The Holidays Malaise

[grrrm]

Yeah, I know the title is grammatically incorrect, but it flows better, so I'm sticking with it.  But actually, there's very little malaise in these parts, as it's been a rather festive holiday season for Pesci and myself (read: prostitutes and cocaine mountains).  Of course, with the many distractions of the holiday season, time to sit down and

Comments

"Guess all of us who've been reading for the past decade weren't enough of a reason."

[sackobooks]

If you ask me, an artist whose primary motivation to create is a desire to please their fans doesn't really understand their job. Some of the best moments in stories that I've read have been the ones that have really pissed me off and made me hate the author(s). Ned Stark's death is actually an excellent example of this: despite being quite unpopular (I have heard several people say they were leaving the series because he was their favourite character), it was the right way to end his storyline and arguably serves as a defining moment in the series. If an author starts thinking first that they should do something because their fans want it, they start second-guessing their creative instincts, and the result of following those is probably what made their fans like them in the first place. None of this is to say that an artist should not be motivated by a desire to please their fans, but by no means should it be their primary motivation (secondary or tertiary, perhaps).

So yeah, 'the fans want it' is, in my opinion, not enough of a

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[ext_752240]

Some of this about "art for art's sake" might be true if he were really interested in creating a literary behemoth, but come on, it's A Song of Ice and Fire we're talking about. For every emotionally invested moment there is a scene of somebody we'd never want to read about having freaky sex having freaky sex.

What I'm saying is Martin ain't no Guy Gavriel Kay or Ursula K. Leguin.

Nobody has taken (much) issue with how Martin plots the story (probably the biggest is we spend too much time with tertiary characters, but I personally like that part, some people complain about it), only that he failed to plot at all for such an extended length of time.

Oh, and A Dance with Dragons had way too much tablesetting. Kind of started to grate how much he was putting stuff off happening.

Re: "Guess all of us who've been reading for the past decade weren't enough of a reason."

[sackobooks]

The primary goal of an artist should always be to create art for its own sake, no matter what the overall quality of their work (which is not to say that they should not accept advice from other quarters, only that they should not prize it above their own opinion). In fact, following this principle seems to me to be one of the best ways to weed out any deficiencies in a work.

The problems with 'A Dance With Dragons' actually serve as an good example of this: the book was apparently edited with extreme haste in an attempt to get it out to the fanbase as quickly as possible. If he and his editor had taken more time to examine the manuscript (and been much more courageous with the figurative scalpel), a lot of the repetitive prose and sluggish storylines could have been cut, and the book would probably have been much better.

Motivation

[elmobob14]

George wasn't motivated by anything, art or otherwise. He clearly likes the limelight, which would probably disappear after another five year delay.

Where are you finding this release date Liotta?

Re: Motivation

[grrrm]

Sorry, corrections noted. But my anger still exists.

Release date

[anonymous]

I saw in Not a Blog that the paperback ADwD is slated for July '12. Maybe that is what you meant? BUT IT INCLUDES ANOTHER tWoW CHAPTER! So, the fat one wants us to go out and buy his book twice. Hey, at least we're all caught up on what he had written for Dance!

publishing day correction

[anonymous]

Actually, what July 2012 isn't the publication date for the Winds of Winter but for the paperback edition of A Dance with Dragons.

[dark_haru]