Perusing through social media, I came across one of those appalling meme things that I know shouldn’t irritate, yet inexplicably do.
IS THERE ANYBODY WHO HASN’T WATCHED A SINGLE EPISODE OF GAME OF THRONES? It asked.
It’s weird the kind of congratulatory back-slapping that goes on in these threads. People applauding each other for resisting temptation, or proudly declaring that they don’t ‘do’ popular culture, or saying they didn’t like LOTR so haven’t bothered with this. Really? Ok...
Anyway, flicking through the comments I notice a former teacher of mine saying that he’d read the books while in hospital because he ‘had nothing better to do.’ Don’t talk ****e, Sir. Don’t pretend to be coerced by circumstance and be blasé about it.
He also proclaimed that they ‘were poorly constructed’. Are they? Have I missed something? I think the general flow and structure of the first three books at least are excellent and absorbing POV triumphs. Before GRRM got flabby and started to split by location, and waste pages on tedious setting description, in the kind of indulgence that has led to him neglecting the core series in favour of 600 page histories.
He also said that there was only one narrative arc in more than 2000 pages. Uh? Isn’t that the definition of any book or series? A single arc divided into several strands. If anything, there’s too many strands in the Song of Ice and Fire books. Once again, am I missing something?
He then concludes on this pearler: ‘Come on. Let’s have some intelligent criticism rather than a plebeian delight in gruesome spectacle.’ If ‘constructive criticism’ is, in fact, ‘lazy generalisations and anti-factual snide accusations masquerading as a critique’ then I’d rather not bother! ASOIAF is many things, but these ramblings are way off base in my view. It’s been a few years since I read the books. Am I missing something?
IS THERE ANYBODY WHO HASN’T WATCHED A SINGLE EPISODE OF GAME OF THRONES? It asked.
It’s weird the kind of congratulatory back-slapping that goes on in these threads. People applauding each other for resisting temptation, or proudly declaring that they don’t ‘do’ popular culture, or saying they didn’t like LOTR so haven’t bothered with this. Really? Ok...
Anyway, flicking through the comments I notice a former teacher of mine saying that he’d read the books while in hospital because he ‘had nothing better to do.’ Don’t talk ****e, Sir. Don’t pretend to be coerced by circumstance and be blasé about it.
He also proclaimed that they ‘were poorly constructed’. Are they? Have I missed something? I think the general flow and structure of the first three books at least are excellent and absorbing POV triumphs. Before GRRM got flabby and started to split by location, and waste pages on tedious setting description, in the kind of indulgence that has led to him neglecting the core series in favour of 600 page histories.
He also said that there was only one narrative arc in more than 2000 pages. Uh? Isn’t that the definition of any book or series? A single arc divided into several strands. If anything, there’s too many strands in the Song of Ice and Fire books. Once again, am I missing something?
He then concludes on this pearler: ‘Come on. Let’s have some intelligent criticism rather than a plebeian delight in gruesome spectacle.’ If ‘constructive criticism’ is, in fact, ‘lazy generalisations and anti-factual snide accusations masquerading as a critique’ then I’d rather not bother! ASOIAF is many things, but these ramblings are way off base in my view. It’s been a few years since I read the books. Am I missing something?
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