WELL. ex-nay on the Winds of Winternay because on January 2nd, George (via his LiveJournal. YES!) dropped some heavy shit on the fandom:
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“THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.” – George RR Martin
Reading these lines had me like: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
Source Source
But no really, I am Luke finding out who my Father is, I am Frodo watching Gandalf slip away, I am angry Michael, I am Leo in every film, I am a double crossed Catelyn Stark. I am you, you are me and we are sad.
And then I read the rest of George’s post and I became empathic for his situation and sad that he couldn’t make the deadline. It’s easy to get up in arms and demand that a writer crank out a follow up within a few years, right? After all they know their story, they know how it ends! But then you have to remember that George started A Song of Ice and Fire almost 20 years ago and each book has taken years for him to write. And I GET that. There are at least 20-30 rotating characters and story lines, all intertwining, in his books all with their own intricate backgrounds, personalities and histories that he writes and weaves together beautifully.
Listen, a few years ago these kinds of books would not have been my first pick or even something I would have picked up at first glance but after diving into George’s storytelling I was hooked. Here was a writer who understood men, women, children, family relationships, politics, history, what makes us tick, what makes us cry and what makes us scream. The books from A Song of Ice and Fire are truly a master class in not only fantasy writing but in storytelling. I am an unabashed George shipper who has run down a sidewalk at Comic Con to catch up with George as he strolled down the side walk so I’ll pretty much take any thing and be happy with it.
Source – This is oddly appropriate now.
I was surprised, however, that his blog post went into more of an apology territory when he’s usually an “It’ll be done when it’s done” kinda guy. Clearly, he’s been feeling the pressure since the end of Season 5 to WRITE DAT SHIT but at most artists can tell you and I’m sure even more so with writing, sometimes it just doesn’t come (that’s what she said) and there’s no way to force it. And while I can see where certain sites have written the “He Doesn’t Owe Readers Anything” posts, and understand that because honestly, the author only owes writing the book, not the timeline, not how it ends, not what happens. Even understanding that, I think George has a relationship with his readers and knows how deeply these characters are loved that he wanted to address what was going on and felt he should give the readers as much. At the end of the day not something he had to do but it was beyond classy.
This whole thing left me wondering, since I enjoy the books SO much would I forgo watching Season 6 while the rest of the world watches so I could read and then watch in a way that I wanted to experience the next part of this story. George had this to say:
“How you want to handle that… hey, that’s up to you. Look, I read Andy Weir’s novel THE MARTIAN before I saw the movie. But I saw the BBC production of JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL before I finally got around to reading Susanna Clarke’s novel. In both cases, I loved the book and I loved the adaptation. It does not need to be one or the other. You might prefer one over the other, but you can still enjoy the hell out of both.” – George RR Martin
PREACH good sir, preach. Yes.
It’s been happening for a while and most book readers have been SOMEWHAT fine with the changes from book to show but what George had to say next gave me some pause:
“I can’t think of any other instance where the movie or TV show came out as the source material was still being written. So when you ask me, “will the show spoil the books,” all I can do is say, “yes and no,” and mumble once again about the butterfly effect. Those pretty little butterflies have grown into mighty dragons. Some of the ‘spoilers’ you may encounter in season six may not be spoilers at all… because the show and the books have diverged, and will continue to do so.” – George RR Martin
As someone who has read all the books before the seasons have aired, I’m left with a conundrum. Will I watching Season 6 when it airs BEFORE the book is released and go into it not knowing anything or will I wait for George to finish?
The answer: I don’t know. Probably not?
While HBO has done a remarkable job bringing what has to be one of the most in-depth books to the small screen, there’s just something about reading the stories via George’s words. While the Red Wedding was shocking on TV, it was nothing like reading it in bed at 2AM and crying especially reading Arya’s POV. And there’s nothing like reading “Fear cuts deeper than swords” right at the exact moment you need to.
BUUUUTTT I also understand we live in 2016 and there is no one someone who works on the internet will remain unspoiled from the most popular show on television. So yea, FINE George, take your time.
You do you, I’ll watch the show and we’ll be here when that post goes up that you’ve sent in the final version of Winds of Winter to your publisher and we’ll be pre-ordering like a mother-effer (if you’re a Targaryen). Or a sister-fucker if your name is Jaime Lannister.
It was too easy, come on guys.
Ok, who will be watching when Game of Thrones Season 6 airs in April? Will anyone be waiting for the book? What rock will you be living under?
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