More "Game of Thrones Fun"... unless you're the guy who writes it.

[uberreiniger]

Fascinating 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.

Comments

[adele87.livejournal.com]

Was good to talk to you last night....I actually have a question for you that I'd like your advice on when you get a chance.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Was good to talk to you too. I'll help if I can.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the article yet but I agree that the "pulling a Jordan" business is in bad taste.

I still remember when Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers and the message board I was reading was full of people wishing other authors had contracted it instead. And it really made me furious, among other reasons because I'm sure he wouldn't wish it on anybody else.

Which isn't that relevant except in a "book fans can be assholes too" sort of way but I've been wanting to rant about it for ages.

Anyway, the weird thing about me is that I loved George R. R. Martin back when he wrote science fiction short stories and to be honest I wish he was still doing that. I loved those stories! As for a Song of Ice and Fire I read the first book in the series and my thought process was basically "This was a great book but he's just going to put these characters through more and more hell and there will be a bookshelf full of it and I'm going to stop at one."

But eh, that's me.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I just think it's cool he wrote on the TV series "Beauty and the Beast." I loved that show!

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

As a Robert Jordan fan I find that offensive.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Me too. When Jordan died my first thought was not "damn, now I don't get to find out what happens!" It was great sadness for him because he didn't get to be the one to show us what happened. Maybe he had accepted what was happening and was at peace with it when he went, but I can't imagine he didn't pass with great sadness for what he might have done just the same. Now it's just a cheap insult to throw at writers based on their age. "You better not die on me, old man! I'm not done with you yet." I don't know how Martin manages to carry on with that kind of mentality being thrown at him and still manages to be gracious at all.

[para-xylene.livejournal.com]

That article is one of the most fucked up things I have read in weeks. It actually reminded me a little of Misery.

I think there is a need for conversation about this sort of thing. I have seen some incredibly petty readers in fanfiction communities. Most of the time, the fanfic author isn't very good but they are writing what fans want to see. Some readers get increasingly irate and demanding as the fanfic writer caters to ideas or romantic pairings those readers don't like. That's when things get ugly.

Wish I had more time to reply to this post. :< This is a really thought-provoking entry.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of Misery but yeah, you're right. It is just like that!

I know Stephen King ruffled a lot of feathers among his fans when he went several years between Dark Tower volumes 3 and 4, and then 4 essentially turned out to be a flashback/filler story. The internet wasn't like it is today then. He really dodged a bullet. Come to think of it, he still has had plenty to say about this type of fan over the year. In the introduction to one of his novels he dryly states, "There is a portion of my fanbase who would be perfectly happy if I had died in 1979."

I avoid fanfic for a lot of reasons. But the pettiness and nastiness I've glimpsed doesn't make it inviting. I think people actively enjoy the drama. It's like the old adage about car races: you don't go to see the race. You go to see the crashes.

[para-xylene.livejournal.com]

Heh, I don't even care much for King's work, but Misery freaked me out as a writer. (laugh)

I've been lucky, because my readers have mostly been pretty mature. Mind you, my fanfiction doesn't pander much to the fans of whatever story I'm writing about. I do a little bit of fan service, but most of my fanfiction isn't what I'd call romantic. (laugh) But, still, if you like a work so much, how can you abuse the person that produced it?

I agree that proximity to the author that the internet provides is the main factor in the ratcheting of such tension. Back when there were fan clubs and fanzines, this kind of thing still existed, but not like this.

I hope Martin can ignore this crap and focus on the fans that really do appreciate his work. I can't imagine the sort of anxiety he must feel. The negative fans really seem to be detrimental to his production.

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

To provide a little bit of counterpoint, many of us fans who are simply regular readers who enjoy his books feel betrayed by Martin because he outright lied to us. A Feast for Crows contains a forward promising that the next book was basically finished, and we could expect it within months. It's been 6 years.

The hounding he's taken makes little sense, and it's yet another case where the fanatics ruin it for the more reasonable people, but I at least understand why.

As for Jordan, it is unfortunate that his name has taken on that connotation. Sadly, long before he died his name was synonymous with taking a good, unique, and wonderful story and stretching it out completely unnecessarily for money's sake. Maybe this new interpretation will serve him better.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Sadly, long before he died his name was synonymous with taking a good, unique, and wonderful story and stretching it out completely unnecessarily for money's sake.

Citation needed.

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

I know that you and Adam for some reason stuck with the series through thick and thin, which makes you unique among my friends. Everyone else simply gave up when he released the second book in a row where nothing happens and key characters are missing. He was coasting and reveling in the fact that he had millions of fans who would buy his books regardless of how much they sucked. Which is really sad because those first four books pretty much formed the most consistently great set of fantasy novels ever.

I know that, before his illness was well known, mentioning "Jordan" in SF circles got you mainly a long conversation on how many crap books it took before people gave up on the Wheel of Time series. Those who went more than 6 books in are viewed with pity.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Did Jordan ever say publicly or was overheard privately to say that he was dragging out the series to milk the profits? When you're writing stories have a way of going in their own direction and taking as long as they need to. I've found that happening in my own writing career. My series is getting longer and the story is working better by letting developments occur that are different than what I ever intended... sometimes even by taking focus off of main characters for great lengths of time. I certainly can't say I'm dragging it out for the money because I'm not making any.

Jordan could easily have told the exact same story in three books, five tops. But then it would not be the Wheel of Time and would not achieve the status it has.

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

I think of Jordan the same way I think of Stephen King. Both are tremendously talented, and both need a very good editor to stand behind them during the writing process and shout "Get back on topic!" every so often.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Actually "good" editors are the ones who know better than to do that.

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure. Have you read the new extended version of The Stand? It's like a treatise on why King's editors obviously know better than he does what makes a good novel.

[sravakavarn.livejournal.com]

It makes me glad I am a poet and no one cares.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

People always care about good poets eventually. May not be while they're alive, but eventually.