/lit/ - Literature

>ASOIAF is supposed to be the dark n gritty realistic take on soft fantasy like LotR
>LotR is actually darker far more morose and more in tune with the dark myths of the past
>ASOIAF is pretty much genreshit with gore n tits
Why is the reception of both different from the actual reality? At least Elric balances edge ad gore and sex with depth and innovation.

When's Túrin's birthday anyway?

Fantasy
>Selected:
>https://i.imgur.com/r688cPe.jpg
>General:
>https://i.imgur.com/igBYngL.jpg
>Flowchart:
>https://i.imgur.com/uykqKJn.jpg
>Beginner's Guide to Fantasy:
>https://i.imgur.com/fOGNfWK.jpg

Science Fiction
>Selected:
>https://i.imgur.com/A96mTQX.jpg
>https://i.imgur.com/IBs9KE8.jpg
>General:
>https://i.imgur.com/r55ODlL.jpg
>https://i.imgur.com/gNTrDmc.jpg
>NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:
>https://i.imgur.com/IJxTQBL.jpg

Previous Thread: >>8786621

I was a quiet nerd. As my high school DM said to me after a session while talking about some kind of school 'drama': "Nobody really dislikes you, huh Anon? You just kinda get along."

I think that was kind of intentional. I had almost no friends in my old school, but post-middle school I was confident that I could make some actual friends once I was surrounded by new people. I made an effort to be as friendly as possible to everyone. Mostly, though, I ate lunch with the nerds. It was a cool lunch table of people, but I didn't interact with them much outside of school. It was around this time that I got into 4chan and anime, maybe a little before high school.

As I already mentioned I also started playing D&D at this time, which was honestly thrilling. I'd formed an idea of myself as a nerd, and since D&D fit that image I was excited at the chance to play. It was also an opportunity to get myself out of the house and socialize(!!!), which I sorely needed.

It was an all-boys Catholic high school, so I didn't meet any girls. I didn't go to any parties or anything, so women were basically unknown to me except for my first date with a girl, who I met at the FLGS that opened in my area junior year. It turned out she was gay, though, so nothing came of it, not even another date or a kiss. I remember spending the night of senior homecoming playing D&D.

People tended to think of me as an honors kid even though it wasn't really true. I just give that impression, I guess. I kept getting placed in the "honors track" because it was a small school and I did well in most subjects, but the math classes always kicked my ass. I had an interest in English before then, because back in elementary school my parents and teachers said I was really good at it. It seemed to come naturally to me, and I remember always being frustrated that other students would pause at the end of each line instead of at the end of each sentence. Once it became clear in high school that becoming average at math would take a significant effort, I decided to focus my efforts on the humanities. I didn't try very hard in school, so my GPA was almost always crap, but I tried not to worry about it too much (and when I had to, for college applications, I learned what "panic attacks" felt like. I'd always thought they were bullshit before then).

The last English teacher I had there was and is an actual genius. He was a short, fat, balding Italian man with an exhaustive knowledge of film and literature. We must have covered hundreds of works in the two years I had him. I kept all the notes. He also headed the school newspaper and lit mag, which were populated by a cadre of students who all had nice haircuts, smoked weed, wore boat shoes with colorful socks, and were generally pretty preppy. I always kinda wanted to join their ranks, but I figured I wouldn't fit in anyway. Oh well.

I'll never get the comparison

They're two different authors from different time that, despite working on the same genre, tried to achieve very different things

Tolkien liked to appeal to emotions and basically wrote about legends with simple yet fundamental teachings, Martin wrote about a gritty, realistic world with complex characters and plots, apples and oranges

If we just talk about quality, Martin's prose is clearly weaker, but there's no reason in making fun of the sex scenes or the "sunset found her squatting" scene. They are there for a particular reason, if Martin wants you to see how pitiful Daenerys' situation is he will straight up write about her fucking diarrhea, or should he have used metaphors for that?