Tuesday, December 23, 2014

For fantasy fans




When I was young, and somewhere beyond that too, I loved The Lord of the Rings so much that I read the words bare. I can no longer really read the books effectively because they are worn to threads by my usage. I can barely make them out anymore. The phrase "involuntarily memorized" comes to mind.

But my love remains.

Once I tried to read George R. R. Martin's The Game of Thrones. I was on a solo kayak trip on the St Croix river, paddling through a maze of loneliness and spring ticks. It was the only book I had with me on the trip. The more I read it the more depressed I became until, with a shock of awareness, I realized I hated that book. I didn't have to read it. It was killing me.

I stopped reading it. 

The ticks disappeared.

I have disagreeably felt these books bumping up against each other in the culture for many years now, but today I suddenly had a way to express something of my feelings, small though it may be, and sensible only to those of you familiar with these authors.


If George R. R. Martin had written Lord of the Rings, everyone but Boromir would have died.





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