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Post by katie on Jan 2, 2016 8:03:17 GMT
GRRM has confirmed that not only is there no release date for TWOW yet, he's still not even finished writing it!
Now I understand how all the long-time fans feel. :-(
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Post by sillierthings on Jan 2, 2016 12:48:36 GMT
He should have just said instead of dragging it out all day. He knew what people wanted to hear. I'm very disappointed  . |
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Post by katie on Jan 2, 2016 21:54:09 GMT
And now there is this sweeping attitude on social media of people condemning others for actually being disappointed/upset. Are you fucking kidding me??? Like, GRRM is free to live his own life and stuff, but I don't think it's unreasonable to be upset/impatient after FIVE YEARS. Especially when the reason behind it is GRRM taking on all these other side projects. Again, that's his right, but if he knows it's gonna detract from ASOIAF, then he needs to either take that into consideration and start being more picky, or just own it and be open about ASOIAF no longer being a priority. JMO.
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Post by eyesofmist on Jan 2, 2016 22:29:21 GMT
It's his right to do whatever he likes but it's also our right as readers to feel disappointed and express this disappointment if we want to.
I think it was a mistake on his part to sell the rights of ASoIaF to HBO without having finished the books. This is a series and letting these people spoil it is a fiasco I've never seen before in any other author. I know it's his choice and also that he thought he'd be able to finish in time but this is a disaster anyway.
I'm not sure I will ever read the end of the series now. If it takes him other 6 years to finish and the show has already aired the ending by then, many fans will run out of patience before it happens, I'm afraid.
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Post by katie on Jan 2, 2016 22:56:25 GMT
The problem is that he can't very well sit there and feel bad about missing his own deadline when he did things that he should have been consciously aware of would impede him making that deadline! If you're on a deadline, you do not take on other projects that you KNOW will take time away from your initial project. Like, what did he really expect?? Unless he really wasn't serious about that deadline to begin with.
The other problem is, I think, GRRM doesn't have a lot of foresight; like, an opportunity comes his way, and instead of seriously weighing the repercussions, he just says OKAY! and jumps right in. Such seemed to be the case with him selling the rights to the series to HBO, and such seems to be the case even now when he's offered other projects or other opportunities (he's stated that he only writes when he's in his own home, so if he's out and about or attending a convention in another state or something, he's not writing at that time, period).
So, yeah, forgive me if I don't have a ton of sympathy here. He knew he had a deadline, but he made it impossible for himself to reach it. HE did that. You know me, I've given him the benefit of the doubt more often than not, but this is just irritating. If he REALLY is serious about finishing TWOW, then he needs to do everything possible to make that happen!
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Post by sillierthings on Jan 3, 2016 5:27:11 GMT
As usual, you both summed up very well what I was feeling. I am very disappointed and I don't feel the need to be ashamed of that. I love GRRM's novels and characters and I want to see how their story turns out. There's nothing wrong with feeling strongly about that. It IS GRRM's right to deal with his work however he wants, but I do think he trolled his fans. He made an announcement on Christmas letting everyone know he'd be posting on the New Year. On New Year's Eve, he posts that he lost his work and would not be posting anything until the next day. The next day, he makes a series of announcements...and I just couldn't believe that he would drag it out like that if he didn't have SOME kind of good news. To build up anticipation in his fans like that only to deliver disappointing news, well, I just have to wonder what he thought he was accomplishing with that? No...writers and artists owe us nothing. On the other hand, we do not owe them our time or money if they stop producing something we want to see. To see some of the self-righteous posts (ala Gaiman), you would think that the fans and the audience don't matter at all. Maybe they don't, maybe the stories would be told anyway, without anyone to read or listen or watch. However, I don't believe that, not entirely. There is a give and a take in this storytelling exchange, and to deny that is either naive or dishonest. I never really frequented GRRM's Notablog before. I have to say, I'll probably not pay much attention to it from now on. As Katie said, if ASOIAF really isn't something that's important to him right now (and honestly, he has so many irons in the fire, I don't know how it could be), just be up front with it. It's fine if it takes GRRM another 5 years to write TWOW. His novels are dense and I admire their depth. I can see why it takes him a long time. Furthermore, I'm healthy. I'll probably live long enough to read the next one, but my enthusiasm has waned just a bit in the last day or so. I don't have a lot of sympathy, either. Good on you, GRRM, for having the money and time to travel and work on other projects, but yeah, it's disappointing. He mentioned how he could never work for a newspaper because of the deadlines. Well, in my former life, I did work for a newspaper. And deadlines suck. I know that. But I met them. I met hard deadlines, and you know, I get it. I get what he's saying, but the selfish, disappointed part of me is still huffy about that. I suppose we should be sympathetic to the artistic muse, but I swear to goodness, if you don't give yourself the time to write (he he admits he hasn't since he only writes while at home), then...I don't know that we can blame the muse. It is a fiasco. Just think, whatever plot points are spoiled, D & D's interpretation of events will be the first impression most people with have, even faithful book readers will have parts of the grand finale presented to them by these flesh-peddlers who seem to delight in twisting the very soul of this work. This is a bad metaphor, but it's kind of like the time I had food poisoning after eating bad shrimp. I had previously loved shrimp. After having food poisoning (we're talking for true food poisoning, not just my stomach is upset (i.e. "but Bran was supposed to have red hair"), but "oh-my-God they raped Sansa" food poisoning), I could not look at shrimp for about a year. Now, I'll eat shrimp, but I am wary. I've not yet forgotten the bad shrimp and it haunts me  . It's kind of like that for me at the thought of, I don't know, seeing the Gravedigger return on the show, growling about cunts and chicken. I mean, when I read about it in the novels (and I know he must return), it will still be good, but it's going to be hard to shake the D & D memory. And yes, I said I'd never watch the show again, and no HBO isn't getting my money, but it will be hard to avoid temptation and see clips of things I'm anticipating on Youtube or gifs on tumblr. |
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Post by katie on Jan 3, 2016 5:54:09 GMT
I think that's a pretty apt analogy, LOL. As you all know, I saw the show before I read the books, and even now, I often get them confused. And I can't help but picture the GoT actors when I'm reading the books. It imprinted on my brain. It appears S5 will be both the first AND last season where I will have read the books first.
Yeah, I'm so glad my friend gave me her HBO Go password so that I don't have to spend any of my own money on this nonsense. And after the hot mess that was S5, I won't believe a thing I see on-screen until I read it in the books.
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. It's kind of like that for me at the thought of, I don't know, seeing the Gravedigger return on the show, growling about cunts and chicken. I mean, when I read about it in the novels (and I know he must return), it will still be good, but it's going to be hard to shake the D & D memory.