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uberreinigerFascinating article on Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, the fans who are obsessed with him, and the former fans who are also obsessed with him.
My icon is an accurate depiction of what Martin's detractors apparently think he does instead of writing his next novel :) Actually, this article is a little scary to read. An active community has banded together to wage war against an author who writes slowly... because they love him? I haven't visited the anti-Martin sites in question, but just reading this article makes the venom plain to see.
Then again, Martin's happy fans are on-record as being willing to dumpster dive for barbecue leftovers in the middle of the night in order to appease him so they may not be the most stable bunch either. In that light it's easy to see how the degeneration could happen when one of them feels jilted by his lack of progress.
I agree with the statement that it's an effect of the entitlement culture. And it's also the way our culture looks at celebrities, (or even people who are just celebrities to us.) People think they're entitled to some piece of them and are indignant when they don't get it.
Oh, and apparently everyone thinks it's just okay to refer to an author dying before a work is finished as "pulling a Jordan." Does anyone besides me find that not only insulting to a writer like Martin, but also to Robert Jordan as well? It carries an implication that Jordan somehow chose to die. Or was irresponsible in his career and chose not to make finishing his books a priority before his life ran out. Or even that his death was somehow a great big "fuck you" to everyone eagerly eyeballing the money they have set aside for the day in the future when he finally created and released a "Snakes and Foxes" game for the Nintendo DS. Nevermind the fact that by all accounts Jordan's drive to finish The Wheel of Time was what kept him going through the final years of a truly agonizing and debilitating illness.
Makes me almost glad I'm not a famous writer with a rabid fanbase. I don't even think my readership reaches far into the double digits. And I don't know what I would do if five of them hated the other five.
My icon is an accurate depiction of what Martin's detractors apparently think he does instead of writing his next novel :) Actually, this article is a little scary to read. An active community has banded together to wage war against an author who writes slowly... because they love him? I haven't visited the anti-Martin sites in question, but just reading this article makes the venom plain to see.
Then again, Martin's happy fans are on-record as being willing to dumpster dive for barbecue leftovers in the middle of the night in order to appease him so they may not be the most stable bunch either. In that light it's easy to see how the degeneration could happen when one of them feels jilted by his lack of progress.
I agree with the statement that it's an effect of the entitlement culture. And it's also the way our culture looks at celebrities, (or even people who are just celebrities to us.) People think they're entitled to some piece of them and are indignant when they don't get it.
Oh, and apparently everyone thinks it's just okay to refer to an author dying before a work is finished as "pulling a Jordan." Does anyone besides me find that not only insulting to a writer like Martin, but also to Robert Jordan as well? It carries an implication that Jordan somehow chose to die. Or was irresponsible in his career and chose not to make finishing his books a priority before his life ran out. Or even that his death was somehow a great big "fuck you" to everyone eagerly eyeballing the money they have set aside for the day in the future when he finally created and released a "Snakes and Foxes" game for the Nintendo DS. Nevermind the fact that by all accounts Jordan's drive to finish The Wheel of Time was what kept him going through the final years of a truly agonizing and debilitating illness.
Makes me almost glad I'm not a famous writer with a rabid fanbase. I don't even think my readership reaches far into the double digits. And I don't know what I would do if five of them hated the other five.
