GEORGE R.R. MARTIN | Master Class | Higher Learning 

Joey Hunjas Game of Thrones is just an adaptation though, and "Game of Thrones" is the name of the first book in ASOIAF franchise. Yeah it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it is technically correct, and calling the series for what it is and what the original author named it rather than the adaptation by a 3rd party.

Sea Raider The first book is “A game of thrones” whereas the show is ‘game of thrones’. HBO just looked at the books and thought that ‘Game of thrones’ sums up the story, which it sought of does.

You forgot about the rape.

I guess we now know where the line "I grew up in King's Landing" came from...

actually, his interest in history is where that comes from. The real-life rulers of the ancient and medieval history, the Greek and Macedonian kings and despots, the Caesars and the Medieval Popes and Kings. They were a 80/20 mix of horrible and noble.

@Mist Spirit Actualy... in game of thrones game for pc..... not the telltale one.. the other one... he voiced over a character who was designed based on his looks too ... a maester ;)

Hahaha und hohoho und hihihihihi.

That’s so good I thought that’s what it is was already titled 😂

@THOMAS LATHAM Have not heard that meme in ages!

Lmaoo I love this comment too much 😂😂

dick 1 and dick 2 really nailed it.

@@dmp1520 Wow! Funny AND original

@@shogo_guy as original as d1 and d2 were with their endless dick jokes. My answer was inspired by their emmy winning writing.

Yhv b. I can just ggbyb yputty’sy bygy yay

First it will turn out well, then they’ll ruin it!😄

+Devin Rai *GONGGG*

Inside this mans mind he he could make I badass things happen in the shows. Like a the ice dragon coming out of e wall and joining the white walkers

+Devin Rai Break it open, let's steal what's inside!

Martin .Luther That can easily happen in ASOIAF. Remember, Old nan's stories.

Martin .Luther what are you even saying? Stop with the overthinking. All I'm saying is Nan told stories about The Children, White walkers, dragons etc. Up until, 3rd book we didn't think that they were real but they are. Children, WWs, Dragons are all real. Magic is real. There is no reason that ice dragons cannot be real too.

more like nerd

He's our nerd though, the King of nerds.

+brucelee12 King George, First of his Name.

hes a savage!

Thats the thing about being successful. You can wear whatever the hell you want and everyone loves it.

I totally agree with you.

And a great listen ^^ i had this interview on the background as i was doing the tedious task of cleaning up. Very fascinating!

He's actually kind of a selfish money grubby asshole if you analyze some of his actions, peddling waterlogged rpg books to his fans at outrageous prices, for example, pawling overpriced miniatures instead of working, bleeding his fans for charitable donations when he made 15 million last year alone.

yeah I hate when you can see the piece of shit interviewer forcing himself to ask questions and pretending that he gives a damn.

Agreed he has a kind of unpretentious way of explaining his work and life that I really like

+Ilgoth Yeah, I'm working on my own novel too, and I often listen to interviews of George R.R. Martin because I do get a boost to write more and better, and that my struggles can be overcome. There is something to this man that just inspires you. Good luck with the writing!

What sort of novel?

cameron kirk Did you mean me? I'm writing dark fantasy, where world is "bit broken" and weather is more extreme. Human race has freed themselves from slavery and are now trying to regain their old home and rehabit it. At the same time, world changes once again and new land is discovered. Time era is renaissance like, so they have gunpowder. So in battle, muskets, short swords, few cannons etc.

+Ilgoth sounds interesting!

Thank you folks, nice to get encouragement. :)

ASOIAF is only gritty _relative_ to LOTR. Almost everyone is still a lord or lady, and GRRM basically took 1,000 years of medieval history, picked out the greatest hits and compressed it all into a five-year time span. And people still die spectacular gothic deaths in his stories. GRRM, like any writer, is a storyteller first and foremost. If he was truly "gritty, dark and realistic", he'd write about a peasant plowing his field all day like 90% of medieval people actually did, or about a king dropping dead suddenly of disease like Henry V did of dysentery at 35 in 1422, thus robbing him of the chance to take the crown of France - a very anticlimactic ending if ever there was one. That's actual medieval realism. Or George could be truly gritty and manage to finish one damn book in the last 12 years. Good lord.

I think the biggest difference is that Tolkien actually finished his story.

Hot take: GRRM is far more influenced by mythology. Jon Snow with the king of winter/ king of corn/king of crows Is comparable to 7 different regional Norse, Celtic, Gaelic and English mythological lores at once. There’s a whole bunch of this but it’s hyper niche. Look up Cerkunnos and think about how the concept of Life and Death/summer and winter plays into the story. Robert and Ned Renly and Stannis. Etc etc, the whole story is about the dichotomy of life and death aka a song of ice and fire

@@squamish4244this stuff literally happens constantly Baelor Breakspear dropped dead in combat which was not supposed to be lethal where as he was the heir and hope to the throne, highly competent warrior and compassionate man. Rhaegar as well But I mean Areys the 1st dies of a heart attack leaving Maegor the opportunity to take the throne. Sir Willem dies from complications foiling Doran’s plots. Many kings and princes died in the spring sickness which lead to Egg becoming king. A house fire kills off half of the dynasty at one point. And almost every epic moment where the hero prevails is foiled by something. The whole story is the process of let downs getting us to where we are when the story starts lol, the book begins with a king who is deeply in debt needing to replace his Hand because the former died

@@SvenDzahov Well, I would take issue with random deaths happening as part of the narrative of ASOIAF and not the backstory. Baelor's death was also a heroic sacrifice death in the tradition of epic fantasy and tragedy. I'm thinking of something like what if Tywin had consolidated his hold over the Seven Kingdoms and then got an infection and died. That kind of thing.

Update in 2020: LOOOOOOOOL

*cries in lockdown

52:50

*cries in 2021*

Update in 2021: LOOOOOOOOL

Although I'm in Germany and not the US I hope to meet him one day! Reading ASOIAF right now and it's so great, and George seems like such a nice guy to talk to

That's so sweet; thank you for sharing

Amen brother!! I feel the same way about Star Wars and Star Trek.

Absolutely. It's easy for one time viewers or casual readers to judge them in the same category. But when you look at their sources (LOTR taking from mythology and legend, ASOIAF from history), and the worldviews of the writers (JRRT a WWI vet, GRRM an antiwar activist from the Vietnam era), its very difficult to see similarities beyond the genre. They're so different, they might as well not even share the genre.

AHHH MAN BROTHER!!!!

Excellent point! Tolkien invented the modern Fantasy genre, but he was also doing something VERY different. It is supposed to be a story that entertains, but at the same time the frame narrative plays with the convention that all the Middle Earth material came from manuscripts following the Epic of the early Medieval period, like Beowulf. It's not supposed to be a straight up novel. So comparing the two types of stories is practically like comparing apples and oranges.

Comparisons need to end amongst fantasy junkies. We are few and far between, but we are fiercely loyal. J.R.R. created a beautiful story of good V.S. evil. The Hero prevails against a powerful evil. G.R.R. created a world where each person is capable of being evil and good. I hope for more and more and more fantasy which tackles all different kinds of themes. I myself hope to one day publish my own fantasy. I in NO WAY mean to reach the heights of the fore-mentioned authors, but I'd love to contribute to a genre I love.

You're in luck then.

@@gorgolyt Not really, it's only 1hr10

I have

My annoyance with George Martin is waiting 12 years for the sixth book, with still no release date in sight 😥

@@babyblue_22 😂😂

He has pretty much admitted that ASoIaF has become his masterwork. He knows it will be what he's remembered for. If he sticks the landing, then we will be talking about him 100 years from now, like we do with Tolkien. I can't imagine the pressure. He has the chance to become an actual legend.

@@Bluemilk92 Has he written many other unrelated novels?

​@@cestraig If you're joking I'll take the L. He has like 20 years of content before "The Song." A ton were short... Novellas. *Check "A Song for Lya. * Real quick reads. He has the 1000 worlds universe. Think ASoIaF, with more time and space travel. Aliens. Weirdly still a lot of incest. Telepathy's a thing. Actually reading his older work will make you spark. "Ah! That's what he's getting at in The Song."

He must be so heartbroken. I know he has made some statement about it, but I feel like he really held himself back just to be respectful and nice. I can’t even imagine what went on in his mind when he watched the last few seasons.

Clayburn Griffin George even said in another interview that outside of these kinds of talks that he almost loathes talking about ASOIAF, because he's around it so much as it is. He said he could talk about football and other things for hours though. Who can blame him, if you were a plumber would you want to go meet you're friends somewhere and just talk about plumbing for a few hours after you just got done plumbing all day?

YES! take that nerds! YES!!!YES!!!

@@fikafikafikarrr Fuck you

@@damianosangelis284 He can do that with his friends. The interviews are about ASOIAF. End of story.

And the Doctor.

I don't know about stylish, but he sure can wear them, or whatever he wants for that matter and no one could hold it against him because he's the legend.

Sarium Kure you should see my buddy anthony

It's one of the many reasons that he is "Murder Santa"

Flames on anything are always tacky, but I couldn't care less.

It was a joke lol

nontrivial dawg ‘hehehehehehe he’

his foot too..

this is why i come to youtube

Thanks that made me have a good laugh!

DiceCow No prob! 😄

He looks like a bobblehead.

That's exactly what I thought!!! :D

Omg I thought that😂😂

OMG, the commenter is Martha Raymond!!!!!!!!!!

valar morghulis

pit bulol YOU JUST MADE MY DAY!!! XDD

pit bulol valar dohaires

Ian Darabos OMG...I wasthinking the same thing! Are we bad people!

Ian Darabos I think it's inevitable. He's seen better days, for sure.

AGREED

Same

You’re still fertile, you need to marry again and breed!

If it happened in 2021 it would be over zoom boradcasted live from GRRM´s livingroom

Because interviews with celebrities are expensive.

No such thingz

They're so tacky lol, like, wearing suspenders is one thing but wearing suspenders with flames on them... just wow.

Flaming suspenders to keep the belly from bursting out.

Except his only gift is death..

666or999 at least sometimes it goes to people who deserve it.

FakeAnarchist Ned? :^(

TheFlashybrown of course not Ned, his loss is still painful today. the people who did deserve it are Joffrey, Viserys, The Mountain among others

Ned did deserve it, he made bad choices. He was a good man, but he would have lived if he made better choices. Such as having witnesses to being made king, or making it known to the world, not simply depending on a piece of paper that he gave to the enemy to inspect. He also put his life in the hands of a man who wants his wife. It would have also helped him to tell his family the truth about Jon, his wife hates them both on some level because Jon reminds her that he cheated on her.

I still respect him, you acting like if he released the book everyone wouldnt suck it up in seconds.

Maybe he got disheartened.

it's not easy writing an ending after the debacle of HBO

@@MontyQueues Part of the debacle is because he couldn't finish these books on time.

@@maulcs not his fault they didn't follow the actual books, everything was thrown out or watered down

@@MontyQueues How are they going to follow books that haven't been written yet? Also, most of books 4 and 5 is just fluff and world building - it took up very little time in the show because there is very little plot in those books.

Guy Fieri's alternate future?

+Mikeztarp dido

Mikeztarp thats the lesson bud ;) the higher learning is there if you know how to listen.

I thought so too after 5:28 minutes in. What can we learn here to improve writing?

+Dan N Higher learning and master class implies a different set-up than this. This is literally just an interview. Sure you can learn from it but that doesn't make it a master class. It's not a class.

Ask GRRM how WoW is doing if you want to learn how to write.