Thought I'd make a thread for all the questions that you wished fans would ask GRRM.
Your lordship lost a son at the Red Wedding. I lost four upon the Blackwater. And why? Because the Lannisters stole the throne. Go to King’s Landing and look on Tommen with your own eyes, if you doubt me. A blind man could see it. What does Stannis offer you? Vengeance. Vengeance for my sons and yours, for your husbands and your fathers and your brothers. Vengeance for your murdered lord, your murdered king, your butchered princes. Vengeance!
Honestly? I wish someone would ask them about everything on serwalterpuffsalot thread:http://thelasthearth.freeforums.net/thread/167/grrm-kinda-creeps-me-out
Though that could make for a very awkward Q&A.
All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Oscar Wilde.
Post by regular jon umber on Oct 14, 2015 6:42:50 GMT
We should honestly just ask him all the questions we come up with, via a livejournal private message. He seems to sometimes answer those. But they'd have to be subtle, so he wouldn't know he was giving anything away.
So, I would ask:
- Why did Rhaegar name it the tower of joy? - What did Ned tell Robert about how Lyanna died? - How is the sword of the morning chosen? - Does the 'Snow' in Snowgate refer to the Northern bastard name?
I'm sure there's more but I've only had one cup of coffee so far.
- Why did Rhaegar name it the tower of joy? - What did Ned tell Robert about how Lyanna died?
Questions like these were actually what got me started thinking about this thread as I feel like people who have bothered to ask GRRM questions that they feel are related to RLJ, in attempts to "prove" RLJ, all seem to fall short of asking the most basic questions that I feel should be answered first.
There are those that you mention, like why did Ned say that Rhaegar called it the TOJ (and IMO, did Rhaegar actually name the tower, or is he simply the one who knew the name from somewhere else?), how did Ned explain his sister's death to everyone if she died in childbirth and he was trying to hide that he was hiding her child, but I also feel that there are tons of questions that should have been asked long ago by people who were setting out to all those cons and what not to ask GRRM their RLJ questions. Like
- When did Ned meet Wylla? Was it at Starfall or somewhere else, or actually while he was fighting during the war? - Why does Ned seemingly exclude Jon from his list of children when Cersei asked him what he'd do to protect them? - Why does Ned and Arthur seemingly have such a deep connection and respect for one another? - How much time occurred between the Sack and the TOJ? (like really, how was that never asked when Jon is supposedly 8-9 months older than Dany who's born 9 months after the Sack??? It's the most basic question to see if Jon's possibly born in the right timeframe at the TOJ) - When did Rhaegar leave the TOJ? (ESPECIALLY if the above question has been answered, as all you have to do is go back 9 months to figure out if Rhaegar could have fathered any child on Lyanna) - Was Lyanna a virgin when Rhaegar abducted her? And if she was, was she still a virgin when she died? - Did Lyanna ever joust or practice jousting in her life? - Did Ned ever compete in a tournament? - Did Lyanna love Robert back? - How big was the TOJ? - Were the 7 northmen and 3 KG the only people at the TOJ? - How old was Jon when Ned arrived back in Winterfell? - What year did Lyanna die in? - Why did Ned bring Lyanna's bones back north, but not his men's, if they were all at the TOJ together? - Why does no one from the rebels ask where Lyanna was during the whole Rebellion? Etc.
Ultimately I just kind of felt some of these basic questions should have been asked long ago, but never were for whatever reason (I tend to lean towards people feeling that those questions don't "need" to be answered as they feel they already have the answers themselves)
Your lordship lost a son at the Red Wedding. I lost four upon the Blackwater. And why? Because the Lannisters stole the throne. Go to King’s Landing and look on Tommen with your own eyes, if you doubt me. A blind man could see it. What does Stannis offer you? Vengeance. Vengeance for my sons and yours, for your husbands and your fathers and your brothers. Vengeance for your murdered lord, your murdered king, your butchered princes. Vengeance!
I would like to ask if the order of the green men is still in operation.
I would also like to know what freyfamilyreunion asked grrm at the Q&A he attended.
Chalk this up to missed opportunities. I originally didn't think I would be able to get a book signed by him, since there were a limited number of tickets and the VIP pass my wife got me for a Christmas present didn't cover it. But I showed up at the bookstore anyway and after a while they let people purchase additional tickets since the line was starting to finish and Martin was ok in hanging around a while longer. I noticed that no one was asking him any questions, so I wasn't sure if I could, but at the last second I thought I'd get a question in. Unfortunately I kind of blanked on a good question, and the only thing I thought of that I thought he might be willing to answer was something I had been hashing over with Snowfyre on the PMs, (and for the record Snowfyre was pretty skeptical of my theory). I was rereading ACOK at the time and trying to figure out some of Martin's more unusual references. Well anyway when Dany is leaving the Hall of the Pureborn after everyone denied her request for ships and whatnot, she says something to the effect of one of the Pureborn, Wendello praised the way she spoke but still denied her request.
Anyway, it seemed like an odd line. And then I stumbled across an infamous study from back in the 50's at the University of Iowa nicknamed the "Monster study" by academic circles. In it, a Wendell Johnson, performed an experiment on orphans, trying to test whether positive and negative reinforcement could affect speech impediments. In the experiment, he gave positive reinforcement to the orphans with speech impediments, to see if it improved their speech, but also gave negative reinforcement to orphans without speech impediments to see if he could create speech impediments on those children (hence the controversial nature of the study).
So I started to wonder if Martin's line about Wendello praising the way she spoke might be a subtle reference to that experiment. I thought it possible since Martin also attended grad school at Iowa State university that he may have heard about this infamous experiment. Then I started to think that maybe a constant theme of Varys and Illyrio taking the speech from their little birds (also possibly orphans) might have been influenced by that study.
So long story, short, I thought I'd showboat in front of Martin and impress him with my keen insight on one of his very subtle references. But when I asked him if he was referencing Wendell Johnson and the Monster study, he thought about it for a few seconds, shook his head and said he wasn't familiar with that name. So in retrospect I wish I had asked him a more pertinent question about the books.
Later I attended a Q & A, but since the topic seemed mainly about writing for tv, and translating his books for the show, I figured I should ask him something in line with the theme. So I asked him about the lack of any flashbacks to the events of Robert's rebellion in the show, since characters' memories of those events seems so pivitol for the books. He replied that there would be two flashbacks in the upcoming season ( I only remember the Cersei flashback) but otherwise that decision is out of his hands.
How much influence has GRRM drawn from the assorted works of Dalton Trumbo? (Has anyone here ever taken note of the plot synopsis of Roman Holiday? HAVE YOU?? You should.)
Does the Sword of the Morning HAVE to be a KNIGHT of House Dayne?
Who is the tiny blonde girl with eyes like plums that Brienne remembers from Tarth?
Was there any thought by Targaryen kings/nobility about turning Westeros into a Freehold?
When did Lynara Stark and Doran Martell's mother die?
What happened to the maesters of Winterfell and Dragonstone in service before Luwin and Cressen?
How did the Valyrian's really tie the dragons to them?
Do they really have the blood of the dragon, or just "the Blood of the Magic?"
All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Oscar Wilde.
