George R.R. Martin is known as an author who takes his time. He's been writing The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series, for 14 years, after all. He doesn't like to rush and he doesn't like to outline; he likes to comes upon good ideas naturally, and to polish his prose until it's as rich and full as possible.
And you don't have to take my word for it: Martin wrote the foreword to The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook: Recipes from King's Landing to the Dothraki Sea, which came out last year. The actual recipes were put together by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel, but the foreword is worth a look by itself. Martin starts by defending himself against critiques that descriptions of food in his books are "gratuitous," and goes on to dive deep into his philosophy when it comes to creating an immersive experience for readers.
"When used in the context of literary criticism, 'gratuitous' usually translates to 'more than I wanted' or 'did not advance the plot,'" Maritn writes. "And you know, often that is true. Was it necessary for me to mention that the minor knight who just entered the lists bore seven golden hedgehogs on a field of dark green? In that sex scene, couldn’t I just have tumbled them into bed and cut to 'the next morning'? And the feasts, oh those feasts, surely the only thing that mattered was what the characters were saying, not the honey-roasted duck they were eating as they said it?"
"Well, no. Not for me.
It’s not the destination that matters to me, it’s the journey. I have been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember. A reader of fiction, specifically. Fiction is not about getting from point A to point B as fast as possible. It can educate, but it is not educational at heart. For that, nonfiction is infinitely superior. Fiction is about emotion. The heart, not the head. Fiction gives us vicarious experience. It takes us beyond ourselves and the world around us."
I'm going to cut out some of the things Martin writes in the foreword, because we all have places to be; for a more complete accounting hit up Los Siete Reinos, where they've written up the whole thing, including Martin expounding a bit on his childhood spent falling in love with books. He continues:
"I love nothing more than opening a new book and falling through the pages. The tales that I love best are totally immersive. That’s what I aspire to provide to my own readers as well. I want them to see the colors of the knights’ surcoats in the tournament. I want them to hear the clash of steel on steel when swords cross, to hear the shrieks of dying men on the battlefield. If a song is sung, I want them to hear the words, get a sense of the rhythm. I want them to remember the sunsets, to glimpse fireflies in the dusk, to feel the heat of the dragon’s fire. I want them to live my story, not just read it. When they sit down at my table, I want them to taste the food.
Nothing is gratuitous, as I see it. It is all part of the experience. If the plot is all that matters to you, well, there are Cliff’s Notes you can read in a tenth the time.
Me, I will stay with novels—the richer and more immersive the better."
I find this foreword to be by turns charming and hysterical. I was smiling as I read it. On the one hand, I believe every word Martin writes; how could anyone who's read his books not? We know how deep into detail goes on heraldry, on food, on history, on landscape, on everything. Martin is nothing if not a guy who will tell you exactly how he's feeling, and you can tell he does what he does because he loves it.
And the post is hysterical because of course George R.R. Martin would take the foreword to a cookbook and use it as an excuse to write a treatise on literary theory. And remember, I cut out of a bunch of it. If you ever find yourself wondering how he can take so long to write a book, consider how much he wrote for the foreword to The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook and consider how much more complicated it gets when he's dealing with the long-awaited next novel in his ongoing masterwork.
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