[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 44 KB, 413x412, George-RR-Martin-thumb.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8112843 No.8112843 [Reply] [Original]

Is he right?

>Ruling is hard. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it’s not that simple. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles?

>The war that Tolkien wrote about was a war for the fate of civilization and the future of humanity, and that’s become the template. I’m not sure that it’s a good template, though. The Tolkien model led generations of fantasy writers to produce these endless series of dark lords and their evil minions who are all very ugly and wear black clothes. But the vast majority of wars throughout history are not like that.

>> No.8112874

>>8112843
This fat fuck needs to read more history.

>> No.8112877

This thread is better than the Ann Coulter thread currently on the front page, so here's your bump.

Yes, he is right. Tolkien wrote a fantasy with realist elements. Gurm writes realism with fantasy elements.

>> No.8112882
File: 1.09 MB, 5000x5000, 1343384242476.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8112882

>>8112877
>Gurm writes realism

>> No.8114475

>>8112874
He did read a lot of history and it shows. It's just that Tolkien cared about mythology, not history.

>> No.8114481

>>8112882
>5000x5000
for what purpose

>> No.8114496

>>8112843
Tell us about how your seasons work in Westeros, fatty, along with crop production and storage to deal with it

>> No.8114509

>>8114496
>author invents fantastical meteorological patterns but not fantastical crops that can deal with questions surrounding how that's supposed to work

Sanderson gets it, you just double down on the fantasy whenever it looks like it doesn't make sense.

>> No.8114538

Just keep posting this shit thread

>> No.8114562
File: 34 KB, 600x342, c86.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8114562

>>8112843
>Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles?

You're damn right you do!

>> No.8114660
File: 22 KB, 253x310, 1461276883901.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8114660

>>8112843
>But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy?

I'd really like to know how taxes are paid in GURM's world. There are absolutely no mentions of tax collection, or peasants' income, or the value of commodities, or any of that. It is never mentioned at all. He has no fucking clue how medieval economies functioned or how medieval governments raised funds, but because there's some rape and looting and some people talk about how horrible their lives are, people think he knows what he's on about.

>>8114475

Lol.