World Building and Imaginative Reading

[waywardcats]

I am still mulling over this blog post from Alyssa Rosenbuerg on Ta-Nehisi Coates blog discussing world building by George R. R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling and more.  What do you think?

Edit to re-credit authorship.

Comments

[onyxlynx]

Hmmmm. Two things:

1. the writer is Alyssa Rosenberg, one of the guest bloggers filling in for Mr. Coates, and
2. you know, in spite of having had it smushed in my face for decades, I hadn't noticed that British fantasy (and a lot of American fantasy) tends to uphold the British political system, specifically 14th to 18th century.

Also, I probably have to check out the Martin.

[waywardcats]

Ah yes, I missed Alyssa's tag. Will correct the entry now.

I have mixed feelings about the Martin, but this is making me think I need to re-read it.

[wild_irises]

Not very respectfully, I think she's full of shit. I think that almost any story (including, btw, mainstream stories) has imagination room, and that the very thin-ness of things like Twilight is part of what attracts a significant readership--it's so thin that it's easy to put yourself in the story.

As for the "the reader has to decide which cities they like best" why is that more true in the Martin than in Tolkien? Why wouldn't a reader "have to" choose between Gondor and Rohan? Isengard and Rivendell?

I loved the first three volumes of the Martin and have probably now given up after the fourth when (to my tastes) he slipped over the edge into self-parody. What was it that she said that makes you want to reread them?

[waywardcats]

Agreed. I think you can probably guess that I disagree strongly with what she said here:
"But I do find myself glued to the television every time TNT airs Peter Jackson's film adaptation of the trilogy, in part because I think Jackson imbued the characters with the kind of warmth particularly suited to a fan fiction age. Give Aragorn self-doubt, amp up Eowyn's role in the Battle of Pelennor Fields and eliminate some of what Tolkien saw as her sternness, and you've got inner lives that viewers feel like they can populate."

The films interfere so much with the Lord of the Rings that I have had in my mind for so long that I could barely make it through the first two movies.

I honestly can't think of any story that I have ever read that did not have imagination room, and so I think I am just having a hard time wrapping my head around the concept.

She wrote: "It's not a universe where you can decide to read in a sexual orientation for a major character, for example (although a number of the characters do surprise a bit in that regard). "

I don't know if it was lost in me, or it's been too long since I read the books, but I don't recall any serious surprises in this regard. So mostly I am curious as to what I missed, or can't recall about the books.