{"id":1122,"date":"2018-10-07T14:55:37","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T14:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2018-10-07T17:29:53","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T17:29:53","slug":"a-quick-chat-with-grr-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/2018\/10\/07\/a-quick-chat-with-grr-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"A Quick Chat With GRR Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"

And before we go\u2026 A Quick Chat With GRR Martin<\/strong> (first published in SXFX Issue #1, June 1995<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Acclaimed science fiction writer GRR (George Ray-Rick) Martin was passing by our offices on his way north for the 53rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow. We sent David N. Guy<\/strong> outside to have a quick word.<\/em><\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> Hi, George. First I would just like to say what a huge fan of yours I am\u2026<\/p>\n

GRRM:<\/strong> Well, thank you. That\u2019s very kind of you to say.<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> \u2026which makes it all the more disappointing to me that with your new novel you have abandoned the world of science fiction for the inferior genre of fantasy.<\/p>\n

GRRM:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think \u2014<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> It\u2019s made me very sad.<\/p>\n

GRRM:<\/strong> You know I\u2019ve written fantasy [The Kings Of Sand, the Beauty and the Beast tv series] before, right? I find it very strange that anyone would not see science fiction and fantasy as both part of the same world of imaginative fiction.<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> But fantasy is just terrible. Made up rubbish. There\u2019s a reason this is a science fiction magazine, you know? I just don\u2019t understand the point of it. No one does, surely? I think C. Staples Lewis said it best when he said to [J. Reuel] Tolkien, \u201cWhat the fuck is this piss, John? Get the hell out of my pub.\u201d<\/p>\n

GRRM:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think\u2014<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> You keep saying you don\u2019t think. Well, maybe you should think! About what you\u2019re writing. What\u2019s the point of reading something if it\u2019s just made up? You can make anything up. \u201cOh, look, we were all saved by magic!\u201d How convenient. You could have said that at the start of the book and saved me all this wasted time.<\/p>\n

GRRM:<\/strong> And science fiction isn\u2019t made up?<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> It is made up but it\u2019s made up according to rules. The rules of science. Look at the TARDIS. It might seem like nonsense, like magic\u200a\u2014\u200aI mean, a wardrobe that leads to other worlds and other times? \u201cIt\u2019s absurd,\u201d you say. \u201cIt\u2019s a fantasy!\u201d But it is actually a very interesting scientific idea. We know space is malleable and deformable, so who is to say that time isn\u2019t as well. And that one day we might not be able to control these forces and condense them down into something that resembles a mundane piece of bedroom furniture.<\/p>\n

GRRM:<\/strong> So you believe that Doctor Who And The Last Best Religion<\/em>, say, is an example of something that could really happen. Am I right in saying that you see it as a possible future, rather than an as allegory of belief? That\u2019s very interesting. You know that Aslan is supposed to be \u2014<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> A robot! Aslan is a robot. Created by Azros, The King From Beyond The Sea (And Above The Skies), using the brain of his poor son, Aslad, born without a body but with a soul greater than any of our own. And, as you well know, robots and cyborgs are not only scientifically plausible, but some would say scientifically inevitable. Unlike dragons.<\/p>\n

GRRM:<\/strong> I\u2019m not sure a dragon is any more implausible than, say, a dinosaur.<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> They don\u2019t have a dragon skeleton in the main hall of the Natural History Museum, do they? They\u2019ve got a Brontosaurus! And some sort of giant sloth.<\/p>\n

GRRM:<\/strong> But dragons \u2014<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> I hate dragons! Hate them. And if you like dinosaurs so much, why not make the dragons [in your book] pterodactyls instead?<\/p>\n

GRRM:<\/strong> So if you imagine that every time I\u2019ve written the word \u2018dragon\u2019 I\u2019ve really written \u2018pterodactyl\u2019 instead, would that make you happy?<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> It\u2019d certainly be better. You\u2019d still have to explain why there\u2019s all these pterodactyls flying around, though. Perhaps there has been a deformation of time somewhere\u2026<\/p>\n

GRRM<\/strong>: Or maybe they\u2019re all on a distant planet.<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> Yes. YES! I like the sound of that. A distant planet which is being used as some sort of space zoo by a mysterious race of ancient interstellar beings to preserve all the extinct animals throughout earth history. And humans are there because we\u2019ve destroyed our home planet through our hubris and incompetence. Yes, that sounds wonderful. Very interesting and very plausible.<\/p>\n

GRRM: Okay. But what about all the zombies?<\/p>\n

DNG:<\/strong> There\u2019s nothing wrong with zombies, is there? They\u2019re definitely plausible. And therefore definitely science fiction. Everybody loves zombies, surely?<\/p>\n

GRR Martin\u2019s The Dragon Who Just Wanted To Sleep will be released next year.<\/em><\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

1. Written January and February, 2016<\/em>
\n2. And first published in SXFX Magazine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n__________<\/br>

Support An Accumulation Of Things<\/a><\/h3>If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon<\/a> or my ko-fi<\/a>. <\/br><\/br>Patreon subscribers<\/a> get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.<\/br><\/br>(Ko-fi contributors<\/a> probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). <\/br><\/br>Thank you!<\/i><\/br><\/br>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And before we go\u2026 A Quick Chat With GRR Martin (first published in SXFX Issue #1, June 1995) Acclaimed science fiction writer GRR (George Ray-Rick) Martin was passing by our offices on his way north for the 53rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow. We sent David N. Guy outside to have a quick word. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[385],"tags":[401,386],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sxfx","tag-george-rr-martin","tag-sxfx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1125,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions\/1125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}