George R.R. Martin (1948 - )

George R.R. Martin is an American writer, best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his international bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that the HBO channel adapted for its dramatic series Game of Thrones. Lev Grossman called George R.R. Martin ‘the American Tolkien’ (Times 2005), other reviewers did not lavish enough praise on the author as well.

He was born on September 20th 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He started his carrier relatively early writing monster stories and selling them... to his peers. Being a huge fan of the Marvel Comics he has written several letters to the editor of the Fantastic Four, comprising his literary attempts at creating alternative stories to the popular series. Some of them were so good that they were published in the comic books!

Martin is not only an excellent writer. In 1970  he  earned B.A. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois graduating summa cum laude. From 1976 to 1978 Martin was an English and journalism instructor at Clarke College, becoming Writer In Residence at the college between 1978 and 1979.

However, his best known fantasy series is A Song of Ice and Fire, he has also written Tales of Dunk and Egg – three-volume long series about events taking place in Westeros, 100 years before the events of A Song of Ice and Fire.

by Michał Kasperowicz

The Song of Ice and Fire - November 17th 2014

from: http://storiesbywilliams.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/house-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-29965891-1920-1080.jpg

You probably wonder why it took so long to write a simple, short note about one meeting. It’s all because of King Joffrey. After he had killed Ned Stark, and learned that I did not speak highly of him during our meeting he abruptly decided to defend his “honor” and has been trying to kill me ever since. Don’t worry though, I am still alive (Mister Martin has no power over me!).

As you have probably already guessed, our first meeting was devoted to The Song of Ice and Fire. On November 17th we gathered to discuss such matters as medievalism in The Game of Thrones, values represented by some of the characters, and the brutality of the reality in Martin’s book. At the end of the meeting the debate still raged - is George R.R. Martin and his fantasy series a phenomenon or not? In order to answer this question we analyzed his narration, as well as the style and the theme of the book. We also tried to figure out what was popular first, his book or the TV series. While the former question has been more or less answered, the latter one has proven to be ‘the chicken or the egg ‘causality dilemma.

I would really like to write something more, but, you see, Joffrey has not finished haunting me yet. Let’s hope that the Witches of Salem won’t be as vengeful as he is or by the end of the year we will be short of several BLASt members! 

by Michał Kasperowicz