Martin learned to write cliffhangers and churn drama from soap operas. Throw in endless puerility and shock and you get GoT.
His work is successful for the same reason horror films and porno are successful. We all understand that exploiting the Id is an easy way to make a buck but that makes him a lowbrow, b-movie hack at best.
He did work on Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast (with Linda Hamilton), but he was writing long before that. I would argue that he learned more from comics. But that's kind of neither here nor there.
Have you read the books? They are very different from the HBO show, and the show is far more salacious. Puerility? Not too much of that. Shock? Yes, there were some shocking scenes, but those were more shocking for what happened rather than being pornographic. I'd say what was shocking more than anything was that in the vast majority of fantasy novels, main characters don't die. If they do die, their character arc was clearly leading there.
I have read the books and didn't find the show meaningfully different, other than the books have vastly more pages devoted to food (which is just another indulgence--gluttony). The show did leave out the pointless, over-the-top pornographic lesbo subplot with Circe.
I came to my conclusion about the story before a single minute of footage was shot: "Enjoy the first season as a tragedy but don't expect much in the long run, Martin has no plan and is just churning drama for shock value and porn."
Sorry but "the show ruined the perfect books" is a fanboy cope.
Sorry but "the show ruined the perfect books" is a fanboy cope.
Not sure who would say that. Certainly not me. I posted elsewhere in this thread that I do, or did, legitimately really like the first 3 books. Books 4 and 5 I've only read once. I'm not sure I'll ever finish the series.
My point was not that the books were perfect, but that the accusations of GRRM being all about porn and murderporn etc come more from the TV show than the books.
As for whether he knows where things are ending up? I doubt it. Especially the popular reaction to whatever happened in the TV series. I stopped watching that after season 3, so I'm in the dark.
Martin learned to write cliffhangers and churn drama from soap operas. Throw in endless puerility and shock and you get GoT.
His work is successful for the same reason horror films and porno are successful. We all understand that exploiting the Id is an easy way to make a buck but that makes him a lowbrow, b-movie hack at best.
He did work on Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast (with Linda Hamilton), but he was writing long before that. I would argue that he learned more from comics. But that's kind of neither here nor there.
Have you read the books? They are very different from the HBO show, and the show is far more salacious. Puerility? Not too much of that. Shock? Yes, there were some shocking scenes, but those were more shocking for what happened rather than being pornographic. I'd say what was shocking more than anything was that in the vast majority of fantasy novels, main characters don't die. If they do die, their character arc was clearly leading there.
I have read the books and didn't find the show meaningfully different, other than the books have vastly more pages devoted to food (which is just another indulgence--gluttony). The show did leave out the pointless, over-the-top pornographic lesbo subplot with Circe.
I came to my conclusion about the story before a single minute of footage was shot: "Enjoy the first season as a tragedy but don't expect much in the long run, Martin has no plan and is just churning drama for shock value and porn."
Sorry but "the show ruined the perfect books" is a fanboy cope.
Not sure who would say that. Certainly not me. I posted elsewhere in this thread that I do, or did, legitimately really like the first 3 books. Books 4 and 5 I've only read once. I'm not sure I'll ever finish the series.
My point was not that the books were perfect, but that the accusations of GRRM being all about porn and murderporn etc come more from the TV show than the books.
As for whether he knows where things are ending up? I doubt it. Especially the popular reaction to whatever happened in the TV series. I stopped watching that after season 3, so I'm in the dark.