Friday, August 22, 2014

George R.R. Martin Doesn't Want Gays to Compel Him

Game of Thrones
There is no gay scenes in the book "Song of Ice and Fire" series upon which "Game of Thrones is based" and George R.R. Martin is clear that he does not want anything to do with those people.

The author addressed the issue at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in the U.K. on 11 August 2014, according to the Guardian. Martin’s books are written through the viewpoints of various characters. None of the viewpoint characters are gay, so Martin hasn't shown any gay sex scenes from their points of view.

"I’m not going to do it just for the sake of doing it," he continued, "If the plot lends itself to that if one of my viewpoint characters is in a situation then I’m not going to shy away from it, but you can’t just insert things because everyone wants to see them. It is not a democracy. If it was a democracy, then Joffrey [the sadistic boy king] would have died much earlier than he did."

Martin was one of the star names at the book festival, staged in association with the Guardian. His books are global bestsellers and adored by his fans, but he admitted there was still a kind of literary prejudice against his type of fantasy fiction. "I've been aware of this since I was a kid and I take heart with the fact that it is changing.

"When I was 12 or 13, I had teachers take away science fiction books by [Robert A] Heinlein and [Isaac] Asimov and say: 'You're a smart kid, you get good grades. Why are you reading this trash? They rot your mind. You should be reading Silas Marner.' If I'd been reading Silas Marner, I probably would have stopped reading."

The prejudice against sci-fi and fantasy is still there, but is not what it was. "These things are breaking down. It is an artificial distinction anyway – literary fiction in its present form is a genre itself."

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