In Defense of George R.R. Martin

I’ve read lots of stuff complaining and whining about George R.R. Martin’s delays with the next installment in A Song of Fire and Ice.  Some of it’s not very nice at all.  Some of it’s down right hateful and despicable. 

I’ll never forget the first time I discovered the series.  I couldn’t put A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords down.  I drove over three hours to pick up A Feast for Crows and meet Mr. Martin, but I swore not to read it until A Dance with Dragons was released because those two books were originally intended to be a single volume.  So I waited.  And I waited.  And I waited.  Then . . .  I waited some more.  I finally started checking Amazon's and Martin’s websites regularly for updates.  I think it was after the second year of waiting that I decided I would just pick it up when it was finished.  And no, I still haven’t read A Feast for Crows.

Am I frustrated?  Sure.  Am I impatient?  Sometimes – when I think about it too long.  Am I angry?  No.  Mr. Martin has stated that he doesn’t want to turn in anything that doesn’t live up to the project.  Would you, as a reader, want something he didn’t put his heart and soul into?  I can already hear someone saying, “He’s gonna die before he finishes the @#$%&* thing!”   I certainly hope not.  I couldn’t imagine anyone being about to finish the story in the manner Mr. Martin has.  But it’s always a possibility. 

Where will you be next week?  Are you sure?  What if you’re the victim of a fatal accident or a sudden terminal illness?  How do you plan for that?  We don’t.  We plan our lives based on what we expect or hope will happen.  I’m sure Mr. Martin is no different.  A Song of Fire and Ice will probably be his master work.  Why shouldn’t he have the time necessary to make it so?  I believe it was on his website where it was pointed out that J.R.R. Tolkien worked on The Lord of the Rings for decades.  All the time and effort was worth every word. 

Consider this.  You think we’ve had a long wait.  Ever read David Gerrold’s War Against the Chtorr?  It’s an amazing series.  One of the best alien invasion stories I’ve ever read.  The people in it are very real – too real sometimes, just like in Mr. Martin’s, as they are forced to do some extremely bad things sometimes.  Seven books are planned; four have been complete.  The last one, A Season for Slaughter, was published in 1992.  Eighteen years I’ve been waiting to see what happened next.  Eighteen.  Am I frustrated?  Sure.  Am I impatient?  Sometimes.  Am I angry?  No. 

Anyway . . . the next time you get fed up or you decide to create an I Hate George R.R. Martin fan group (I saw one online – honest – I really saw one), pause and think about this: we may be just as responsible for the delay as any other reason.  How would you feel to have thousands of people breathing down you neck, demanding something fantabulously great, right now.  That’s a big demand on anybody.  Fan demand can be just as harmful to an artist as it can be beneficial. 

In the mean time, I’m enjoying the first three books again as I prepare to watch the HBO series.  I will probably go ahead and read A Feast for Crows this time.  Then I will wait ever how long it takes.  Maybe the series will spur Mr. Martin onward, since they plan to do a season per book?  Who knows?  Let the artist create the art.  It’s his work, it’s his property.  He’s just sharing it with us.

Andrew Stanton has begun Shooting John Carter as of Friday!

Good news!  Good news!

Who would have believed it?  I mean, I know they cast roles, and they were doing writes and rewrites on the script . . . but it looks like its for real!  Motion/Captured reports that shooting began on Stanton's adaptation in London  on Friday (01/15/10).  You can read about casting in an earlier entry here at Nerdbloggers.  Final product still due in 2012. 

Now let's continue to hope that that pesky Mayan Prophecy doesn't get in our way!

Here's a link to the artilce at Motion/Captured: http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-6-motion-captured/posts/john-carter-of-mars-is-shooting-and-all-is-right-with-the-world

In case you missed it, here and here are two Variety articles on the casting of the film.

In Case You Haven't Heard About the Frank Frazetta Burglary . . .

Frank Frazetta made me a fan.

Oh, it was other covers that drew me into those aisles in Dalton’s and Walden’s thirty-odd years ago – I remember one in particular.  It was the cover to Andre Norton’s Daybreak – 2250.  It was one of the first books I bought and kept in what has become my collection.  I still don’t know who the artist is, but the picture of the man rafting through a half-submerged city, sword strapped to his hip, very large Siamese-looking cat by his foot . . . it was like nothing I had ever encountered before . . . until I first saw the terrors of Pellucidar.  Frazetta made me stay. 

I couldn’t believe the monstrous beasts that dwelt in the world at the earth's core (according to Frank Frazetta’s covers anyway), or the absolutely gorgeous women.   Those covers made me read my first Edgar Rice Burroughs book.  Frazetta covers made me pick up Conan.  That was the power of Frazetta.  His covers filled me with a sense of mystery, awe, and fear.  It was like the haunted house ride when you were a kid.  It was dark and scary, but you wanted to be in there.  And I never left.

You could probably argue that Frazetta covers helped create and popularize the paperback science fiction and fantasy market.  That’s why I was devastated when I read about the feud broiling between the Frazetta children.  Frazetta’s health is declining.  His wife passed recently.  The museum has been closed.  And apparently Frank, Jr., tried to break into the museum to still hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of paintings.  All the facts are not out, so I don't know the whole story - I don't know if I want to know.  So, I’m not even going to try to explain what's being said. 

I've been following the story online since it broke in December.  There was a good article in the recent Locus about it, too.  You probably will want to check out these links for the bigger story:

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091212/NEWS/912120332

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091210/NEWS/912109991

Daring Heroics, Dastardly Deeds, & Space Rock

How’s this for nerdiness: as an undergrad, I took a literature class called Icelandic Saga. It was a great, memorable experience.  My classmates were all into it, especially the connections with fantasy lit.  My college mentor was even teaching.  Yeah, all four of us had a blast. 

Anywho . . . speaking of sagas, just read a good one:  THE SAGA OF HAWKWIND.

Don’t know the Hawklords?  And you call yourselves nerds.  Okay, here’s a brief summary of the Sparknote version of the Cliffnote version of why one of the world’s most under-rated bands should be discussed on Nerdbloggers.  Since its inception, Hawkwind has delivered some the most innovative and compelling space rock known to man.  Their live album Space Ritual captures the early glory.  (And yes, that is Lemmy from Motorhead on bass.)  Hall of the Mountain Grill and The Warrior on the Edge of Time are other highlights.  Contributing to, and occasionally performing with, the band is none other than the master of science-fantasy literature: Michael Moorcock.  The album Doremi Falso Latido is based upon Moorcock’s novel The Black Corridor.  And then there’s the ultimate treat of The Chronicle of the Black Sword which, of course, is based upon Moorcock’s Elric Saga.  I would say that it just doesn’t get better than that, but it does.  There’s the recording of the Black Sword tour – Live Chronicles – which may be one of the best live albums ever recorded.  They based songs upon works all of the great speculative writers ranging from Asimov (I Robot) to Zelazny (Damnation Alley).  I could go on and on and on, but you get the idea.  The Hawks (well, Dave Brock and current friends) are still churning out good stuff to this day.  Their thirty-plus-years story is truly a saga.  And that’s what Carol Clerk presents in The Saga of Hawkwind (Omnibus Press 2004).

From what I remember from my class, a saga usually preserves the tales of great deeds from the past.  Clerk’s chronicle follows Hawkwind from before its earliest inception.  She follows Dave Brock and company as they struggle across 1950’s and 60’s Britain and Europe performing blues, busking, and jazz.  They’re lots of interesting rock history along the way.  For example, I’ve been listened to Hawkwind for over twenty years but never knew of the meeting between Brock and Eric Clapton, when Brock showed Clapton how to play some chords.  Or that Jimi Hendrix watched Hawkwind’s legendary free performance at the Isle of Wight and later dedicated a song to Nik Turner – that silver guy – when he did his set.  The book is filled with juicy little bits like that.  Clerk devotes a chapter to every historical step Hawkwind ever took.  At over thirty lengthy chapters, that should give you an idea of the history in there. 

One thing I admired about the book was also something that bothered me at times.  Clerk’s objectivity cannot be disputed.  Right from page one, she informs you that the history of the band is complex and often conflicting.  The same story is remembered differently by different band members or observers; sometimes stories about certain members are remembered by some while vehemently denied by others.  The bothersome part, however, is that the book is all about the infighting and disputes, petty and profound, that occurred within the band.  Ultimately, Brock, who is one of the mythic legends looming large within the pantheon of my all-time favorites, is given a chaptered titled “God, Satan, or Just Captain of the Ship.”  It was troubling at times to read but revelatory.  It reminded me that all artists are essentially human.  In fact it is that struggle that can distinguish between the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The history of Hawkwind definitely trudges through all three.

The Saga of Hawkwind is a hefty tome.  The hardback copy I own is over five hundred pages.  I bought the Kindle version which, however, has been updated and expanded and is even longer!  If I had a quibble with the book, this would be it.  You are sometimes reminded of the daunting size of the book.  Like the sagas of days gone by, Clerk focuses on genealogy.  She has constructed a lineage of the band and its connections to others bands and provided a history of every member who has served with the band from their birth till their joining.  While this is not a problem necessarily with the key figures, it does interrupt the narrative when your reading about the problems of a certain tour then, right in the middle, break to read about who so-and-so is, where he was born, went to school, and what bands he worked with before finally meeting Hawkwind.  Sometimes the book is too comprehensive.

Aside from their speculative fiction leanings, Clerk reveals the role this band played in the development of punk (Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols was a huge Hawkwind fan) and dance music.  The volume is filled with stories of the heroic and the petty, and that honesty keeps the story real and relevant.  There’re also great photos throughout the band’s long, varied history.  Despite its flaws, which are few, The Saga of Hawkwind is a straight-forward, interesting look at an important, over-looked band. 

Sailing the Aether with Abney Park

I’m biased. I love music with a science fiction and fantasy slant. To be honest, that’s what first drew me to Abney Park. I saw them at DragonCon in 2008 where the program described them as a steampunk band. (Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that hearkens back to the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells in terms of setting, technology, and tone.) I became a fan the moment I listened to Lost Horizons.

Click to read more ...