I didn't even get to the queer stuff yesterday, did I? I probably won't get to it today either.
I'm going to talk about food.
I am also going to cheat on my five-chapter limit, but it's for good reason.
Here is Martin's description of a feast:
"The Great Hall of Winterfell was hazy with smoke and heavy with the smell of roasted meat and fresh-baked bread. Its grey stone walls were draped with banners. White, gold, crimson: the direwolf of Stark, Baratheon's crowned stag, the lion of Lannister. A singer was playing the high harp and reciting a ballad, but down at this end of the hall his voice could scarcely be heard above the roar of the fire, the clangor of pewter plates and cups, and the low mutter of a hundred drunken conversations."
Here is Anthony's description of a feast:
"The great hall of Calavere had been decorated to resemble a winter forest. Boughs of evergreen and holly hung from soot-blackened beams high above, and more had been heaped along the base of the walls. Their icy scent mingled with the smoke of torches. Leafless saplings stood in the corners of the hall, to suggest the edges of a sylvan glade, and even the tapestries on the walls added to the illusion with their scenes of stag hunts and forest revels, woven in colors made dim and rich with time."
What I'm getting from this is: If you are going to write epic fantasy, and you have to describe a feast, you must always start with "The great hall of X..."
But seriously. Where would you rather be? Winterfell or Calavere? My take on Martin - and one of the reasons I don't like him - is that his fantasyland is very generic. Who is the singer and how did he get there? What is he singing about? Who cares? It's a medieval feast, and they have bards and shit there, don't they?
It looks like I am going to get to queer stuff today after all.
One of the reasons Anthony is much more detailed in his description of castle life is because he has quite a few female characters. The king's ward practically runs the castle - including preparations for feasts. Who put together the Winterfell feast? The wife, whatsername, Catelyn? She doesn't seem to have much imagination. Or maybe it was planned out by a man. That would explain a lot.
Martin's female characters are annoying me five chapters (and one episode of the show) in. We have the supportive wife, the victimized child-bride, and the tomboy princess (though I have heard that the child-bride takes a level in badass later, so I promise I'll read a few more chapters after this rant). So - we have one woman whose strength is being married to a strong man and making him stronger, we have one woman who is completely dominated by the heteropatriarchy, and we have one who takes on a male role in order to gain power.
Anthony's world is also quite male-dominated, but he uses the patriarchy to ask questions about power and gender relations. He has not one but two queens, neither of which rule over a matriarchy. He has no crossdressers. And yes, the Witches are a big equalizing factor in his world, but it is not so much a matter of giving women power as giving women space. Martin has yet to pass the Bechdel test. Okay, so Anthony takes until chapter 9, and then it's a cryptic warning and not really a conversation, but once you get more than one female character, he really takes off.
So the reason I like Anthony and not Martin is that Anthony's writing is queer. I'm not talking about his order of gay knights, or his gay protagonist, or his representation of every letter in the LGBTQetc. acronym. Anthony is queer because he gives attention to issues of power and privilege, so that his almost stereotypical quest arc becomes fresh and exciting because it is seen through a different lens.
Now it's time for five more chapters of Martin. Maybe I'll have another rant by then.
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