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George in Spain


Ran

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[quote name='Ashara Dayne' post='1444419' date='Jul 17 2008, 19.03']Would love to see you! Post a pic! (I think I remember de T-shirt, but anyway...)
Agulla you too, please, let me see if I remember any of you![/quote]

Ok you asked for it, now I dont want no complain. You can see both the Night's Watch T-shirt (shame you can't see the back), and the idiot smile (ok I had some cyder shots by then). The only thing missing there is the 'handsome' thing, hehe.

[url="http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/9744/pnumeuo1.jpg"]Click here to see the picture[/url].

--Pnume.
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Report of the Lecture at Biblioteca Jaume Fuster in Barcelona.

This time I took some notes.

The lecture was hosted by Albert Monteys who is the editor of a satirical magazine; El Jueves, and who happens to be a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire. The format of this event consisted of two parts; in the first Albert Monteys asked a series of questions to George about his work and specially about writing, in the second part the readers who were filling the library's auditorium asked their own questions.

George R.R. Martin started with a story about his life as a writer. He explained that now he finds himself surrounded by fans that fill places like the one we were but it has not always been like this. Many writers have experienced going to a book reading and signing and finding nobody there, zero attendance. Well, he has done worse. In 1996, when A Game of Thrones was coming out he went to a reading to a small book store in Saint Louis, 30 miles from the place where the Worldcon was held, that book store there was a café and it was the place where he had to do his reading. When he arrived there were two couples there and since it was a bit early he waited to begin with his reading. When it was time and nobody else had appeared the book store owner announced that George R. R. Martin was going to read an excerpt of his new book A Game of Thrones; the two couples left.

Now when some author explains that he has been in a reading or signing with zero attendance George says that he has done worse, that he has had a minus four attendance.

After this introduction Albert stated asking questions to George, I've summarized them the best I've managed.

- He asked about the origin of A Song of Ice and Fire and George explained that it began in 1991 with the first Bran chapter. He explained that unlike many other unfinished books of his that grow cold on him (now when he reads his previous project "Avalon" it feels as if it was written by another writer) this didn't happen with A Song of Ice and Fire.

- Albert asked if the books of A Song of Ice and Fire are a reaction against the constrains that his work in Hollywood imposed on him and George said that it might be. His original scripts were always "too long and expensive" and he was forced to rewrite them, he had to cut off characters and scenes. With A Song of Ice and Fire he wanted to write without worrying about the budged.

Working in Hollywood also taught George the sense of structure, according the William Goldman in "Adventures in Screen Trade" structure is everything. This and the capacity to trim dialogs. Trimming a dialog to make it faster, more lively and real.

- George said that he knows the ending of the story and how many of the major characters will end. He explained that it is like travelling; you want to go from Barcelona to Paris, you know your destination and the roads you plan to take but you don't know what is going to happen in your way there. You have to be there, in your way to learn it. As an example he explained that he had Bran's first chapter in his mind from the very beginning but he didn't know who the man that Eddard Stark executes was, it was not until he was writing the eighth chapter that he realized that this man was the one from the Prologue.

- In an ideal world, George said, he would have written the whole series and then published it like Gene Wolfe did with "The Shadow of the Torturer" and the following books. The problem is that unlike Gene who works as an editor of a very important magazine, he couldn't do that since he has to pay his bills among other things.

- George admitted that some times he falls in love with his characters even the spear carriers. "The spear carriers are people too", they have their own stories and motivations, and they are not furniture. He named Jack Vance as an example of a writer who makes his spear carriers important and alive.

- Albert asked which character George felt more attached. He suggested that he was like Tyrion to which George said as he laughtes "I'm taller". He admited as he has admitted before that Tyrion was the easiest one to write while Bran was the most difficult one. Bran has the POV of a child and sometimes mixed with the point of view of a wolf, which makes things more complicated, he has to wonder if wolves understand words and thing about how they understand the world around them. He used the example of "men in hard skins" meaning "men in chain mail or plate" for a wolf.

- Women in A Song of Ice and Fire were another one of the questions asked to George. He explained that you can draw characters from three sources:
• People you know.
• History, in A Song of Ice and Fire especially medieval History.
• Inside yourself: "The only person you know is yourself". To create other persons from your own person you need empathy, to try to understand how others feel.
For George Brienne tries to address the stereotype of "Chick in Chain", he wondered about how much use will have an armour just covering that parts. There are other female warriors in A Song of Ice and Fire, Asha being the foremost example, but Brienne is the one who is "competing with knights in their own terms" and to do that she would have to be like a "Romanian Weight lifter".

- George explained that it had been painful to write certain scenes, he left the Red Weeding as the last one to write in A Storm of Swords and some people have told him that they threw the book into the fireplace after reading that scene. Only to buy it one week later, something for which George is grateful since it means more money for him in form of royalties.
George said the he wants the readers to experience the book; he wants the readers to remember what happens in the book not what was happening around them when they were reading it. He read The Lord of the Rings when he was in Junior High and he explained that he remembers some scenes but not many of the kids he went to school with, except for a few close friends.

To George there are two kinds of fear in fiction:

• Roller Coaster Fear: you know you are safe, it's scary but you know that it's almost impossible that something could happen. This is the Indiana Jones movies fear; you know that he is going to survive.

• Dark Alley Fear: you are in a dark alley and three men with knives appear in front of you, you know that your life is in danger. This is the kind of fear that he wants the readers to feel for the characters when they go to a battle. The reader does not know what is going to happen to that character.

- As it had happened during the discussion in Gijón Tolkien was present in Barcelona too. George said that that Tolkien did many good things that have been imitated but some of the things he did don't work well with other authors who have used his tropes: a dark lord, evil and ugly minions, etc.

He named some good new authors: Scott Lynch, R Scott Bakker, Joe Abercrombie and Patrick Rothfuss.

- George was asked about the parallels between A Song of Ice and Fire and History and his answer was that "I don't want to completely replicate History", because then it would be historical fiction with funny names. He said that if you know much about History it's difficult to be thrilled because you know how it ends. Another option is to use fictional characters in a historical story like it was done with "Rome".

- Asked about the medieval ethics George explained that most the values in his books are medieval, this is reflected in how young people are more mature and are expected to act like adults earlier. He put the example of fostering a child when he was seven to take him away from his mother.

- About the massive feedback in form of forums and emails George said that he tries to avoid them because if there are a hundred people guessing about something it should be expected that some might guess correctly or even come with an idea that is better than the author's one.

- About the series he said that he will be minimally involved he has a series to finish.

This is the first part of my report. The second part will address the questions asked by the fans who attended this event.

PS Ashara, I have no picks of mine here.
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Second Part of the Chronicles of The Lecture at Jaume Fuster Library in Barcelona

It was the fan's turn to ask questions to George. I will try to summarize them the best I can and the best that my notes allow me.

- George was asked that if he could go back in time which character would he save from being killed from those already dead. His answer was: "I don't think I would". He said that the death characters well all well death (I don't know if he was hinting here to those discussions about Ned and other death characters being still alive).

- He was asked how he organizes all the information of A Song of Ice and Fire. His first answer was "Badly", the he continued explaining that at first he tried to do as he had done with his previous novels, keeping the information in his head but soon this proved to be too difficult since there was too much information, now he keeps charts, genealogy, maps and pages and pages of information that are not enough to save him from making small mistakes.

He explained that he has made some mistakes with the eye colour of some characters and with the sex of some horses, about the later he said that "I don't care much, if I was a horse I would feel differently".

There are legions of fans ready to point out mistakes but not everything that looks like a mistake is a mistake. He uses several narrative techniques that can be seen as mistakes but aren't:
•Unreliable narrators.
•Contradictory information.
•Different estimates about the size of armies and crowds.

- Someone asked if there was a portfolio of art and characters of A Song of Ice and Fire. George extended his hand to Quique Corominas, the artist of the Spanish edition of these series who was sitting in the first row of chairs and said: "I have one here". There was much laughter.

Corominas was asked to come to the stage and present his book; he used this opportunity to ask George "What do you think about my art?" To which George answered, "I loved it!" Filled with relief Corominas said: "Oh, thank you".

George explained that there was very good art in many of the editions of his books but there is awful things too, especially the art in the German editions of A Song of Ice and Fire. He praised the art of the Meisha Merlin and Subterranean Press editions as well as the Art of Ice and Fire from FFG. He named Amok as one of the artist he liked.

George also explained that "World of Ice and Fire" is coming as a great concordance and it will have art by Ted Naismith.

- Another fan asked why it had taken that long to write books 4 and five and George said that if we consider A Feast for Crows half of a book and A Dance with Dragons the other half we have that he had been having lots of problems with one book. The reasons for this, he advanced some:
• Starting again after a cycle ended in A Storm of Swords.
• "I've got older".
• "I tend to overestimate how quickly I can do this"
But the final conclusion was: "I don't know". He said that it has been a hard book to write, "I've made some mistakes, hopefully I've solved them in time". He said that the five years gap was one of these mistakes, it worked for the young characters like Arya or Bran but it didn't work for other characters that were in the middle of things.

George explained that some readers do not understand that there are other things that a writer must do other than writing, touring is one of them.

- Someone thanked George for the Red Weeding and asked the purpose of this chapter. George noted that there had been foreshadowing of what was about to happen, the events of the Red Weeding were a consequence of the actions of the characters, and it's purpose was to create the "three men with knives in an dark alley" fear.

- George was asked about the "Speech of the Broken Men", the reader asked if it had any intentionality and George said that not, just to reflect the commoners experience on war. We focus on the great and the powerful, even the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings end up being among these powerful people. The speech of the broken men is about what war means for the regular guy.

- Being asked about if the characters and the story happened together George explained that there are two types of writer:
•The architect: plans the entire book at one time.
•The Gardener: plants a seed and he is not quite sure what is going to grow, it's more organic. He considers himself a Gardener author.

- There was some talk about the title of the books and George explained that titles can change, he said that the original name of "Fevre's Dream" was "River of Blood" (yes, really).

- Then there was one of those moments that are funny and sad at the same time. Someone asked George if he knew that a "disgraceful" version of the Bear and the Maiden Fair could be found at Youtube sung by a bunch of guys. This person was upset by this insult and wanted to know what George thought about that. As you can imagine most of the present knew who the author of that version was and who were the singers were. The author of the translated lyrics of the Spanish version of The Bear and the Maiden Fair was sitting in the first row (just beside me) and a bunch of the people from Asshai was just a few rows behind. George said: "There is the song, I heard at Gijón and Madrid, it was totally fun". And he added: "It's delightful". Amidst laughs Alejo Cuervo, the translator of this version of the song stood up and saluted.

Then the same person asked George about slash fan fiction saying that there are many sites in the internet with this kind of stories and that this person was in favour of them. George got more serious here and said: "I'm opposed to fan fiction". He explained that if he was aware of fan fiction based on his books he should inform his attorney to have a "cease and desist" letter send if he didn't want to lose his copyright on his work. George continued saying "You should create your own characters, it's part of the process of writing".

When that person continued insisting in slash fan fiction and what it meant, George ended the discussion with: "I'm aware of what fan fiction is. Another question".

- The last questions were about Wild Cards and the Hedge Knight. George explained the new beginning for Wild Cards and that there will be a third Dunk and Egg story for "Warriors", the mystery knight.

- Asked by another fan George commented on the growing importance of genre fiction in the last years.

Here this "lecture" ended. It had been a most interesting event and I felt lucky and grateful to have witnessed it.
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[quote]He named some good new authors: Scott Lynch, R Scott Bakker, Joe Abercrombie and Patrick Rothfuss.[/quote]

Great. Joe's ego really needs this kind of endorsement :)
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[quote name='pnume' post='1444457' date='Jul 17 2008, 19.26']Ok you asked for it, now I dont want no complain. You can see both the Night's Watch T-shirt (shame you can't see the back), and the idiot smile (ok I had some cyder shots by then). The only thing missing there is the 'handsome' thing, hehe.
[url="http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/9744/pnumeuo1.jpg"]Click here to see the picture[/url].
--Pnume.[/quote]
I remember you :thumbsup: .

[quote name='LugaJetBoyGirl' post='1444635' date='Jul 17 2008, 21.35']Wow, I am so jealous! It looks like you had so much fun! I hope some of you Asshai folks have decided at the last minute to come to WorldCon![/quote]
It was really funny indeed!

If only! I spent too much money in Gijón and I still study, not work, so I can't afford it. Maybe next time :grouphug: .
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There was an on-line chat with George at [url="http://forosfantasy.circulo.es/forums/t/446.aspx?PageIndex=1"]Circulo Fantasy[/url], all in Spanish more or less. George discusses the HBO series a bit (pretty much all the same info we've had before), his hope to revisit Haviland Tuf and his Thousand Worlds setting after the series is done, and so on. Of thematic interest, George does say that Daeron marrying his sister to the Dornish prince really was one of the causes of the Blackfyre Rebellion. Whether it was true she loved Daemon and so on is, of course, not very clear -- Ser Eustace claimed it, but for all we know it was more of a dynastic matter, Blackfyre grasping for a chance to firmly lodge himself in the succession or some such. Will be interesting to learn more in the future.

From Asshai, more discussion about Rhaegar. George says that Aerys had the larger part of the blame for Robert's Rebellion . . but does say that Rhaegar started the ball rolling when he made off with Lyanna.
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[quote name='Ran' post='1449311' date='Jul 21 2008, 18.59']Of thematic interest, George does say that Daeron marrying his sister to the Dornish prince really was one of the causes of the Blackfyre Rebellion. Whether it was true she loved Daemon and so on is, of course, not very clear -- Ser Eustace claimed it, but for all we know it was more of a dynastic matter, Blackfyre grasping for a chance to firmly lodge himself in the succession or some such. Will be interesting to learn more in the future.

From Asshai, more discussion about Rhaegar. George says that Aerys had the larger part of the blame for Robert's Rebellion . . but does say that Rhaegar started the ball rolling when he made off with Lyanna.[/quote]
Hmm. Interesting titbits.
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I'm sorry for double posting, but posting a new message is easier to see for more people than if I edit the last message :P

I'm coming with two spoilers, the one about the new PoV and another about the cover of the Spanish edition of Dance :P. Asked about the Tyrells, if they will have a PoV in Dance, he answered with a rotund "NO". But he said also they are interesting, specially Loras and Margaery, that we will see more of them in future books (then Loras is not fatally wounded :P).

The other spoiler about the cover: Alejo, the Spanish editor, told the asshai'i that were there that Martin had complained about the little decision he has in the covers, and Corominas, the artist, said he would draw the scene which Martin wanted. Martin asked for Daenerys riding a dragon :P

Good news :D
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So basically; it's almost clear that Melissandre will be the new POV in DwD, as it's been said that it wouldn't be The Hound and there'll be no Tyrells as POV in Dance.
And then, Martin wants to have a little choice (or at least leave an opinion) on our covers and Corominas offered to draw whatever Martin asked and he said it would be cool to see Dany riding a dragon?

Cooooool.
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[quote name='Ran' post='1449311' date='Jul 21 2008, 19.59']There was an on-line chat with George at [url="http://forosfantasy.circulo.es/forums/t/446.aspx?PageIndex=1"]Circulo Fantasy[/url], all in Spanish more or less.[/quote]

I'll get me a dictionnary tomorrow. :)

I was surprised how much I could understand, using my French, Opera Italian and half forgotten glimpses of Latin, but there are a few phrases where I got stuck. But it's a fun way to learn a new language.

Btw, is the h mute like in French?
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[quote name='Warden of the North' post='1451402' date='Jul 23 2008, 00.35']I'm sorry for double posting, but posting a new message is easier to see for more people than if I edit the last message :P

I'm coming with two spoilers, the one about the new PoV and another about the cover of the Spanish edition of Dance :P. Asked about the Tyrells, if they will have a PoV in Dance, he answered with a rotund "NO". But he said also they are interesting, specially Loras and Margaery, that we will see more of them in future books (then Loras is not fatally wounded :P).

The other spoiler about the cover: Alejo, the Spanish editor, told the asshai'i that were there that Martin had complained about the little decision he has in the covers, and Corominas, the artist, said he would draw the scene which Martin wanted. Martin asked for Daenerys riding a dragon :P

Good news :D[/quote]
Very interesting news, thanks for posting!

Dany riding a dragon is cool - progress on this front (I only hope he does let quite some time pass within the book and the dragon riding will be at the very end, so it doesn't seem to rushed).

Seeing more of Margaery in future books is also interesting - this indicates she will at least survive her present predicament.
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You can also try using [url="http://babelfish.yahoo.com"]Babelfish[/url] or [url="http://translate.google.com/"]Google Translate[/url] to help with translating, Gabriele. :)

H is indeed silent.
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