AFFC Critique #1: The Nicknames

[grrrm]

Greetings and happy holidays to all.  Sorry for the delay in posting, but as you can probably understand, Joey and I have quite a busy holiday season, what with all the family functions, mall openings, and rehab reunions to attend.  But as promised, here is the first in what will probably be many critiques on various aspects of The Incredible Bulk'

Comments

Brilliant!

[sam_crecelius]

Outstanding writing. I agree that there are way to many dang nicknames flying around Westeros these days. BTW, that bit of 'Fan Fiction' becomes even more amusing if you substitute 'Liotta' for Euron and 'Pesci' for Andrik. :)

Brilliant!!

[steady_01]

I was looking forward to this review because I knew it would be a hoot!

The aggravating part is that when there are characters that have a name and a nickname, and these names get used interchangeably, you've got twice as many people to remember! Aaargh!

In the first three books I'd turn the page and see the chapter name of a character I really didn't care about, usually Bran, and mutter to myself. In AFfC, every other chapter was somebody new AND somebody I didn't care about. Good god! I hope he knows where he's going with this. I have a sneaking suspicion that by the end we'll have POV characters that just get left dangling out there because he really didn't need them and wasted a bunch of ink and time with them. Hopefully it's not a case where he has no plot line so he makes up a new character every other chapter.

The Twins at the Twins

[sweetmartin]

-i am not an bastard.said Walder Frey
-i know,said his twin Walder Frey,to his right side.
-and neither me,bellowed Walder Rivers
-now i think,i am confused.who was your father again?.asked Walder Rivers on the left side at Walder Frey
-of course,Lord Walder Frey.answered Walder Rivers.
-no, not that way,you must ask who is his mother.suggested Walder Frey the eldest
-enough with this,shrieked Lord Walder Frey,.now all Rivers please stand up and leave.he commanded.but nobody moved or react.he waited a bit and rubbed his temples,then he shouted
-you there you are surely not a Frey
-you mean me asked Walder Rivers and stand up
-no,not you mean that one behind you,you can sit
-but i am the one of the twins,i am not an bastard.cried out Walder Frey
-it is true?asked Walder Frey turning himself to his wife
-i dont know he is not one of mines,i mean not the twins

Re: The Twins at the Twins

[sweetmartin]

what i meant with that example of the Freys is that george dont know who is who in westeros.there is so many persons he must act.
he forget the half of them,and ever he make an rewrite he discovers new flaws.
and there we are,a full stuffed man with half of his mind.
he need help to storage the memory.and who can that be?

i heard at westeros(?) are many bastards.

[anonymous]

Going to have to disagree with you on this one. Surnames in the Western sense did not come into widespread use until the last few centuries. Certainly in the Middle Ages pretty much no one used them, not even nobles, who mostly relied on geographical indicators which later became surnames in their own rights (de, von, etc followed by a place name.) Nicknames would probably have been in fairly widespread use as way of distinguishing people, especially since many names were chosen from a fairly narrow range and no one made up fake names like Skyler or DeShaunte. Also, I used to be a specialist in ancient Middle Eastern languages and I can tell you that many names in inscriptions were actually nicknames ("Hairy" "Fat" "Sharp-nosed" "Cow" and so on

the main criticism is not about the validity of the naming system

[anonymous]

it's just the excessive use of various names and nicknames that make certain characters virtually impossible to keep track of. sure it may be historically similar, but historical symmetry does not equal clear writing.

Re: the main criticism is not about the validity of the naming system

[anonymous]

In response to this I can only say that real life is messy and repetitive. It's a skilled (and in this case fat, self-indulgent and profiteering) writer who captures that disarray rather than prettying it up for the sake of consumption. The more a novel strives to do this rather than churn out another sterile, well- ordered, paint by numbers fantasy, the better. The criticism is still off-base.

Re: the main criticism is not about the validity of the naming system

[grrrm]

Yet again, I have to make this point: this is NOT real life. People who attempt to argue for "historical accuracy" in these novels seem to ignore the fact that they involve dragons, the walking dead, and castles that were somehow engineered to stand on top of mountain peaks

[anonymous]

Call the attorneys! Livejournal is about to get shut down for this egregious and appalling fan-fic!

Now where's my trencher of lamb haunch dripping with juices?

DocAnon