Wait Wait...Back Up
So I'm browsing the news, looking for information to add to this increasingly-irrelevant blog, and I stumble across this article. And at first, I'm unstunned (what's the opposite of stunned? Is that it?) to find out that George and his marketing machine have found a new way to turn what was once a relatively strong mainstay of the fantasy lit world into a shlocky self-parody. If you, yes YOU, would like to fondle some faux-silken doublets from season one of AGOT, look no further than the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. Because you know, a one-season HBO series clearly counts as a cultural icon in line with Tim Burton and Grace Kelly, two others who have had exhibits on them at the Lightbox.
Maybe I'm a bit cynical, but years of waking up in obscure motel showers with hooker blood and mysteriously fragrant semen all over you will do that to a person. But watching this video, I'm sort of stunned at the cold, antiseptic-like space they decided to do such a thing in. Looking around the room, you'd think they were displaying priceless treasures of kings long forgotten, rather than a few outfits that a bunch of TV folk wear.
However, while reading the article, I had to take a moment and reread this particular ditty:
“When the first novel came out, no one was waiting for it,” Martin allows. “I wasn’t getting any emails as I now get every day about ‘Where is the next novel?’ and ‘Could you please hurry up?’ and ‘Why are you going to Los Angeles when you should be home working on the novel?’
“So yes, the situation has changed somewhat. Then again, that’s every novelist’s dream. I mean, the vast majority of novelists in this country, be they science-fiction novelists or mystery novelists or mainstream novelists, labour on their books for years, and no one cares whether they turn it in or not, and then they’re published to total obscurity.
“My problems are very nice problems to have, and I appreciate them and the fans, the readers.”
Soooo...just to clarify: is George saying that all of the arguments we've had over this issue over the years are a good thing? Is he possibly noting that it's okay for people to expect him to get his shit done? Or that maybe respecting your fans by not treating them like cash cows is a step in the right direction?
Probably not. But a boy can dare to dream. Of hookers.
Maybe I'm a bit cynical, but years of waking up in obscure motel showers with hooker blood and mysteriously fragrant semen all over you will do that to a person. But watching this video, I'm sort of stunned at the cold, antiseptic-like space they decided to do such a thing in. Looking around the room, you'd think they were displaying priceless treasures of kings long forgotten, rather than a few outfits that a bunch of TV folk wear.
However, while reading the article, I had to take a moment and reread this particular ditty:
“When the first novel came out, no one was waiting for it,” Martin allows. “I wasn’t getting any emails as I now get every day about ‘Where is the next novel?’ and ‘Could you please hurry up?’ and ‘Why are you going to Los Angeles when you should be home working on the novel?’
“So yes, the situation has changed somewhat. Then again, that’s every novelist’s dream. I mean, the vast majority of novelists in this country, be they science-fiction novelists or mystery novelists or mainstream novelists, labour on their books for years, and no one cares whether they turn it in or not, and then they’re published to total obscurity.
“My problems are very nice problems to have, and I appreciate them and the fans, the readers.”
Soooo...just to clarify: is George saying that all of the arguments we've had over this issue over the years are a good thing? Is he possibly noting that it's okay for people to expect him to get his shit done? Or that maybe respecting your fans by not treating them like cash cows is a step in the right direction?
Probably not. But a boy can dare to dream. Of hookers.