I went to see Barbie with my lovely wife; she said pink is my color. #imkenough pic.twitter.com/4E0LJMQpmC
— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) July 31, 2023
George RR Martin dressed up in pink to see Barbie. This Barbie is never going to finish Winds of Winter! This Barbie is a procrastinator. [Buzzfeed]
Shawn Mendes got sunburnt in Ibiza. [OMG Blog]
Balmain’s Resort collections are so fussy. [GFY]
Offset addresses the rumor (which he started) that Cardi B cheated. [JustJared]
Barbie is such a huge success by every metric. [LaineyGossip]
Review of Talk to Me, a horror film I will not see. [Pajiba]
Natasha Lyonne’s bangs, you guys. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Elon Musk took down that stupid strobe-light X sign. [Jezebel]
The Da Vinci Code & the MAGA cult. [Towleroad]
Kylie Minogue wore Mugler to promote her Las Vegas residency. [RCFA]
Waiting for more than a decade for a book that may never come – i am likening it to waiting for a man you’re screwing to leave his wife. Let’s all move on.
He does not have to finish that or any other book.
Glad he and his wife enjoyed Barbie. Such a great film.
As a writer, if I let someone my notes and plot ideas to make a show, and they used it to screw up every single thing the readers/fans/and I loved about the series, I wouldn’t have the oomph to finish it either. It’s like he handed a sketch for everyone to see and instead of coloring it in carefully, they kind of scribbled with random crayons. He’ll just have to console himself by sleeping on piles of money with his wife 😂
This. What’s the point of finishing the book? We know approximately how it ends and we hated it.
I think he could make the ending better.
Speaking for myself, I’m not mad a many of the major plot points (Dany specifically), but the lazy and rushed writing made it all completely unearned, and other minor plot points were either nonsensical/cliche or otherwise unearned. I didn’t hate the destination, I hate how we got there.
GRRM could _easily_ write the ending his way, and it would still be worth reading, IMO.
From what I understand that’s not going to be the ending of the books. But he blessed it for the show.
There is no way the books will end like the show. The books have so many more plot lines and characters that were dead in the show are still alive (or undead) in the book. Some elements will be similar but no way the nonsense we saw in the show.
Ugh that’s such a bummer to hear. I was hoping it would do the opposite- give him a fire to correct the wrongs done, ya know?
But I can also understand the depression and helplessness of watching your life’s work get absolutely demolished.
Well, he himself kept saying Winds would be finished far before the show outpaced the books. It didn’t and so he could only give them the bare minimum of an outline. The creators were never the best writers even if they adapted the early material well and they couldn’t create something out of a story that wasn’t there. And he knew they only wanted limited seasons, not the amount he wanted.
If he wants the series to be the legacy of this particular part of his writing career, then that’s up to him.
He should have refused to do the series until after TWOW had been published.
Sort of a Chekhov’s gun. I think Dany was always going to do what she did,
But as you say the road to get there was rushed.
I imagine a longer time showing her run the kingdoms of the east highly effectively, and later enduring atrocity after atrocity fighting in the West, with a road to hell paved in good intentions subplot even.
GRRM had problems with GoT (books) years before GoT (TV) went off the rails. The story got away from him after the third book. All that endless world-building! The latter books can be a bit of a slog, imo, compared to the tighter, earlier ones. He needs a tough, empowered editor but he’s so successful that no one can do that. And honestly, it’s fine. He will likely never finish. He’s enjoying his fun, comfortable life. I think most fans have accepted it now.
You are not wrong! The later books are fairly tedious.
Yeah, I read that he’s written some of his characters into corners that he can’t get them out of – he’s juggling so many plot lines that getting everyone where they need to be is a major headache. T
Natasha – nooooooo!! Thong boots, what?! Not a fan of the bangs or the clown eye makeup, either. But still a fan of Natasha.
He looks super cute with his pink bow and boa! I’m still on a “Barbie high” from how much I enjoyed the film and am getting a kick out of seeing how much so many others had enjoyed it, I may have to gather some more friends and go see it again lol!
I wish he’d just release a podcast saying, “This is what I want to happen in the last two books,” and leave it at that.
So much this.
I thought 2 things when I saw this:
1. Book’s never getting done
2. The Ozempic’s working
He lost control of his narrative in books 4 and 5. The first three were good! The last two were slogs.
Agree for Dance but I loved Feast it was a beautiful horror story.
Procrastinator Barbie (along with others) https://www.instagram.com/p/CvLTQBhh9-a/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
😂 x 😂
“But Barbie has now become the best second weekend box office for a Warner Bros film – even better than The Dark Knight!”
Poor Christopher Nolan. LOL
I think Nolan and his movie have benefitted greatly from the media blitz surrounding it and Barbie. Going to see it tonight with friends, we decided to go after our Barbie outing last week.
Yes. Oppenheimer isn’t the movie the poster makes it out to be. Barbie helped it. Flip side is Oppenheimer got serious people to watch barbie at the theater instead of at home.
He does have other irons in the fire. GRRM is exec producer of Dark Winds, a wonderful adaptation of Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee/Bernadette Manuelito books. I watched the first series on Acorn, but they want me to pay extra by subscribing to AMC+ to see the second series. I’m not keen on adding to my streaming choices. Really great series, though! They’ve honored the books & honored the people–principally the Navajo (Dine).
To me, not only does he not want to finish them, he doesn’t want them to be finished.
I don’t care if he finishes them or not, but I find it silly and irritating whenever he gives passive aggressive updates about it meant to draw attention but also rebuke people who want to read it.
I think he always wanted to be a TV writer since Beauty and the Beast and now he is one.
And I don’t agree with the idea that there’s no point in finishing since people hated the television ending. The television ending was rushed and ruined a lot of storylines that could have been quite beautiful and Shakespearean if given proper time to unfold. If he can’t make up for that as a writer, then it’s better they are left unfinished.
(When I say “them” I’m referring to WInds of Winter and Dream of Spring, sorry)
Bingo.
It’s repugnant to me, and I put my attachment to the saga to bed years ago as a result. What you’ve delineated so eloquently here is also why I’ve left my interest in Patrick Rothfuss’ work behind, and why I no longer begin an unfinished series.
I feel so validated seeing another person has also given up waiting on both GRRM and Patrick Rothfuss.
@C which Beauty and the Beast?
I saw something about how they were finally going to go ahead with a Dunc and Egg series. Why that didn’t happen instantly after GOT ended I will never understand!
Turns out getting rid of the bird was a bridge too far for me & I finally deleted my douche bro Twitter account. Farewell rage tweeting at Freedom Convoy dummies and Anti Choice Christofascists! Till we meet again on Threads. Tweeter out.
Personally, I don’t care if Martin finishes the books or not at this point. I felt like he got way off into the weeds with the last couple of books anyway. One thing the show DID get right in the final seasons was to cut a lot of the extraneous stuff and tertiary characters with Hairy Dog Story plots in order to focus on the main characters.
Yes, DB And DW screwed it up, but I think it’s fair to say they would have done a better job if they had more book material to use. Just look at how much better the first seasons are, because they had well-written, cohesive stories with great character arcs to follow and depict.
It did become clear, however, that an “outline” of the ending was not nearly enough for them to figure out how to make that ending work. I think this really is a case where there were fans and viewers who could have made a better final season of GoT than the show-runners themselves could, given the right budget. Which they absolutely had. How much money did LH get paid to stand at a window smirking for a whole season? And she deserved it, given how great she was in the role and how successful the show was. I’m just saying, the failure to deliver a worthy finale had nothing to do with lack of funds.
Anyway…..I’m thrilled for the success of “Barbie.” I’m glad Martin enjoyed it and wore a pink boa. It’s the most entertainment I am going to get out of him at this point.
It’s interesting – I don’t really follow GRRM but I appreciated this barbie pic out of all the ones that have been posted. Given the GoT bros out there who are just the type to be raging about Barbie, this is a nice sweet counterpoint
Same, never watched an episode in my life. But the last links had a BuzzFeed article with people sharing their experience with celebrities and someone wrote that he was already a gifted writer in high school and all around nice guy. I hope his pic pisses off any of his toxic bro fans.
Harry Potter stole his thunder. When he kept losing awards to Harry Potter, you can see a noticeable change. He wants to be popular. I wouldn’t even trust whatever ending he comes up with. He is obviously reading forums and critics. Only way I buy his last “a song of fire and ice” books is if he secretly finished years ago. I want a true ending. Not fan fiction like “game of thrones” the TV show.
Still looking good for my prediction from 10 years ago that Brandon Sanderson will complete all 10 books of The Stormlight Archives before George R R Martin completes A Song of Ice and Fire.