The George R. R. Martin Experiment: Part One

The George R. R. Martin Experiment
Part One:  How This Works
Victoria

Alright. . .  So there you are, wondering what all this is about, right?  What experiment?  What is GRRM doing now?  Is this another one of his side projects that's detracting from the time he's supposed to be using to write, you ask.  Well, good news for you, he's not doing any experiment, at least, not to my knowledge.  I'm the one conducting the experiment.

Now, before I get into what this experiment is, I'm going to give you a bit of background information, so that you fully understand my motivation and intention. 

The Background

So, I'll be honest here, big epic fantasy is not really my first choice of reading.  I love fantasy, but I tend to be more of the stand-alone kind of gal.  There are exceptions.  I mean, I love myself some Abercrombie or Lynch as much as the next person, but when it comes to huge over reaching story lines with giant battles and quests and treks and castles and fortresses and. . . - well, you get the picture - That sort of thing just isn't my cup of tea. 

I had seen GRRM's stuff on the bookshelves at the store and I had heard people rave about them, but my interest wasn't piqued.  My actual thoughts on the subject, I'll be honest here, were:  Oh.  That kind of stuff.  Like we need more of that ol' cliche crud.  I know, the horror.  Now, don't get too upset, there's more.  There's a method to my madness here.

Then one day, some three years ago, I went out on a dinner date with a man I'd had my eye on for a little while.  We were sitting at the bar, waiting for a table to open up, and he presented me with a gift.  It was a copy of A Game of Thrones tied up in yellow ribbon.  He had asked around and found out I liked fantasy, so he decided to give me his favourite fantasy novel as a first date present.  Well, I have to admit, I was impressed.  Not many guys give presents nowadays.  (Hint, hint to you men out there.)

So, when I got home, I cracked open the book and started reading.  Alright, so the writing style was solid, there was some great imagery.  So far so good.   There were some great characterizations.  Alright, I'm liking this, maybe I was too harsh in my initial judgement.

Then things started to get fragmented.  Characters got separated, things started happening. . .  And really, you'd think that's when the reader would get sucked in. . .  Well, not this reader.  I started to get annoyed.  I had to read chapters about characters I did not like.  Characters I could not get into.  I'd have to wade through them to get to the characters I did like.  I just felt that there were way too many points of view.  There were far too many characters for my tastes.  Were all these points of view really necessary?  Were they needed?  This is one of the reasons I'm not into epic.  It's not just GRRM that does it, either.

It took me nearly two years to get through the book.

Though, I'm still with the man who gave me the book, so I guess I didn't hate the book that much.

And I don't hate it, like I said, there's some great stuff in there. . .  There's just that pesky business of characters I do not like.

Back to the Experiment!

What is this experiment?  Well, I'm going to re-read A Game of Thrones, then, I'll started reading the other books, but here's the kicker:

I'm only going to read the chapters of the characters I like.

All the others, I'm going to skip.  When a new point of view is introduced, I'll give that character a minimum of two chapters to make me like them. 

Yes, I know, I'll lose out on some plot, but that's kind of the point.  I want to see if GRRM created characters that are integral to the story.  If I miss massive chunks of story because I've decided to follow characters who have nothing to do with the plot. . .  Well, then answer me this:  What is the point of having that character?  This is an experiment, and it might fail, and I might find myself completely lost, but I'm going to do it anyway.

So join me next Friday when I discuss my reading of A Game of Thrones.   I will only be reading these characters:

Bran
Arya
Jon

I'll detail why I chose only these three characters, why I discarded the other characters, and I'll relate what kind of story I read when I eliminated half of the book.