Why You're Wrong if You're Mad at George R. R. Martin
How many children did Scarlett O'Hara have?
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How many children did Scarlett O'Hara have?
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Why You're Wrong if You're Mad at George R. R. Martin
- Thread starter s0osleepie
- Start date
The TV series doesn't follow the books directly, but that doesn't mean what happens in the show won't happen in the books to come, which is why people were angry over a certain thing Stannis does at the end of season 5. Likewise I'm a little annoyed that there have been some spoilers over the cliffhanger that the 5th book ends on. Just as I 'spoiled' the TV series for myself by reading the books, I can now potentially spoil the books for myself by watching the TV show. I know I'd be reading the books thinking 'is this event going to happen?', just as I was when I watched the show. Since I find the TV show inferior to the books in many ways, I'm not going to watch season 6 until after the book comes out.
That said, I'm not angry at GRRM for being a slow writer. Being a fan of large fantasy series means you have to be a little patient (Looking at you, Brandon Sanderson). At least he's actively writing the next book, unlike Patrick Bloody Rothfuss who took a long break to write a dull, badly written story from the point of view of a minor character in his series and then made condescending remarks towards the people who didn't like it.
That said, I'm not angry at GRRM for being a slow writer. Being a fan of large fantasy series means you have to be a little patient (Looking at you, Brandon Sanderson). At least he's actively writing the next book, unlike Patrick Bloody Rothfuss who took a long break to write a dull, badly written story from the point of view of a minor character in his series and then made condescending remarks towards the people who didn't like it.
I learned my lesson from the wheel of time series and am only going to be partially invested in the book series until its finished. Frankly GRRM is an old, and overweight guy and if its going to take him a 5 year span to get each of these books out I'm not going to hold my breath that he wont pass away or have age and health related complications prevent him from finishing the series.
It's definitely a catch-22 either way you look at it, but since reading the book didn't ruin the show for me, I doubt watching the show will ruin the books since the books are WAY more complex, as Martin spelled out in his blog post after the spoiler warning.Fractral said:
This news really doesn't bother me.
I didn't plan on reading the books until the TV series is over anyways. I want to judge for myself for the quality of both rather than a bunch of people telling me one way or the other. I mean, I love the LoTR books, and I think the movies are just as good.
I don't know why this has to be a competition since you can always ignore one medium if you don't like it. I would much rather GRRM write the book and finish the series when it's up to his standards and not just to make deadlines and come up with something half-baked.
Then again, this will always be an issue when there's an adaptation involved and the original material is super complex. Not everyone is gonna be pleased, so it's just something you have to deal with.
I didn't plan on reading the books until the TV series is over anyways. I want to judge for myself for the quality of both rather than a bunch of people telling me one way or the other. I mean, I love the LoTR books, and I think the movies are just as good.
I don't know why this has to be a competition since you can always ignore one medium if you don't like it. I would much rather GRRM write the book and finish the series when it's up to his standards and not just to make deadlines and come up with something half-baked.
Then again, this will always be an issue when there's an adaptation involved and the original material is super complex. Not everyone is gonna be pleased, so it's just something you have to deal with.
You should all be grateful. Keep this up and he'll get addicted to idol master for 8 years. Then come complain to me.
Seriously, though, the creative process can't be forced. It's not like other kinds of work. It takes a while to get things just right. Trust me, you don't want a rushed product.
Seriously, though, the creative process can't be forced. It's not like other kinds of work. It takes a while to get things just right. Trust me, you don't want a rushed product.
Everyone's wrong if they're mad at the creator of the material they like for any other material they make or the speed in which they make it. No one should claim ownership of someone else's material.
Most of the films in the AFI top 100 greatest films list would be crucified by the literary community. I'm not sure where people get their high horses from.Charcharo said:*In retrospect, I can only laugh at cinema critics like Roger Ebert claiming that video games are not an art form when their own fledgling passion is barely one either... some literature elitist or critic should have reminded him about that... such is life*
The show is too soap opera for me. I stopped watching after the first season. The books are hit and miss, but the actual prose are quite good. I'll probably put the series away until Martin is finished.
I don't have any problems with the show catching up to the books at all. I'll enjoy watching season 6 of GoT and when the next book is finally released, I'll enjoy it too. It's really a totally different experience to watch the series or to be immersed in the books. Sure, the big plot twists, like the red wedding, will only impact you the first time round, but... actually, no. If I think about it, watching that on TV was still shocking even though I knew what would happen.
Somehow, it's the same story, but I think it's two different experiences. Nothing is lost by watching or reading one before the other.
Anyhow, I'm in no rush to read the next book. I think I'll wait until the final book is released and then re-read the whole thing again from the start, after some time has passed and I can allocate a significant amount of me-time for it.
Somehow, it's the same story, but I think it's two different experiences. Nothing is lost by watching or reading one before the other.
Anyhow, I'm in no rush to read the next book. I think I'll wait until the final book is released and then re-read the whole thing again from the start, after some time has passed and I can allocate a significant amount of me-time for it.
There are 3 approaches when adapting something that is still coming out that I will refer to as Japanime that followed them:
1. Dragon Ball: It's coming out, but we want to faithfully adapt it so we drag out a ton of scenes and write a lot of filler episodes. It may become tolerable when an edited down version is released by fans, and decades later you make an official edited down version.
2. Full Metal Alchemist classic: Catch up to the print, and then diverge to do something wonderfully amazing.
3. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: Slavishly follow the source material regardless of how terrible the result.
The correct answer is 2.
Disclaimer: I have not read/watched anything Game of Thrones, and have no interest in ever doing so.
1. Dragon Ball: It's coming out, but we want to faithfully adapt it so we drag out a ton of scenes and write a lot of filler episodes. It may become tolerable when an edited down version is released by fans, and decades later you make an official edited down version.
2. Full Metal Alchemist classic: Catch up to the print, and then diverge to do something wonderfully amazing.
3. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: Slavishly follow the source material regardless of how terrible the result.
The correct answer is 2.
Disclaimer: I have not read/watched anything Game of Thrones, and have no interest in ever doing so.
If you haven't seen the show or read the books, how would you know which method is the correct one? Different adaptations may require different approaches.Souplex said:
The books were an interesting read sure, but if you cut 50% of the content, the narrative wouldn't suffer for it. While the show has had a few missteps, it has presented a much more coherent story than the books.
You know what happens when you keep pressuring an author to hurry up? You get an author who quits.
So shut up, you insipid morons, or you won't ever get what you're whining for. (Of course, you'd whine about that too.)
[small]"Insipid morons" referring to the whiners, of course.[/small]
So shut up, you insipid morons, or you won't ever get what you're whining for. (Of course, you'd whine about that too.)
[small]"Insipid morons" referring to the whiners, of course.[/small]
I'm not angry at him, since I understand that these sorts of things take a lot of time, and the pressure must be enormous, but that doesn't mean I'm not disappointing. I have a complicated relationship with the show in that I can thank it for introducing me to ASoIaF, but I feel that last season was rather meh, and I have to wonder how the next season will be.
The problem is, you can't really avoid spoilers for GoT indefinitely, since it's absolutely massive at this point and a lot of people have a strangely short period of time when dealing with spoilers. So you either spoil the books by watching the show, or you spoil the show and the books by watching neither and having some dickhead on the internet give plot points away. And yes, despite how much they're saying the show and the books will diverge, there are plenty of aspects that are applicable to both.
With that said, I have to wonder how bloated this next book will be. Perhaps it wouldn't take him so long to write if he cut out a lot of the fat.
The problem is, you can't really avoid spoilers for GoT indefinitely, since it's absolutely massive at this point and a lot of people have a strangely short period of time when dealing with spoilers. So you either spoil the books by watching the show, or you spoil the show and the books by watching neither and having some dickhead on the internet give plot points away. And yes, despite how much they're saying the show and the books will diverge, there are plenty of aspects that are applicable to both.
With that said, I have to wonder how bloated this next book will be. Perhaps it wouldn't take him so long to write if he cut out a lot of the fat.
I'm all right with this. Honestly, I chalk Game of Thrones up as one of the few examples (hell, maybe the only one I can think of) where the movie (or in this case TV series) is better than the book.
I finished all the GoT books before I ever watched the show, and although there were a few things I missed them cutting from the books (such as Strong Belwas), overall most of the stuff the show cut out seems like stuff that could have been axed from Martin's books and the overall story wouldn't have missed a beat. By around book 4 and 5, I remember increasingly asking myself "what the hell is the point of this character, and why have we devoted 100 pages to them?".
I finished all the GoT books before I ever watched the show, and although there were a few things I missed them cutting from the books (such as Strong Belwas), overall most of the stuff the show cut out seems like stuff that could have been axed from Martin's books and the overall story wouldn't have missed a beat. By around book 4 and 5, I remember increasingly asking myself "what the hell is the point of this character, and why have we devoted 100 pages to them?".