24th January 2015, 8:37 AM
It's a bit hard for me to read Chronicles much these days. Being on the "other side" of that faith makes me read all those horrible things those animals did to that uncle in a different light. He really didn't deserve all that just for the crime of "doubt". In fact, horrible fates await ANY character who has the gall to "doubt" things in that world, and the way he describes the terrible shallow existence of the kids who "forgot" Narnia when they grew up in later books is just insulting. The guy goes as far as to suggest even being an outright human sacrificing Satanist is better than being a nonbeliever, because at least they believe in SOMETHING. I still have some fondness for that series, having grown up on it, but these days I much prefer Lord of the Rings as it doesn't have nearly the "I hate doubters" tone of Narnia books.
...
Recently I've been reading those Game of Thrones books. Well, my mother bought the entire set for me as a gift a year ago. She INSISTED I read the whole lot and watch the series because she's just so caught up in it all now. She loves it all. I myself had planned on just skipping this particular cultural touchstone but at her insistence I've been slowly digesting these books over the course of a year (I'm near the end of the third one, I should be done with them all by the end of next year). Frankly, there's part I like and parts I don't like. Not being an avid fantasy reader, I've basically only got Lord of the Rings to compare it to.
What can I say? If the theme of Lord of the Rings was "most people are good at heart, always have hope and small things can change the whole world", the theme of Game of Thrones is "most people are petty and spiteful at heart, hope is irrational and small things don't matter and will die a dog's death". I mean, I think the end goal of the writer is to get everyone who reads his books to kill themselves or something, because frankly I don't know exactly what he intends his art to tell the world about life, exactly. It's not just "gritty" or "dark", it's bleak, like Russian level bleak. I can't find ANY hope at all for anyone in these books. The winners are the most cunning with the least scruples. Cruel people can die, but only if they are also stupid. Good people will die terribly because, hey, were you REALLY so foolish as to believe being a "good person" with principles could protect you from a sword? You moron! You naive foolish little moron! The universe itself will teach you how much of a lie you've been living! I hate you!
That said, there's things to like. I do enjoy reading about the descriptions of the world they're in (the world that most people are too petty to actually pay much attention to half the time), and reading the perspectives of characters to see exactly where they're coming from certainly breathes some life into this bleak hellscape of a world. It's not all as bad as I've implied above, but seriously, I just like a BIT of positivity in my stories, and I'm not really getting if there's a point to all this. From the looks of it, every single good character is going to die, and them zombies are going to rush over everything. Also dragons, they're slowly plodding along in some forgotten dessert.
Also, PLEASE stop using the descriptive form "It was x, and y, and z". Adding a third adjective to a form that normally has two isn't really THAT incredible, even when the third one doesn't match the first two. Yes yes, the city "smelled of blood and salt and DEATH". The guy uses that at EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY. Also, while the books don't seem to have nearly as much sex as people tell me the show does, the sex is almost always pointless. I'm a bit unmoved by such things anyway, but generally I just sorta glaze over when I get to those parts waiting for the actual story to continue.
Dang, I really come off as hating these books don't I? It's not all that bad, I just have a hard time really defining what it is that keeps me reading them, that's all.
...
Recently I've been reading those Game of Thrones books. Well, my mother bought the entire set for me as a gift a year ago. She INSISTED I read the whole lot and watch the series because she's just so caught up in it all now. She loves it all. I myself had planned on just skipping this particular cultural touchstone but at her insistence I've been slowly digesting these books over the course of a year (I'm near the end of the third one, I should be done with them all by the end of next year). Frankly, there's part I like and parts I don't like. Not being an avid fantasy reader, I've basically only got Lord of the Rings to compare it to.
What can I say? If the theme of Lord of the Rings was "most people are good at heart, always have hope and small things can change the whole world", the theme of Game of Thrones is "most people are petty and spiteful at heart, hope is irrational and small things don't matter and will die a dog's death". I mean, I think the end goal of the writer is to get everyone who reads his books to kill themselves or something, because frankly I don't know exactly what he intends his art to tell the world about life, exactly. It's not just "gritty" or "dark", it's bleak, like Russian level bleak. I can't find ANY hope at all for anyone in these books. The winners are the most cunning with the least scruples. Cruel people can die, but only if they are also stupid. Good people will die terribly because, hey, were you REALLY so foolish as to believe being a "good person" with principles could protect you from a sword? You moron! You naive foolish little moron! The universe itself will teach you how much of a lie you've been living! I hate you!
That said, there's things to like. I do enjoy reading about the descriptions of the world they're in (the world that most people are too petty to actually pay much attention to half the time), and reading the perspectives of characters to see exactly where they're coming from certainly breathes some life into this bleak hellscape of a world. It's not all as bad as I've implied above, but seriously, I just like a BIT of positivity in my stories, and I'm not really getting if there's a point to all this. From the looks of it, every single good character is going to die, and them zombies are going to rush over everything. Also dragons, they're slowly plodding along in some forgotten dessert.
Also, PLEASE stop using the descriptive form "It was x, and y, and z". Adding a third adjective to a form that normally has two isn't really THAT incredible, even when the third one doesn't match the first two. Yes yes, the city "smelled of blood and salt and DEATH". The guy uses that at EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY. Also, while the books don't seem to have nearly as much sex as people tell me the show does, the sex is almost always pointless. I'm a bit unmoved by such things anyway, but generally I just sorta glaze over when I get to those parts waiting for the actual story to continue.
Dang, I really come off as hating these books don't I? It's not all that bad, I just have a hard time really defining what it is that keeps me reading them, that's all.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)