Flares the Beef?
I know that many of you have already commented on this, but I have to weigh in.
"I decided to take a break from tearing and fumbling at the Meereenese knot, and completed a chapter about another character today. A character who is very far from Meereen.
Finishing the chapter felt good. Especially since it also completed that character's arc for the book. Admittedly, she has only two chapters in DANCE, so I am not sending up any flares. But hey, I'm done with one of them for the present, that's something.
Only thirty-eight more POVs to wrap up..."
Now, I'm not really interested in the 38 POVs comment. What I am interested in is the depressingly mediocre diction GRRM slogs on his blog (hey, it's rhyme time!) to let us know that he finished a chapter on some meaningless -- and yeah, I'm putting that one out there right now -- character. Here's what I'm reading into that post:
- First off, the fact that he feels the need to tell me it "felt good" makes me ill. To be honest, the thought of anything making George jiggle in his jumpers makes me ill.
- Second, and more importantly, any character who only gets two POV chapters for an entire novel doesn't need any POV chapters at all
Am I right, or am I right? Because the way I look at it, two POV chapters for somebody means that I'm either going to get the POV of "The Orphan in the Alley," or I'll be getting some sort of half-assed access to a major character's thoughts. I mean, I like the switching of the POVs in general in the first three books, but if you start letting me into everybody's brain, the suspense is pretty much kaput.
The one metaphor of his I do like is “sending up flares,” because if there was ever somebody in need of emergency ass-istance, it’s George. Maybe Ray Bradbury could come out of retirement and crank out a few dozen chapters to ADWD in the next few days.
Also, Pesci is a lazy bitch.