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IIf George RR Martin could make a wish, it would be for more time. The best-selling author of the Chant of ice and fire saga, the books that have become a television phenomenon Game of thrones, is in London for an interview with historian Dan Jones about his most recent work, Fire and blood, an imagined story of the Targaryen family (the conquering ancestors of Daenerys' dragon queen), before heading to the Worldcon sci-fi event in Dublin.
Yet in the back of his mind, the job is yet to come. Winter Winds, the sixth and penultimate book of Ice and fire, must be finished and the seventh, a dream of spring, to write. Then there are some Dunk and Egg stories in the same world to complete. (His tone was clearer, he saw them as cleaners for the palace between "big mega-books" but "fell back with everything, so now I'm just trying to think about the next thing immediately in front of me. ")
And this before the many television projects that have emerged thanks to the success of the series. A number of parties prepared at Westeros – including one written by Jane Goldman, who is' placed 5,000 years before the events of Game of thrones"And currently in post-production – a TV version of the Wild Cards series of anthologies he edited, and an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor Who fears death, which he produces for HBO.
"I need more hours in the day and more days in the week and more months in the year because the weather seems to go really fast," he admits with a smile. Las.
Such lassitude is fleeting, however. Before our meeting, I am told that Martin will not discuss certain things: the controversial end of the television series earlier this year; when Winter Winds to arrive at; and his health – he is 70 years old and the internet is overflowing with speculation to know if he will manage to complete his epic story.
In the end, the awesome Martin tackles aspects of the three topics, although, clearly fearing to make headlines, he asks whether he watched the last episode of the series with a firm: "We should not talk about that. "
However, the end of the series has eased a lot of pressure. "There were a few years when, if I could finish the book, I could have stayed ahead of the show for two years and the stress was huge," he says. "I do not think it was very good for me, because what should have speeded up really slowed me down. Every day I sat down to write and even though I had a good day – and a good day for me is three or four pages – I would feel very bad because I would think: 'My God, I have to finish the book. . I wrote only four pages whereas I should have written 40 pages. But finishing the show is more rewarding because I'm at my pace now. I have good days and bad days and the stress is much less, even if it's still there … I'm sure when I'm done a dream of spring you'll have to tie me to the Earth. "
It is clear that he has a complex and probably unresolved relationship with the television series. On the one hand, it "completely changed my life" and yet, as he says, "it's not the same thing, even though they're very close to each other." When asked if the end of the series, which elicited mixed reactions from critics and fans, affects his, it is clear. "No, this is not the case. It does not change anything … As Rick Nelson says in Garden Party, one of my favorite songs, we can not please everyone, so we have to have fun.
Such thinking is behind Fire and blood, which is born from his desire to "reproduce popular stories … historical reenactments, wars, conquests, weddings and quarrels" – although he acknowledges that not all fans are as happy to pass the time to roam the streets of Westerosi. "Westeros has become very big, and I know this frustrates some of my fans, who would prefer me to keep the main story as he sees it, namely the seven-pound book. Chant of ice and fire. But almost from the beginning, I saw other possibilities, other stories that are buried there. "
He smiles and admits that it was always the case. As a child, he began to tell countless stories that he never finished "because I would have that vision in mind, but when I started writing it on paper, I had trouble finding the words and it would become mundane and ordinary and not so similar. a lot of fun. "Later, he vividly notes that he spent a lot of time on television and in the movies in the mid-80s, that he always liked his" big first drafts, costly " and costly "more than the refined and refined work that was acceptable to studio directors.
A song of ice and fire was famously written in response to all these studio notes. A sprawling series filled with "gigantic castles, an extremely complicated plot, werewolves and dragons" that could never be filmed. "And because life is full of little ironies and mischievous gods, it's this impossible-to-film work that has become the most popular TV show in the world."
Did he discover that as the television series grew, the Westeros created on the screen blew into his own? "For the average viewer, and I recognize it, Tyrion Lannister will still be Peter Dinklage from now on. But it did not work like that for me. I started writing these books in 1991 and [by the time the series started] I have been with these characters for 20 years. I had them fixed in my mind. "
What impressed him, however, was how those who had read the books had kept the secrets of the saga. "The way no one has spoiled the Red Wedding is one of the biggest stories in the history of television as there were literally millions of book readers who knew what was going to happen and who gave nothing. Instead, they did something that I did not expect either: they recorded the shock and dismay of their loved ones. "He's laughing. "Suddenly, there were videos on the Internet of people reacting to the red marriage, all set up by their parents who wanted to capture the sorrow and shock of their husbands, wives, brothers and sisters … Has this happened in the past? history of television? Not as far as I know.
Martin clearly loves those moments of intense interaction with the material. He talks fondly of an evening where he and his wife, Parris, went to dinner with fans in Spain. It was well before the TV series, when A song of ice and fire was just starting to take off and "they all burst into a Spanish version of [a song from the books] The bear and the first fair. They pounded the table and sang, and they knew all the words. It was incredible. I loved this experience. "
He also liked the interaction with the fans. In my twenties, I spent quite a bit of time on one of the major sites devoted to books. One of the things that moved me the most by reading jealousy off, in England, were the breathtaking reports of Brotherhood Without Banners, a small group of devoted fans who would go to conventions, meet GRRM (as they referred to him), shared a drink and, if they were lucky, were anointed by him, it was sometimes with sticks of bread.
There is an air of melancholy when he speaks of that time now. "When I first went to a Brotherhood Without Banners evening, there were a few dozen people out there and I became very friends with some of them," he says. "And every time I attended, I met new people, spent time with them, and organized quizzes for them. It was great, but as books became more and more popular and the series became a hit, the evenings became bigger and more crowded. "
He looks nostalgic. "They always have these evenings and they are always so great. I am always friendly with the people I met in 2001 and 2002, but I can not meet new people because they are too many. I'm sure they're as delicious as the elderly, but I do not want to go to a party where an incessant succession of people want to take selfies with me, because it's not fun like in the old days. It's work. "
Is it missing these first days? He pauses for a long time and then says softly, "Yeah. Honestly I do it. I mean, I can not go to a bookstore anymore, and it was my favorite activity in the world. Enter and wander stack, take books, read a little, leave with a big stack of things I never heard of when I arrived. Now, when I go to a bookstore, I am recognized within 10 minutes and then there is a crowd around me. So you win a lot, but you also lose things. "
A similar desire for preservation of himself led him to leave the Internet. "At first, I was very flattered and went to bulletin boards and said," Oh, that's cool, they're all very excited. But I started to think, "No, I really should stay away. I do not like the fact that some people have understood that things are correct and that others do not know that things are not right, but that it could also influence me. & # 39; all this and let the fans have their theories, some of which are true and some wrong. They will know which one when I finish.
That said, he thinks that all reactions to the material, even the most furious, should be celebrated. "I'm happy with emotional reactions, be it books or TV shows, because it's fiction, emotion. If you want to make an intellectual argument or persuade someone, write an essay or an article of journalism, write a fiction. Fiction … should feel as if you live these things as you read or look at them. If you are so far behind this character that a character dies and you do not care, the author has failed to some extent. "
With that in mind, does he have a favorite scene where he felt that writing had really hit the house? I really ask him to expect him to mention one of the most famous moments, the Red Wedding, for example, or the shocking death of Ned Stark in the first book.
It remains a long pause before receiving the surprising answer. "I remember that there is a speech that a septon [the Westerosi version of a priest] gives Brienne about broken men and how they are I've always been delighted to write that.
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