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Artanaro

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Posts posted by Artanaro

  1. [quote name='A wilding' post='1371071' date='May 26 2008, 11.46']But I am not sure that this is a deliberate reference on GRRM's part. There is so much in ASoIaF that some things may well be simple coincidence.[/quote]

    My rule of thumb for allusions/inspiration is there must either be a) a proper noun used in both works (Ruth Dorne from Savage Night is a good exampe, or Manderly from Rebecca) or b) have multiple (more than 4) plot/scene coincidences, such as with Nightmare Alley or Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove has over 20).

    Artanaro
  2. So many references to add, and so little time. :-)

    Let me start with my favorite, the inspiration for Bran.

    An obscure 1940s novel called Nightmare Alley, written by William Lindsay Gresham, tells the story of the rise and fall of a Stanton (Stan) Carlisle. He is one of the most despicable figures of literature, who becomes a charlatan in the spiritualism craze of early 20th century America. Now, onto the details.

    Here are some interesting quotes and events that should seem very familiar to a reader of ASOIAF.

    "He peered further over. Two people were lying on an Indian Blanket and with a hot rush Stan knew that one was a man and the other was a woman and this was what men and women did secretly together that everybody stopped talking about when he came around... Curiosity leaped inside of him at the thought of spying on them when they didn't know he was there..." Upon Stan finding his mother in an affair. If you think back to AGOT, you should remember what seen Bran comes upon.

    "[stan thinking] Magic is all right, but if only I knew human nature like Zeena. She has the kind of magic that ought to take anybody right to the top. It's a convincer--that act of hers."

    "Stan, boy, you sure done noble. I always knew you were a mentalist. Imagine that--giving a cold reading to a cop and getting away with it! Oh, I just love you." After using his powers of "see" the future and present of a police officer going to close down a carnival. Stan is a magician at the carnival who does readings for the locals.

    "They don't understand, my boy. I know why you have to present it as second sight . They're not ready to receive the glorious truth of survival. But our day will come, my boy. It will come. Develop your gift--the young lady's mediumship. Cherish it, for it is a fragile blossom. But what a soul-stirring thing it is... this precious gift of mediumship, this golden bridge between us and those who have joined the ranks of the liberated, there to dwell on our ascending planes of spiritual life." After one magic performance on the road, an onlooker at the show talks to Stan about how he imagines the secret is Stan's wife's true identity as a medium. This marks Stans turn from magic into spiritualism, the belief his act lets him communicate with the dead.

    These are a few quotes, but you can't even grasp the entire similarities between the two characters without reading the novel. Bran is the anti-Stan. Martin loved the character from Nightmare Alley, but chose to make him good by adding a few alterations. While Stan remembers the traumatic experience of his mother's betrayal, Bran was blessed with forgetting his like experience. Stan is a fraud, while Bran can do real magic. But both were captivated by the supernatural as kids, but while Stan lived in the "real world", Bran grew up in Westeros.

    Artanaro

  3. Ok I'll bite. How do you know what Martin had in mind? And what is the older inspiration for the stained blue lips of the warlocks and Mentats that you allude to? To me, these two groups of characters are far too similar in looks and future-visions for it to be mere coincidence. Why stain the lips of his warlocks blue at all, except as a nod to Herbert?
  4. Here's another good one I haven't gotten around to putting up. If anyone has googled "Davos", they'll learn about a nice ski resort in eastern Switzerland. Now, what does that have to do with our Davos Seaworth, the noble and honourable ex-mercenary in Stannis' company? Well, I have the answer.

    Near the ski resort is a little town called Davos-Platz. This was the summer home of acclaimed author, Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote the classic, Treasure Island. In the novel duty is personified by Captain Smollett. He isn't the most charismatic soul, but has both intelligence and integrity, gifts equally bestowed on our Lord Seaworth.

    There are a few more homages and references I want to put up, but they need quotes, and I don't have the books on hand, so they'll have to wait.

    Artanaro

  5. Time to add another homage.

    Edith Nesbit was a remarkable fantasy and children's author around the turn of the last century. She inspired Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, and George Martin as well. In the book, Five Children and It, the five children match the gender and similiar ages with Eddard and Catelyn's children. The youngest of the group is a male toddler, while one of the older brothers is named Robert, who bears small resemblences to Robb Stark, but remarkable similiarities to Robert Baratheon.

    Is this enough to make a connection? No, but the homage is clear within the context of the book. Here are some quotes that people should find very striking and familiar.

    In this scene Robert and the other children are being beseiged by knights invented by a faery.

    "Hullo there!' Robert bellowed back at once.

    'In the name of our Lord the King... we summon this castle to surrender-on pain of fire and sword and no quarter. Do ye surrender?'

    'No,' bawled Robert 'of course we don't! Never, Never, NEVER!'

    ...

    'Cheer,' said Robert in a fierce whisper. 'Cheer to show them we aren't afraid, and rattle the daggers to make more noise. One, two, three! Hip, hip, hooray!"

  6. I'm not so sure about the last couple of "homages" that people have pointed out. If you are right and Martin did mean to reference Jim Thompson and Eric Ambler, it is in a pretty oblique way. Strikes me these are more likely just coincidences.
  7. There are many references and homages I want to add, but I don't have all the quotes on hand. But here's a good one I especially like. The name, Dorne, comes from a character, Ruth Dorne, in the Jim Thompson novel, Savage Night. Ruth has a limp and is very smart, but underestimated by everyone. I don't think anyone need to reach too far to realize what character she was an inspiration for.

    Artanaro

  8. I just found a new one in the Raymond Chandler's novel, The Long Goodbye.

    In one chapter, there's a character named Gregorious who's an extremly brutal cop, who would punch you as soon as look at you. He's an corrupt oxlike character. Doesn't that remind you of someone. ;)

    Artanaro

  9. Here is one I'm always shocked no one mentions. I guess many people don't have a love for the classics outside Scifi and Fantasy.

    "[Arya] wished the poacher hadn't died. He'd known more about the woods than all the rest of them together, but he'd taken an arrow through the shoulder... Tarber had packed it with mud and moss from the lake, and for a day or two Kurz swore the wound was nothing, even though the flesh of his throat was turning dark while angry red welts crept up his jaw and down his chest. Then one morning he couldn't find the strength to get up, and by the next he was dead" (p221 ACOK).
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