(urth) The Book of the New Sun vs. A Song of Ice and Fire
Jerry Friedman
jerry_friedman at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 1 18:48:55 PDT 2012
> From: Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>
>> 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."
Even "reflect reality" isn't necessarily the same as "realistic characters and plot", I'd say, especially not the "plot" part, though it's closer than the phrase I mentioned above. Sorry I didn't notice that before.
Jerry Friedman
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