishing, and it's only thanks to Christopher that we know about it at all. But he DID want to publish both The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, and so he finished them both, and they're classics of world literature.

Martin surely has to have that on his mind. Who in their right mind is even going to consider comparing him to Tolkien if he doesn't finish his main story, the way Tolkien finished LOTR? He'd be doomed to be a footnote in the history of popular literature, more notable for the HBO show and for the huge wait between books than for the actual content of his books themselves. I can't imagine he wants to be thinking about that on his deathbed. Purely out of ego and a desire to be remembered fondly, he will at least try to finish the books.

Tick tock
Tick tock
Tick tock

>71 years old

Holy shit it's not actually a meme, he literally is going to die before ASOIAF is finished at this point. Even if he finishes Winds of Winter, he'd have to write at LEAST two more books before the series was done, and considering how long he's been at work on this one, that's almost certainly not going to happen.

>>15176373
If he were an artist who actually believed in what he was writing, and believed it had genuine artistic merit, then he'd feel compelled to finish it out of a sense of obligation to himself, to his fans, and to posterity.

The fact that he does not puts the lie to the idea that ASOIAF is some great work that will stand the test of time. It's not art. It was never art. It was always just schlocky mass market trash. Anyone who ever told you otherwise was a liar or a fool.

Well hello there, /lit/. It's me, critically acclaimed writer George R.R. Martin. I thought I would take a little time and tell you what an average day in my life is like.

You see, I usually wake up quite late, around 10:30 or 11:00 AM. Then I have a nice, leisurely breakfast of English muffins, jam, and some scrambled eggs. After this, I usually sit around reading quietly for a few hours, until it's about 2:00 PM in the afternoon. Then it's time for lunch, which is always a hearty affair. As you know, I am quite fond of food! And then I watch TV, usually the SyFy Channel or old clips of my favorite NFL team, the Jets.

After this, I take a little nap, one which lasts me until the end of the afternoon and into the evening. I then go to my trusty old computer, fire up WordStar 4.0, and spend about fifteen minutes writing The Winds Of Winter. After this, why, I go outside and wander the grounds of my large house, thinking of what I'd like for dinner. Dinner, too, is a hearty affair.

Afterwards I check social media, just to see what people are saying about me. Then I spend the rest of the evening watching more television, perhaps a movie or two. After this, well, I'm pretty exhausted, so it's off to bed for me, some time around 11:30 at night. I've had quite a day, and I can't wait to do it all again the following morning.

>The American Tolkien

>>9798670
It's almost guaranteed

>>9614065
But what was its texture and smell? Tolkien was too much of a prude which is why he left out the important details. What is even the point of writing if you refuse to describe in depth the bowel movements of your characters?