Monkey's Blog - with a little help from Alice

Still here. . .  
and 
A Song of Ice and Fire

We are still here, despite indications to the contrary. Alice has been what she's called "Underground". That's really a euphemism, as you've probably worked out. Now there's a lovely word, isn't it? It even means "sounds nice". Humpty would have paid that one extra, I'm sure. I digress, but you must be used to that by now. In fact she's been overwhelmed by a sea of problems - personal, psychological, and practical - especially plumbing. All of which are "p" words, you'll notice. Odd, isn't it?

And we may as well add political, too. The Scottish Independence Referendum looms ever closer, and Alice has gone from Yes to No, to Yes again, and right now she's just Perplexed - another "p" to add to the mix. She's been anti-nuclear since forever, so it's hard for her to weigh that against all the confusion there seems to be over the financial implications. Sigh. But that's human politics for you. I just think we should all be nice to each-other, but she says I'm being simplistic.

I'm worried that she's been playing an awful lot of Mahjong Titans on her computer, far more than can be good for her. I think she's addicted, but she says it calms her down. Or is it a kind of freezing-over, I ask. It's a Solitaire game of matching, using these Chinese tiles: 144 of them, rather than the mere 52 of a standard card pack. I admit they are very pretty indeed, and the different lay-outs are named after animals. But no Monkey, however, so I just find it boring.  [Click on the images to see a bit bigger...]

The Computer plays a mean game of chess as well, but Alice is not able to think far enough ahead to do anything more than win by chance now and then at the very easiest level. She's always admitted her block, and has even consented to type that bit of information here! And that's despite all the chess characters like the White Knight in her namesake's adventures Through the Looking Glass.

In the book, she pulled him out when he got stuck, but I'm not big enough to do that for her now. She thanks me for  encouraging her to write this: and says it is a kind of pulling out. Fingers crossed, folks.

One of our followers (at least) has been concerned about this lack of blogging. But since we have recently been to an event worth mentioning, I've persuaded her to write a little about it. A friend got Alice a ticket to accompany her to hear George R R Martin at the Edinburgh Book Festival, given as how she loves his Song of Ice and Fire books, and has box sets of all the HBO TV Game of Thrones series. [Beware spoilers on any site about either of these. You have been warned!] As he wrote himself, "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies... The man who never reads lives only one." A Guardian report includes some quotes from the talk.

We did enjoy seeing him live. He talked about his literary forebears, both fantasy and horror, including Tolkien of course. Less obviously (to us at least) he admired Marvel Comics' Stan Lee who created the Fantastic Four superheroes.

His own characters, though, are never 100% villains, or completely good. That's one of the things Alice likes so much about his writing: they are all well rounded, they face moral dilemmas, and are changeable.

GRRM's reality influences included standing on Hadrian's Wall; the Wars of the Roses; plus some of the bloody events in Scottish history, such as the Glencoe Massacre and the Black Dinner  [scroll down this link]. If you don't know what episodes in the books are herein referred to - you have that pleasure still to come.

He started writing what he thought was a trilogy in the 1990's, and it's still unfinished, with five so-called "books" published - actually seven thick wedges of print. No-one at this event asked when he was going to finish it. Just as well, as there's a joke (we hope) online somewhere that whenever he gets asked that, he kills off another of our favourite characters! Alice asked him whether, when he began, he knew how he would end the epic and who would die en route. And had he changed his mind about any of that? The answer was Yes to the first, No the second.

He was amazed at first at all the fan websites with their many speculations and arguments about some deliberate mysteries in the plot, and the unknown ending. Only a few of the guesses were right. No-one in the audience (or the author himself) gave anything away or even suggested any of the answers. Good! In fact, even though he likes to surprise his readers, he won't alter his planned to-be-revealed solutions: he's planted clues saying "the butler did it", so he can't now turn round and say "it was the chambermaid". Our lips are sealed.

His favourite characters are probably Tyrion and Arya: they're Alice's too. Here's an early (so almost no spoilers) introduction to Tyrion on YouTube, and a similar one for the feisty wee lassie.

The photo is of Maisie Williams as Arya with her sword, named Needle. Why? Because she hated sewing but loved having very own weapon.