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Why do people call him the 'American Tolkien'? His writing is much more vulgar and low-brow than Tolkien's prose.
if you honestly can't figure it out you probably need to read a bit more before posting again
>>7885113
because this is faggot marketing-speak
but also because america is so shit; the bar is very low
PR
>>7885113
The Rs in his name.
>>7885117
this
He writes fantasy books which are long.
Tolkien did the same.
So Martin=Tolkien.
I hate this
Because both their stories are financially succesful and have swords and magic in them. That's literally it.
To most people, the surface content of a story is more indicative of similarity than the style of prose or underlying themes. Tolkien's stories may be an exercise in writing new stories using medieval European frameworks and literary sensibilities as a sort of pseudo-historical project, and Martin's stories may be stock political thrillers/generational family soap operas with some medieval fantasy pasted on, but they're both seen as occupying the same genre due to the broad surface similarities.
Yeah he is the American Tolkein.
Americans are vulgar and low brow, it fits. :^)
>>7885113
>His writing is much more vulgar and low-brow than Tolkien's prose.
Everything Americans make is more vulgar and low-brow than their European counterparts.
Wasn't Tolkien a scholar?
I mean he wrote the Hobbit and LoTR but he worked at a University and wrote essays.
Like his Beouwolf translation.
(I respect Tolkien infinitely because he wasn't only a writer but someone who cared about the english language)
What does the fat fuck do besides writig his books?
>>7885183
Gawain and the Green Knight too.
Tolkien was fantastic overall and important to English Literature as a whole. Will never be able to say the same with GRRM
>>7885694
He made fantasy mainstream and caused a hurricane of never so soulless fantasy novels like First Law or Kingkiller Chronicle.
>>7885702
Who? Martin? I suppose that's an accomplishment. I think GoT makes for great television too, I just can't get through his boring books.
>>7885711
lololol
>>7885711
Yes, Martin. Tolkien actually influenced a lot of very solid authors and also did swan the world building meme, but it's really not his fault because his novels are not autistic and serve a higher purpose, or at least have a core idea behind them.
>>7885113
>Why do people call him the 'American Tolkien'?
because they are fucking idiots who never read a fantasy book outside of GURRM, Tolkien, or WoT.
There's many authors who are much more worthy of the title of "American Tolkien" than GURRM. Robert E. Howard, Gene Wolfe, Fritz Leiber, etc. etc.
GURRM is on the same tier of Stephen King. He can write an intriguing plot and relies on shock value and MUH GRIMDARK to sell novels but once you penetrate the texts, you realize there's nothing there.
>>7885113
But that's literally what an american Tolkien would be.
>>7885946
True, "American" is just a synonym for "shitty".
E.g., the "American" Chateaubriand is a Big Mac.
do people seriously think that Tolkein's prose is something to be emulated
>>7886012
Yes
>>7886012
Quite so, unlike yours.
Because selling the right to your series before you finish writing it is such an American thing to do.
>At Leeds as well as teaching he collaborated with E. V. Gordon on the famous edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and continued writing and refining The Book of Lost Tales and his invented “Elvish” languages.
>In addition, he and Gordon founded a “Viking Club” for undergraduates devoted mainly to reading Old Norse sagas and drinking beer.
Comfy
American here. I don't even hate GRRM, but can't Zelazny or LeGuin be the "American Tolkien" instead?
>>7885113
You answered your own question OP.
>>7885182
What is Moby Dick?
>>7886383
if a european wrote a book about a big angry whale they wouldn't name it after slang for a penis
>>7885113
He produced nearly all the Beatles records and found success in literature/television, give him some fucking credit
>>7885702
Fuck off, the first law trilogy was great.
>>7885113
>Why do people call him the 'American Tolkien'?
Because he is. Like the British original but shittier.
>>7885113
It's a perfect fit, like those American remakes of European movies.
>>7885113
Because he writes fantasy and is popular. Their works are very different.
>>7886595
It was absolutely atrocious.
Extremely bad prose governed by cliche phrases.
Shit tier characters who at best were two note. Most others were caricatures.
Completely uninspired plot.
The setting had about as much imagination as a Grrum fan fiction.
I think American Tolkien is Jack London with all the environmentalist themes.
>>7885152
oh my god
>all these pseudo-intellectuals dissing GRRM
watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FejBRJPqBkM
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16E_Zn0P6yY
watch the whole series if you're interested
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMgUIPvAlLI&list=PLCsx_OFEYH6vAkHO0gakDrZ8Kuteu-nUn&index=1
yeah, you could argue that he's a shitty writer because "the more she drank the more she shat, the more she shat the thirstier she grew". But he's written a lot of good works that touch on very interesting subjects, like war, technological interregnum and regression, telepathy, hiveminds, genetics and more in his Thousand Worlds series.
Basically ASOIF is an epic about how horrible war is ("Otherness", "us vs them" etc) and is essentially about pacifism because GRRM was a influenced by the vietnam war and the hippie days. And the story is meant to deceive, in other words, Danny is probably not the savior of westeros (she's actually quite cruel), Jon is not jesus or something special (GRRM wants us to believe his father was somebody other than Ned) and the Others are probably not as evil (they're probably human, too) as they have lead us to believe.
But please, keep on shitting on it as if it's work for plebs
>"In response to a question on his religious views, Martin replied: "I suppose I'm a lapsed Catholic. You would consider me an atheist or agnostic. I find religion and spirituality fascinating. I would like to believe this isn't the end and there's something more, but I can't convince the rational part of me that makes any sense whatsoever."
Well meme'd.
I had never seen anyone calling him this way.
As far as I know people consider Jordan the "American Tolken".
>>7887535
"Brevity is the soul of wit."
>>7885702
>that butthurt faggot from /sffg/ who can't help but let everybody know he hates the First Law
>>7887535
I agree with PJ's interpretation of the 'soul' of ASoIaF, but I doubt it's actually post-apocalyptic. I think he mistakes writer habits (writing about what you know, so the same thing comes up over and over again in all your stories, one man only has so many thoughts) for deliberate allusions or deeper connections between stories.
>>7887535
Grrum wants us to something he hasn't done yet OK
It's 5 books in no end nearing and it's been entertaining for the first three (and the plan was that Jon and Danny get married and rule the kingdom).
He got lost and sidetracked and none of the themes can be actually seen in thousands of pages. If you want to prove how war is bad you don't make thousands of plebs wanting for more blood
>>7887818
And I'll keep letting you know because it's fucking garbage.
>>7887701
kek
>>7888332
Even sitting on the grass pump Kentucky. In the past, but the perfume of their children in the mud on Monday. Brown donkey as he was standing in the water at once. In other words, even if the damage preparations that absorb water and transport costs, more drink.
>>7888536
James go back to being dead, you fart loving mick.
>>7885152
OOOOOOOOH! I totally get it. We can /thread this now.
>>7886398
>'Moby Richard'
>this is now an 'If Europeans Had Written American Classics' thread
>>7887535
>Basically ASOIF is an epic about how horrible war is
It sucks, sorry. There's already a gazillion "war is terrible" books
>>7887701
I would totally agree despite for the languages, High Valyrian (which is not created by Martin anyway) is beautiful. Obviousley nobody beats Tolkien at creating languages, no doubt.
>>7885113
That's why
>>7886398
zozzle
>>7889121
This
>>7885113
It's the only thing Americans can think of when wanting to compare yet another contemporary fantasy writer to early writers who wrote primarily what we call fantasy through direct inspiration from Biblical or fairy-tale sources. I agree that Martin writes nothing like Tolkien, and frankly it's absurd that he's still being compared to Tolkien today, but it sells and the publishers want the success The Lord of the Rings Tolkien received posthumously to happen to Martin; that and with the television show even the 'casual readers' are being sucked into his books.
>>7886398
at the time it was not a penis slang
>>7889664
I knew that, I was just pretending to be retarded ha ha!
Me: 1 You: 0 ;p
>>7885882
Why are so many people on here so anti grimdark? Granted, not every story needs to have rape every couple pages, but to think they all need to be nice and neat like Tolkien is stupid
Because Tolkien is the only other fantasy author that normies have actually read.
>>7889707
There's nothing wrong with being grimdark, but when you use it as a selling point of your books, and people are pretending you are some literary hero, it's disingenuous at best.
The WH40K books do the same thing but don't disguise themselves as fantastic works of literature (even though the Dan Abnett stuff is superior to Martin).
>>7885113
now let's not accidentally venerate tolkien's stiff public domain translation-like prose
