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Comments
I am having trouble deciding between Liszt or Beethoven as my favourite composer people
Johann Sebastian's better.
no
yes
no
I will agree he is good, but I like Liszt and Beethoven better
no you don't, you like bach better, goddamnit >
anyway, there's also Andres Segovia, although he wasn't that good a composer. But well...he's guitar faggery incarnate.
tom's adorable
"The only thing is that while all the plotlines are exceptionally good, everything to do with the Wall and what stirs beyond is is just excellent and overshadows everything else in its narrative grip. The political scheming, plot twists and tales of war are all brilliant, but none of them compare to the thriller-horror-action story of the North."
I agree on the Wall plotline overshadowing the others, for the most part; it doesn't have any of my favorite moments so far (I stopped reading halfway through the fourth, because it deals with only the Seven Kingdoms plot, and a particularly boring part of that plot at that), but it's solid. Actually, my favorite parts are in Dany's plotline. Eh. I think I'll like the fifth better, since it has the Wall and Dany's plotlines.
But my biggest problem with the series is actually that Martin's prose is terrible; everything else about the series is decently-executed to great, but he's honestly the worst writer I've read since James Fenimore Cooper.
One structural thing I've noticed Martin does is that he ends almost every chapter with a twist or an ultimatum. Every chapter is there for a reason, basically, which is more than I can say for many books I've read.
A few awesome examples:
- Sam kills an Other, holy shit.
- Bran!Summer (sorta-ish, maybe?) sows confusion in the Wilding ranks, allowing Jon to escape. With an arrow in his knee.
- Sandor Clegane captures Arya.
- Next Arya chapter, he announces his plan to ransom her back to her family.
What takes the cake are these ones, though:
- Jon Snow is named heir to Winterfell and the North.
- Jorah Mormont is marked for service in the Watch.
ALEX! YOU SHOULD GO TO MUMU AND STUFF!
Shit, why not.
He's good at narrative. Just not at narration, if that makes sense. He's good at pacing and sequence, but the words chosen to portray the events of the books are painfully simplistic and/or typical of low-grade fantasy most of the time.
Yeah, there's this one other thing.
A lot of people speak as though Martin's writing the sort of antidote to regular fantasy. He's not really doing that -- he's writing a highly detailed low fantasy with a shitload of traditional elements. There are dragon riders, undead monsters, special steel for special swords and magic powers. The difference is that he jumbles it all up in a good way; the dragon rider isn't necessarily the good guy, the special steel is mostly in the hands of the villains, being "undead" isn't even clearly defined as a state and the magic straddles the line between arcane sorcery and divine favour.
Basically, he is actually being imaginiative.
I was gonna say something, but at this point I don't know if you're responding to me or just making another point. It's a point I agree with, though.
Your point just reminded me that ASOIAF is pretty much low-grade fantasy made excellent, pretty much.
Fair enough, I guess. But my opinion stands that the writing is also low-grade.
Alex, I hate to say this, but by the fifth book you're going to LOATHE George. I mean, really, really hate him.
I think I'll follow Abyss' footprints for a while. See y'all in a couple weeks.
I don't doubt it; I just read the bit where Robb gets betrayed by the Freys.
You know that piece of writing advice that goes, "if you can't work out what to do with your story, have the worst thing possible happen to the main characters"? It seems George takes that to heart.
I hardly thought things could get any worse for the North.
I spent this afternoon at the branch annual general meeting of my union. As with many work-related meetings I attend, I ended it feeling more depressed about my job than I was when it started.
I think the problem is that I just want to get on with actually doing the work, but unfortunately the people who run my organisation are more interested in constantly reorganising how the work is done, preferably by having lots of meetings. I think they're worried that if we ever stopped doing that, they'd all be out of a job.
This just in:
So guys, next Wednesday the first episode of my new radio show "Scott's Rock and Ron Show" will be broadcast internationally through the power of THE INTERNET, from 3-5 (GMT), I'll make sure to post a link and you should all listen to it. It's a rock show though, so if you don't like cheesy rock you wont enjoy it!
Also, the following week, my OTHER new show "Bus Chat" will start, but we're not sure of the slot for that yet!
Yeah, the betrayal of the Freys really pissed me off. But it's the fifth book that made me scream in rage.
The entire book revolves around pig jousting, a Dornishman getting friendzoned, and loli rape.
I just made a book
As in cut out the paper, made the cover, and even bound it myself 
Cool. How long did it take?
So I just had a nice evening with the girl - let's call her Amy, because I'm getting tired of calling her "that girl." We watched the first episode of Angel cuddled up next to each other, then continued our conversation from last time.
She started talking about guys, and how she hated it when they didn't make things obvious, mentioning this guy I hate as an example. He'd been lusting after her for some time, then got really angry when she and my buddy started dating. It was only later that he revealed that he'd liked her. We were sitting facing each other, with her cross-legged and me leaning forward, and I decided to seize the moment.
"Let me make things unambiguous," I said, smiling. "I like you. I always did. That's why I always approved of you and [my friend] being together. You're the kind of girl I'd date."
Amy blushed furiously, then hugged her knees and tried not to smile. She failed.
"How do you feel about this?" I pressed. "Embarrassed? Flustered? Annoyed?"
"Extremely flattered." Her smile widened into a grin, and our eyes met.
I grinned back at her.
We grinned for about a minute, looking like idiots, until her roommate entered, dripping wet. We talked for a bit, then I mentioned what I'd said. Amy uncurled from her chair and sat on my lap, pulling my arms tightly around her. I noticed that she was still blushing.
Since the environment was no longer conducive to intimate conversation, I told them that I had some laundry to do - after a good while of letting Amy push her neck and cheek into my face - and left.
My life fucking rocks.
This is for you, Hatter
AWWRIGHT, THAT'S COOL!
Considering that it's pouring outside, this is what was running through my head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ
Except, you know, without the Clockwork Orange overtones.