(urth) The Book of the New Sun vs. A Song of Ice and Fire

Jerry Friedman jerry_friedman at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 1 18:43:47 PDT 2012


> From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at clueland.com>

> On 8/1/2012 1:19 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
...

>>  The Society for Creative Anachronism likes to say that it recreates
>>  "the middle ages as they should have been." Martin describes a
>>  medieval fantasy world as it really would have been.
> 
> Sort of: 
> http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/07/08/game-of-thrones-author-george-r-r-martin-spills-the-secrets-of-a-dance-with-dragons/
> 
> 
> "You once said that fantasy needs to reflect reality. Can you explain what 
> you meant by that?
> 
> Well, I think all fiction needs to reflect reality. Fiction is lies, we’re 
> writing about people who never existed and events that never happened when we 
> write fiction, whether its science fiction or fantasy or western mystery stories 
> or so-called literary stories. All those things are essentially untrue. But it 
> has to have a truth at the core of it. You’re still writing about people, you’re 
> writing about the human condition. I often quote Faulkner, who said in his 
> speech after winning the Nobel Prize that 'the human heart in conflict with 
> itself' is the only thing worth writing about. And I’ve always agreed with 
> that. It’s true no matter what genre you’re writing in, even if there are 
> dragons in it or it’s about a private detective or a western gunslinger, it’s 
> still ultimately about the human heart in conflict with itself or it’s not worth 
> reading."
> 
> Apparently, the history and other fantastic parts are implausibly grandeurous 
> intentionally because they exist only to serve the realistic characters and 
> plot.


I don't see in that quotation that he says why the series has fantastic parts, much less what their "only" purpose is.  I also don't think "a truth at the core of it" is necessarily the same as "realistic characters and plot."

Jerry Friedman



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