andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2011-08-22 02:17 pm
andrewducker) wrote2011-08-22 02:17 pm
Why I won't be reading A Clash Of Kings until I've seen season two of Game Of Thrones
I loved the book of Game Of Thrones. But only once I'd read the TV series.
I know this is an unpopular opinion in some circles, so I thought I'd
explain why this is the case (and thus why you might feel differently to
me).
I tried to read it twice before I saw the TV series. And although I could
tell the writing style was good I found it almost impossible to follow,
because I just can't "meet" that many people at once and keep them straight
in my head.
I have the same problem in work. I frequently work in teams of 30+ people
(and my last major project was about 70 people), and it takes me _at least_
four interactions with a person before I have a hope in hell of remembering
their name, and frequently several more, if their name hasn't come up in
those interactions.
Names just don't mean anything to me. They're random collections of
syllables that just happen to be associated with a person. And remember
random collections of things is not what my brain is good at (I failed
A-Level Chemistry because it was basically an exercise in remembering all
of the reactions that organic molecules have, and those would just slide
off of my brain like hot butter off a lipid-resistant duck).
And so I read the first chapter, managed to keep the people in it mostly
straight, despaired when I was instantly introduced to another group of
more than half a dozen people (and it became obvious that those earlier
people were mostly not going to be integral to the plot, but were just
there to introduce us to plot), and then when the third lot of people
introduced I quietly put the book to one side.
The TV series helped enormously. Suddenly I was dealing with people. I
could keep track of them easily, because they looked different. And
because they kept using each other's names, I quickly picked up who they
were.
Which meant that after I finished the TV series, I could pick up the book,
follow it without problems, and enjoy all of the extra detail it contained.
So, when the next TV series comes out, I will be watching that, and then
reading the book, so that I can enjoy its expansion of what I enjoyed. But
not before.
I know this is an unpopular opinion in some circles, so I thought I'd
explain why this is the case (and thus why you might feel differently to
me).
I tried to read it twice before I saw the TV series. And although I could
tell the writing style was good I found it almost impossible to follow,
because I just can't "meet" that many people at once and keep them straight
in my head.
I have the same problem in work. I frequently work in teams of 30+ people
(and my last major project was about 70 people), and it takes me _at least_
four interactions with a person before I have a hope in hell of remembering
their name, and frequently several more, if their name hasn't come up in
those interactions.
Names just don't mean anything to me. They're random collections of
syllables that just happen to be associated with a person. And remember
random collections of things is not what my brain is good at (I failed
A-Level Chemistry because it was basically an exercise in remembering all
of the reactions that organic molecules have, and those would just slide
off of my brain like hot butter off a lipid-resistant duck).
And so I read the first chapter, managed to keep the people in it mostly
straight, despaired when I was instantly introduced to another group of
more than half a dozen people (and it became obvious that those earlier
people were mostly not going to be integral to the plot, but were just
there to introduce us to plot), and then when the third lot of people
introduced I quietly put the book to one side.
The TV series helped enormously. Suddenly I was dealing with people. I
could keep track of them easily, because they looked different. And
because they kept using each other's names, I quickly picked up who they
were.
Which meant that after I finished the TV series, I could pick up the book,
follow it without problems, and enjoy all of the extra detail it contained.
So, when the next TV series comes out, I will be watching that, and then
reading the book, so that I can enjoy its expansion of what I enjoyed. But
not before.
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Personally, nowadays I'm largely about the character stuff, not the plot. I've seen enough plot to find most of them trite or reminiscient of other plots I've already seen. Character seems to have more possibilities to me.
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IIRC, she gives an example of how one can take a piece of prose about people disagreeing and turn it into bad fantasy just by changing details (names, clothing, adjectives).
This could have been an error made by A Game Of Thrones. But oddly, it isn't.
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I agree that the modern world dressed in fantasy clothing is much less interesting than something with decent worldbuilding. And I think that GRRM succeeds because it has that depth of worldbuilding that makes it feel internally consistent, while also clearly not being our world.
Without The Wall, The White Walkers, Dragons, etc. I suspect it would be much less successful (even though they've played a very small part in what I've seen so far).
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