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"The Weirwoods" by Thomas Burnett Swann (Copyright 1967)


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On 16/06/2017 at 10:09 PM, Castellan said:

This little bit about a new interpretation of statues and paintings reminds me (vaguely) of the way in The Dying Light, the dissident type who reinterprets his planet's culture and history and realises the carvings of the different types of animals that they defeated in the glorious past, are in fact humans.

 

Swann began writing fiction in 1958 with "Winged Victory", a science fiction story based on the famous headless statue known as the Winged Victory of Samothrace. In Swann's story the statue's head is discovered and found to have been modeled upon an alien visitor whom the sculptor took for a goddess.

Extraterrestrials also feature in "The Painter", in which the painter Hieronymous Bosch is abducted by hideous aliens and forced to paint them, thereby providing the inspiration for the grotesque images in his painting The Garden of Earthly Delights. This and many other early stories appeared in the British magazine Science Fantasy. Some stories also appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF).

Lots of interesting stuff, Tks! 

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On 6/15/2017 at 9:13 AM, The Fattest Leech said:

He is a poet, critic, and fantasy author. Yup, seems to hit all the marks for George as well ^_^

And Swann, with two n's, like House Swann? George does like to give his homages (if this is the case) 

Yes, I think it's a safe bet that GRRM is referencing Thomas Swann.  I think it's also a safe bet that he was influenced by Alegrnon Blackwood (looks up the Willows) who is homaged through House Blackwood.  In addition, another author/wiccan Gerald Gardner was probably an influence for both Gerold Hightower and House Gardner.  

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25 minutes ago, Frey family reunion said:

Yes, I think it's a safe bet that GRRM is referencing Thomas Swann.  I think it's also a safe bet that he was influenced by Alegrnon Blackwood (looks up the Willows) who is homaged through House Blackwood.  In addition, another author/wiccan Gerald Gardner was probably an influence for both Gerold Hightower and House Gardner.  

Nice! Thanks for the info. I will definitely do that. 

 

In general, I can say that my cursory skims and page reads already have fruit being thrown at someone and plopping against them, juices everywhere, and this one is a pomegranate, and the notion that not all fire is the same (3 kinds), some curious names that are similar, someone who got water in the lungs and coughs it out for reasons, etc... really interesting. 

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24 minutes ago, Frey family reunion said:

Yes, I think it's a safe bet that GRRM is referencing Thomas Swann.  I think it's also a safe bet that he was influenced by Alegrnon Blackwood (looks up the Willows) who is homaged through House Blackwood.  In addition, another author/wiccan Gerald Gardner was probably an influence for both Gerold Hightower and House Gardner.  

I've been working on Fool stuff, and one of the resources for that subject is the Fool in Tarot, and you can see through Tyrion whom George leans to - Crowley over Waite (rivals within the Golden Dawn). Not so surprisingly since one of Crowley's good friends was Lovecraft who alluded to Waite as an evil sorcerer in one of his stories.

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Just now, Lost Melnibonean said:

Was it good? 

It was once you got in the rhythm with the syrupy sweet prose of it all. There were some dark parts, and some penile parts :blink:, but overall for it being a short book, the plot and character development was fairly good. It did take me until about halfway in to get to that level of sucked-in-ness where you did not want to put the book down for any reason... so cereal was for dinner.

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9 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

It was once you got in the rhythm with the syrupy sweet prose of it all. There were some dark parts, and some penile parts :blink:, but overall for it being a short book, the plot and character development was fairly good. It did take me until about halfway in to get to that level of sucked-in-ness where you did not want to put the book down for any reason... so cereal was for dinner.

I love cereal for dinner. 

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Just now, Lost Melnibonean said:

I love cereal for dinner. 

It's my specialty :P

Have you read anything by the Swann dude? I am thinking of ordering a few more in this series, at least to hold me over as I patiently wait for Winds.

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20 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

It's my specialty :P

Have you read anything by the Swann dude? I am thinking of ordering a few more in this series, at least to hold me over as I patiently wait for Winds.

No. I will try Weirwoods though. 

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Wow.

Couldn't see any reference upthread to another of his books (which I just found on Amazon), "Green Phoenix: the last stand of the pre-humans", with the following blurb (!!!!):

" ... his novels dealt not with the far future, but with the enigma of the past. Prior to the dawn of human history, the Earth did not belong solely to humanity -- there were other intelligent species still fighting a last-stand battle against extinction. Remembered today only in legend, these are creatures of the trees and water, beings that combined beast and man, with strange lore of their own and sciences lost to the human victors."

This may be another must read.

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Grrm recently said he hasn't read it in a notablog comment (http://grrm.livejournal.com/540063.html ).

 
Quote

 

I was wondering if you've ever read "The Weirwoods" by Thomas Burnett Swann? The name of this book is far too eye-catching. I had to order it off of Amazon ;
 
userinfo_v8.svg?v=17080?v=158.1grrm
Jun. 16th, 2017 06:13 am (UTC)
RE: Thomas Swann
Afraid not.

 

 

Maybe weirwoods + house Swann + CoF story are just a coincidence, or he forgot he had and this book marked his subconscious.

 

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4 hours ago, Lord Freypie said:

Grrm recently said he hasn't read it in a notablog comment (http://grrm.livejournal.com/540063.html ).

 
 

Maybe weirwoods + house Swann + CoF story are just a coincidence, or he forgot he had and this book marked his subconscious.

 

Interesting.!

Could be, because even with all of the typical reused tropes in literature, this book shares a huge amount of rather unique scenes with ASOIAF. But I guess it is coincidence  :dunno: Isn't there a phrase that goes, "Nothing is original. Everything has been seen, said, and done." 

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8 hours ago, The Fattest Leech said:

Interesting.!

Could be, because even with all of the typical reused tropes in literature, this book shares a huge amount of rather unique scenes with ASOIAF. But I guess it is coincidence  :dunno: Isn't there a phrase that goes, "Nothing is original. Everything has been seen, said, and done." 

Nothing new under the sun.

But I'm afraid the similarities are too striking for GRRM's short response to be accepted.

I mean just the word "weirwood" is striking.  Maybe the denial was meant to be transparent.

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12 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

Didn't Martin say that he named the heart trees weirwoods as a nod to Bob Weir?

That's apparently what he says...

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/6553854/game-of-thrones-grateful-dead-george-r-r-martin

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