George RR Martin to his detractors

[Mark]

Ouch! I can't believe someone would email this to him.

But I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

GRRM is his 151.

 

[Dire Bare]

Your position is the other extreme. Martin isn't "poor" by any means. He's experienced success at a level most writers will only dream of. Any hassles he gets from fans disappointed fans--the "losers" who provided him with financial security--is more than compensated for by the perks of being a bestselling author and having actualized his personal dreams. Quantitatively speaking, celebrities are amongst the least deserving of pity.

Buh? I think it was pretty clear I didn't mean "poor" from a financial perspective. I agree that Martin is a talented and successful writer who probably makes pretty good money (although, probably not as much as you might think).

I don't care if the guy sleeps on a solid gold mattress or a piece of cardboard under a bridge . . . . he's an artist, not a machine whose purpose is to crank out fiction upon demand. He's also human, and doesn't deserve that level of hassle.

Does it go with the territory? Cranky fans filled with nerdrage harrassing an author who doesn't dance to their every whim? Maybe. Probably. Doesn't make it right.

Can he handle it? Well, obviously it bothered him enough to vent on his personal blog (or, not-a-blog). But I imagine overall he'll do just fine.

So? Doesn't change the fact (well, fact IMO) that his detractors are out of line and most definitely "losers" (again, IMO, of course).

I don't buy the crap that celebrities don't deserve pity. Because Tom Cruise is rich and successful beyond imagining gives the paparazzi (and the overly curious public they serve) the "okay" to follow every detail of his personal life, and that of his wife and child? Does John Travolta deserve little to no pity over the death of his son, and the relentless media coverage of the tragedy? Does Anna Nichole Smith deserve no pity for the tragic mess her life became, ending with the death of her son and then her own too-soon-demise?

Or, to bring it back down to a scale similar to GRRM's issues with detractors, does George Lucas deserve all the ire from fanboys over his decision to take the Star Wars franchise in a direction different from what many of us would have preferred (i.e. more kid-friendly, kid-focused)? (heh, I'm sure to catch some hell myself for a defense of Lucas!)

All I can say to that attitude is, "Whatever, dude."

 

[Merkuri]

While I know of GRRM, I'm not familiar with Ice and Fire.

Is it a bunch of stand alone self-contained books, or is there an ongoing story that - and this is the important part - has yet to be completed?

As others have said, it's an ongoing story. What's more, the previous book was only half of a book. What he's writing now is the second half. It was split in half by character/location, so each book will cover the same time frame, but deals with characters in different locales. I was really disappointed when I got to the end of book four only to discover that only one of my favorite characters had been in it and that I had to wait for the next book to discover what happened to them during the same time period.

I wouldn't say that book four was bad, but I kept hoping that the next chapter would show what Denerys or Jon or Tyrian were up to and then finally I got that note at the end that basically said, "Fooled you! This isn't the whole book!"

I'm distanced from it now, since I finished reading it a year or so ago, but at the time I was absolutely dying for the next book. I could imagine that some less mature fans would make death threats after finding out they had to wait to find out what happened to their favorite characters, having heard nothing except tiny hints about them in the entire (long) forth book.

Whether splitting the book like that was a bad decision or not remains to be seen. I'm holding my judgment until I get the fifth book on my iPod.

 

[Simplicity]

Personally, I think he should finish the darn book already.
Book 1: 1996.
Book 2: 1998.
Book 3: 2000.
Book 4: 2005.
Book 5: 2009?

4-5 years between books is too much to expect your fans to wait and still expect them to be your fans...

 

[Krug]

Personally, I think he should finish the darn book already.
Book 1: 1996.
Book 2: 1998.
Book 3: 2000.
Book 4: 2005.
Book 5: 2009?

4-5 years between books is too much to expect your fans to wait and still expect them to be your fans...

I'm fine with it.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'm fine with it.

I've moved on.

I hold no grudges against the man, but I no longer care about the series. I hope he takes care of himself, does what he likes, and lives a good life. But I'm bored with waiting and I've lost interest. I'll touch the books again when the series is finished.

 

[Hammerhead]

I don't care if the guy sleeps on a solid gold mattress or a piece of cardboard under a bridge . . . . he's an artist, not a machine whose purpose is to crank out fiction upon demand. He's also human, and doesn't deserve that level of hassle.

A machine to crank out fiction upon demand? He's a writer. It's his job. If for some reason I stop doing my job, I expect those to whom I had made a commitment to be rather upset (and probably demand some kind of compensation). By starting a fantasy series, Martin has a commitment to his fans, especially the ones who evidently like his books* enough to hang out on his message boards (and presumably evangelize his books to others) to end it in a timely and quality manner.

*Quick Note: I don't like Martin's books, and I don't understand why so many people do. So I don't have a whole lot of personal investment in whether or not Song of Ice and Fire gets finished; I just think people should do their jobs.

 

[Mouseferatu]

That might mean people have the right to be upset. It does not mean people have the right to be screamingly rude or treat him like crap.

 

[Krug]

A machine to crank out fiction upon demand? He's a writer. It's his job. If for some reason I stop doing my job, I expect those to whom I had made a commitment to be rather upset (and probably demand some kind of compensation). By starting a fantasy series, Martin has a commitment to his fans, especially the ones who evidently like his books* enough to hang out on his message boards (and presumably evangelize his books to others) to end it in a timely and quality manner.

*Quick Note: I don't like Martin's books, and I don't understand why so many people do. So I don't have a whole lot of personal investment in whether or not Song of Ice and Fire gets finished; I just think people should do their jobs.

His job is to write, and he is writing, such as books in the Wildcard Universe. So it's not A Song of Ice and Fire that's coming out, but he is working on it. Doesn't he own the readers of his other works, some of who might not like ASoIaF, as well?

 

[Remus Lupin]

Again: Writing. Is. Hard.

Seriously, how many novels have his detractors written? Sure, there are lots of folks who churn out dreck for a living, in large part because they're done on a work for hire basis.

I hope we have higher expectations of this series. It's not R. A. Salvatore after all.