POLL: Following article about Game of Thrones author, GRR Martin makes me wonder if the warm-hearted artists, who find themselves in the modern age in close communication w/the public, are doing themselves a service or not. Very interesting article follows. IMO Mr Martin should not feel pressured by the public - the latter would be wiser to let him finish his latest book in his own good time. You can't rush creativity, and usually when you try to the results are often a disappointment for everyone including the writer...
http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2010/08/a-fan-asks-after-grrm.html
4 comments:
Very interesting article, thank you so much for posting. I do sometimes cringe when I see some of the fans posting on GRRM's blog nagging him about finishing the book. I think I understand how they may feel, but it's taking advantage of how open GRRM is about interacting with his fans, something he really doesn't have to do! Luckily he has a sense of humor about it.
Richard is another man with a fabulous sense of humor. Not only gorgeous but intelligent and funny! What more can a woman want or need! I do think the relationship between artist and fan is a delicate one, and the fact that the modern age and the Web, Twitter and Facebook make it possible to communicate with each other is both a wonderful thing and a difficult thing when emotions are involved.
14yrs ago, when Vol 1-GoT was
1st published, most of the original fans were probably pure fantasy readers - would that have something to do with the arrogance a few display today? IMO, only emotionally immature human beings assume they've the right to make demands on public figures(other than politicians, who are always fair game:) Happily, most GRRM fans today sound as though they're sensible & appreciative of his impressive wordsmithing history.
Yes, you're right, he does appear to cope w/negative remarks in a playful, light hearted manner. Although he did pointedly remind his readers that he'd stayed home, and set his fingers to the keyboard while his peers were enjoying themselves at Comic Con. haha He didn't miss that golden opportunity to hush those nagging for completion of Vol 5.
grrm impresses me as an unusual writer, in that he's very sociable. That fact must make it extremely difficult for him to shut off the world and instead start interacting w/his dozens of imaginary inhabitants of Westeros.
It's interesting that you bring this up because I've been thinking about the differences in fan involvement in different spheres, specifically actors and musicians. I have only anecdotal evidence for this but it's my perception that musicians are more accessible to, more patient with and more encouraging of fans than actors are and I wondered if there was something inherent in the two forms that made it that way. A couple of years ago Dr. Drew Pinsky did a landmark study of Narcissistic Personality Disorder in celebrities. Unsurprisingly, reality show contestants had the highest presentation rate of symptoms of NPD, i.e. they wanted to be famous for the sake of being famous. He found that musicians had a markedly lower presentation of this disorder irrespective of level of fame. He theorized that this had to do with musicians having an actual skill set. My question is whether the same skill set that protects a musician from NPD also protects them psychologically from the encroachment of fans. An actor, ultimately, has only his own body to draw upon while a musician uses his body to manipulate something outside himself (or inside in the case of a singer). A Beatles fan will discuss John Lennon's Rickenbacker, the strings, the modulation, etc., and it's a separate entity that's being discussed. A Richard Armitage fan has only his body to discuss -- the way he moved his arm right there, the flick of his eye, the modulation of his voice. Discussing the minutiae of acting in the same detail as of musicianship feels invasive to me as a fan and I wonder if actors feel that, too. It would unnerve me to be that under a microscope.
Interesting comments, anonymous.
As for actors vs musicians. My impression is the latter group on the whole demonstrates somewhat more emotional angst in their personal lives than professional actors. There are numerous members of both celebrity groups who seem to have difficulty maintaining healthy personal lives off the stage/screen.
IMO, that's why Richard can be viewed as one of the unique few celebrities in the world, who manage to keep their ego in check and feet firmly planted on the gound in the glare of fans' ever hotter spotlight.
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