Does this story actually have any fans?

[Hiero79]

I'm an academic literary critic working in the field of modern fantasy literature. In that capacity I've written several peer-reviewed publications about Martin, including a book about how he relates and compares to other fantasy authors. I won't give the titles, because I don't want to be accused of self-promotion, but I do want to observe the one key thing I've learned from several years of research and writing about A Song of Ice and Fire: nobody is the slightest bit interested in it.

Here's my evidence:

    * Multiple conventions have declined my offer to give presentations on Martin.

    * When one convention that accepted such a proposal - a con that Martin himself used to attend and has addressed in the past - the number of people I met who had read his novels was smaller than the number of people I met who'd never heard of him. My presentation attracted an audience of four, one of whom left halfway through.

     * When I gave a colloquium about Martin at my university, two people came. One left halfway through.

     * Four journalists have interviewed me about my book. All told me they were "big GoT fans" in their initial emails. None, it transpired, had ever watched it, or were aware it was a literary adaptation; one opted not to publish the interview at all.

     * I can't get my book reviewed anywhere; no magazines or literary journals want to hear about it.

     * The host of a local soft-news panel discussion on a local radio station mentioned the launch of season 4 of GoT to his three guests that afternoon. Two didn't know what he was talking about. The third said "Thank you, goodbye" and hung up on him. 

     * When I taught A Clash of Kings in a university course in 2016, most students refused to read it. The university allows students to design their own term paper questions; only one student out of a class of 42 opted to write about Martin. She submitted a 2,000 word discussion of how attractive she thought Natalie Dormer was.

     * When a friend showed me the photos she'd taken on her holiday in Dubrovnik, I noted she'd visited the place where GoT filmed its street scenes. She ran out of the room with her fingers in her ears, shouting "I've never heard of that, and neither have any of my friends!"

     * When I gave a public lecture on Martin, it attracted an audience of eight, including my mother. One friend of mine who attended did so because, he explained, "Anything has to be better than reading that crap." He was, at the time, supervising an undergraduate thesis on Martin. 

I'm not telling these horror stories simply to vent my frustration - although I'll admit there's an element of that. I'm simply posting this in an attempt to find out if there are, in fact, any Martin fans out there. Sales figures of the books suggest so, but I'm having real difficulty locating them. To date the number of people I've met who are prepared to take even a polite interest in the story is smaller than the number of people who have actually stopped talking to me when I told them the subject of my book. There's a lot to talk about in this story on both page and screen and, having invested the time and energy I have into studying it, it would be really nice to find someone to have that conversation with. I thought this might be a good place to find those people. Any takers?

[sweetsunray]

Yes, here you will have people who read the books, reread them, relisten to them, analyse them (not just for theories but literary purposes), and even who read George's older books.

[some_haunting_melody]

That all sounds incredibly frustrating! Over the last few years I have taught some art classes at a state college in California. During a class discussion I brought up Martin's architect v. gardener theory of writing ( something I feel is very applicable to visual art as well, and potentially very helpful for students to think about) but no one had heard of Martin. I asked the class if any one watched GOT and not even one of my 20 students had seen the show. Maybe I overestimated the reach of the show, and I didn't really expect my students to have read the books, but I was surprised at the lack of interest. 

[sweetsunray]

Well, a lot of people now just having gone to their first years of college were 11 years old when the show first started. They weren't its audience at the time.

I got my nephew into fantasy but gradually - as a kid I gave him Harry Potter, but only once he was about 10. By the age of 15 I gifted him Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I waited until he was 17/18 before gifting him the first book in the series of aSoIaF.

[The Fattest Leech]

On 6/23/2020 at 5:42 AM, Hiero79 said:

I'm an academic literary critic working in the field of modern fantasy literature. In that capacity I've written several peer-reviewed publications about Martin, including a book about how he relates and compares to other fantasy authors. I won't give the titles, because I don't want to be accused of self-promotion, but I do want to observe the one key thing I've learned from several years of research and writing about A Song of Ice and Fire: nobody is the slightest bit interested in it.

~snipped a little~

Huge GRRM fan here, and for me it is something that goes way beyond just ASOIAF.

I have on occasion tried talking with people in real life about GRRM and even SciFi/fantasy in general and I always get mixed/low interest replies. Even to other people who like to read in the off-beat genres. I think many people just get caught in their own niche ruts sometimes. Not in a purposely derogatory way, but in a comfort level way; we know "this" and "this" makes us happy for XYZ reason. And it could slowly rotate as it does with paint artists when they go through a "blue period". However, it does end up making we who want to talk about GRRM/etc feel off or disappointed when other people don't share our enthusiasm. 

I have also noticed that more and more people like being part of a fandom and "stanning" characters rather than investing any time actually discussing and exploring the character. Deep character and plot discussion can be difficult to find in most literary-entertainment areas. It is easier to watch a 52 minute show or a two-hour movie and *cosplay a little than it is to understand that the author might actually be showing something uncomfortable with said "stanned" character. So then the re-imagining begins. The show hit at a weirdly perfect time when that sweet spot generation was the most influential in ratings, and it was the trend and ratings that mattered most. I know very few people in real life that watched the show or those who ever truly liked it. Of those I know, very few are much older than I (we?), just as very few of the younger generation know it or watched it... or at least payed enough attention to know Daenerys' name is Daenerys, not Khaleesi. The generation below that... well, that is another story.

*noting that I love cosplay and respect the hell out of the time and talent that it takes to create the costumes.

On 6/23/2020 at 5:42 AM, Hiero79 said:

 * When I taught A Clash of Kings in a university course in 2016, most students refused to read it. The university allows students to design their own term paper questions; only one student out of a class of 42 opted to write about Martin. She submitted a 2,000 word discussion of how attractive she thought Natalie Dormer was.

I think maybe you didn't get a great response as you wanted because it became "work", and a lot of work at that. These aren't small readings or novellas. Oh no, these are bricks that build worlds. The best readers, those with the passion that we have that want to discuss this are the ones who read because we like to, because the story just won't let us stop. (Jane, get me off this crazy thing!) Natalie Dormer is easier to watch for many people.

I'm not sure what the right answer to any of this is besides the MartinWorld fans do exist, but you have to find us first