The Book of the New Sun vs. A Song of Ice and Fire

Jerry Friedman · 02 Aug 2012, 01:43 · from 2012-August.txt.gz

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com (Jerry Friedman)
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 18:43:47 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) The Book of the New Sun vs. A Song of Ice and Fire
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> From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at clueland.com>

> On 8/1/2012 1:19 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
...

>>  The Society for Creative Anachronism likes to say that it recreates
>>  "the middle ages as they should have been." Martin describes a
>>  medieval fantasy world as it really would have been.
> 
> Sort of: 
> http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/07/08/game-of-thrones-author-george-r-r-martin-spills-the-secrets-of-a-dance-with-dragons/
> 
> 
> "You once said that fantasy needs to reflect reality. Can you explain what 
> you meant by that?
> 
> Well, I think all fiction needs to reflect reality. Fiction is lies, we?re 
> writing about people who never existed and events that never happened when we 
> write fiction, whether its science fiction or fantasy or western mystery stories 
> or so-called literary stories. All those things are essentially untrue. But it 
> has to have a truth at the core of it. You?re still writing about people, you?re 
> writing about the human condition. I often quote Faulkner, who said in his 
> speech after winning the Nobel Prize that 'the human heart in conflict with 
> itself' is the only thing worth writing about. And I?ve always agreed with 
> that. It?s true no matter what genre you?re writing in, even if there are 
> dragons in it or it?s about a private detective or a western gunslinger, it?s 
> still ultimately about the human heart in conflict with itself or it?s not worth 
> reading."
> 
> Apparently, the history and other fantastic parts are implausibly grandeurous 
> intentionally because they exist only to serve the realistic characters and 
> plot.


I don't see in that quotation that he says why the series has fantastic parts, much less what their "only" purpose is. ?I also don't think "a truth at the core of it" is necessarily the same as "realistic characters?and?plot."

Jerry Friedman

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