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This is a really meandering piece and the author seemingly never internalized the distinction between the map and the territory. Fiction is not meant to perfe

This is a really meandering piece and the author seemingly never internalized the distinction between the map and the territory. Fiction is not meant to perfectly replicate the entire complexity of the real world - rather it takes a very particular subset of reality and distills into a story you can consume at your leisure. This is true for both fictional and non-fictional settings - no movie set during e.g. WW2 or the French Revolution actually conveys the whole complexity of the real world at the time. Can you imagine a version of LOTR that also had to convey the all the socio-economic intricacies of trade routes between Gondor and Brie? Do you think that movie would be more enjoyable, or better at telling the story it wanted to tell? The best worldbuilding is that which doesn't get into the way of telling a good story. This is why "remixing" is actually a storytelling virtue - GRR can point at Dorne and vaguely motion "bizarro Moorish Spain" and the reader will instantly get a better idea of what he's dealing with without having to read a 800-pager on Dornish culture and history.

teddyh 3y ago
> trade routes between Gondor and Brie Transporting cheese, one would assume? (It’s “Bree”, by the way.)
endominus 3y ago
Which makes GRRM's criticism of Tolkien's world-building even more bizarre. "Ruling is hard. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it’s not that simple. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles?" From https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/04/what-was-aragorns-tax-policy.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/04/wh...

teddyh 3y ago

> trade routes between Gondor and Brie Transporting cheese, one would assume? (It’s “Bree”, by the way.)

endominus 3y ago

Which makes GRRM's criticism of Tolkien's world-building even more bizarre. "Ruling is hard. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it’s not that simple. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles?" From https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/04/what-was-aragorns-tax-policy.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/04/wh...