George RR Martin on Fantasy and Science Fiction Relationship

[@darj617]

I love listening to George, such an intelligent and well-spoken man.

[@AcrimoniousMirth]

Stanko Burrito yeah, I was really taken aback when I first listened to an interview. Not only is he a good storyteller but he has an incredible well of knowledge and thought.

[@MrRaindog]

I love listening to that woman's fake laugh.

[@Toetmeister]

Ytmnd

[@scottkingdon4135]

I like listening to his beard less however.

[@haywoodjablomee6671]

This sci-writer looks exactly like how you’d expect a stereotypical sci-fi writer to look and George R.R. Martin looks exactly how you’d expect a stereotypical fantasy writer to look hahah.

[@zoodiaco5657]

hahaha this is so true!

[@uptown3636]

You're so right--it's hilarious. I've got to give a shout-out to my favorite writer, though. The sci-fi writer in the video is Kim Stanley Robinson, one of the true genius sci-fi authors alive today. Give him a read. I think you'll find it worth your while.

[@raffitz]

KSR's half-incredulous "Oh my God" followed by his laugh, after hearing GRRM reference some producer's description of Star Trek as not a Science Fiction show, but rather a People show, is everything.

[@wreynolds1995]

6:45

[@BlueCrashFigurineHoldingWumpa]

That makes sense to me though, it's definitely both

[@darllington8995]

Wow. I never thought of scifi and fantasy as parts of one genre, it is really cool and it kinda opens up my mind to several possibilities of writing a nice story using aspects of this big genre. Thanks, guys. Very insightful.

[@JohnDoeTheGoodGuy]

It's hard. I had this idea back in 2015 about writing a story with both genres in one novel, but here I am stuck in page 24 three years later.

[@ufoash440]

Generally that was how they used to be considered back in the Postwar period

[@ultimodragon647]

Star Wars bro. Space Wizards

[@balabanasireti]

@@JohnDoeTheGoodGuy That's rough, buddy.

[@JohnDoeTheGoodGuy]

@@balabanasireti Update, I'm in page 83 now. It's rough.

[@alistairwilliams5678]

The other author is Kim Stanley Robinson, great author too.

[@deadpoolregeneratedegenera1683]

Thank you. Was surfing the comments to learn this.

[@d.f.g7840]

thanks

[@xxlCortez]

I think the general distinction between sci-fi and fantasy is that sci-fi tends to have a technobabble that explains how the technology works while magic is often either mysterious or very basically explained.

[@CyclonerM]

That's only one kind of Sci fi, there are hard scifi universes like the Expanse that are actually more "realistic"

[@ahmedharris7148]

Kim Stanley Robinson has written some of the best planetary hard sci fi that I've ever read. His mars trilogy is brilliant and a literary feat in its own right.

[@AzaleaJane]

Agreed, the Mars books are amazing!

[@Baamthe25th]

That otherinterviewee is interessting too. His name should be in the tittle

[@joshpotts619]

Kim Stanley Robinson :)

[@ahmedharris7148]

He's written some really good hard sci fi such as the Mars trilogy

[@TomorrowWeLive]

@@ahmedharris7148 bah. Nothing but leftist agitprop.

[@jjsalas]

@@TomorrowWeLive awesome then

[@dasaggropop1244]

there are no lemontrees in POST apocalyptic braavos...

[@kettlemagic]

All hail Chad Summerchild, Queen in the North!

[@Roflmaolinde]

#lemongate

[@Mprator]

Would have been awesome if George had written for Star Trek.

[@tylerthejokerfan4966]

Well then it would be completely different

[@Shringyshrong]

Wow these are some intelligent fellows

[@mickmickymick6927]

George really does not like that chair

[@OBtheamazing]

Scifi and Fantasy are very similar, But they portray their setting is very different ways, even if the end result is the same. I would say that Scifi uses technology(power/magic) that comes from mankind creation and intellect(essentially it is made by a living being). While with fantasy, the powers and magic come from an alternate power, the characters usually never invent or create the magic, they just harness it. I feels thats the difference, man(or alien) made VS made by a third party(god/universe/etc). Starwars has scifi tech, yet the force is generated by an outside source, hence it is both. As i read in an article once, scifi is magic that is reproducible, while magic is constrained to the person. No one else can build the one ring, because Sauron put HIS power into it, while in Halo, shields that block projectiles can be replicated if you put enough effort in understanding it.

[@FernasRPG]

Main difference between Fantasy and Sci Fi is how the "magic" works. In Fantasy magic comes from supernatural/religion and SCI Fi com from technology. The rest is very similar

[@ADADEL1]

My gut reaction is that in Fantasy stories, the past is better than the present while in SciFy stories the present is better than the past. So, for example, in a Fantasy story the spell book of the first necromancer would hold mighty spells lost to the current age. While in a more SciFy story the spell book of the first necromancer would be so full of errors and misunderstandings that magi in the current age would find it laughable. The big exception to this "rule" is in post-apocalyptic stories.

[@chadefita]

gee, this exemple is pretty lame and don't mirror reality. at least, not printed science fiction reality.

[@arbiter8246]

Robert E. Howard In June 1936, as Hester Howard slipped into her final coma, her son maintained a death vigil with his father and friends of the family, getting little sleep, drinking huge amounts of coffee, and growing more despondent. On the morning of June 11, 1936, Howard asked one of his mother's nurses, Mrs. Green, if she would ever regain consciousness. When she told him no, he walked out to his car in the driveway, took the pistol from the glove box, and shot himself in the head. His father and another doctor rushed out, but the wound was too grievous for anything to be done. Howard lived for another eight hours, dying at 4 pm; his mother died the following day.

[@destrologando2362]

Is there a video with this interview in its fullness?

[@WayneAnonymous]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJfFqKtth6Z9qdU It begins aroudn 8 minutes.

[@rajinbin]

@@WayneAnonymous thanks

[@darkojan14]

I suggest all Elden ring players listen to this cuz when loreheads start digging you all gotta get a big shock

[@phantomfire8228]

2:42

[@chadpfister833]

#CometIsAVolcryn

[@michaellee888]

58:56 Jimmy Carter was a good man. He wasn't that effective, but he was good. By George, you absolutely nailed it!!! I totally agree. Ditto to everyone saying George RR is a genius and articulate!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4W3iGuDlMqnodE

[@tegan8523]

Just me who thinks it looks easier to create a whole new world rather than going outside and learning about how our own works? I’m definitely wrong but that is what my brain tells me.

[@wreynolds1995]

Fiction is not about how the world around us works. And the answer is no anyway, partly because any decent writer will have to make their new world consistent enough that the reader will be willing to keep reading, and partly because the best parts of "fantastica" usually take their inspiration from the real world, either directly or indirectly.

[@CountArtha]

Same reason it's easier to build a train set in your basement than be a railroad engineer. Life is complicated; fantasy is simple.

[@samguy7654]

Even you were right about that (which i don't think you are) I don't think art or literature is about how hard something is to create.

[@Kurruptedwolf]

I'm, not a writer just a typical person and the kinda jumbo was said is absolutely amazing. Thank you all you have just opened my mind to a whole new way to look at things.

[@flyingpotato8627]

@@wreynolds1995 Science fiction is more based about how the world around us works. You can't put new technology or devices in it without explaining how that could exists within our real world. Reality is the main influence for fiction.

[@michaeltveten8458]

Sci-fi endeavors to tap the “Intellect”, whereas, Fantasy taps the “Emotion”. There should never be any “Magic” in Sci-fi, but it is almost “Expected” in Fantasy. Neither genre merits more credence, it just comes down to preference, and of course how well it is written.

[@anlumo1]

@@willmosse3684 Star Wars is SciFi-Fantasy IMO. That universe without the Jedi is typical SciFi (space ships and battles, fixing technical devices, spy stories), and the Jedi are typical fantasy knights (who have to control their emotions to feed on some unexplained power they can wield with their thought).

[@anlumo1]

@@willmosse3684 Yes, Star Trek also has mind reading, alternate universes (aka planes) and other things that don't make a lot of sense scientifically.

[@BigUriel]

@@anlumo1 Science fiction is full of things that are just magic by a different name. You just call them by some fancy scientific-sounding name and pretend it's plausible like "artificial gravity generator".

[@jacobgordon2906]

An ancient alien civilization could have magic and that's how the futuristic technology was created so I find it hard to believe that there shouldn't be any magic in sci fi

[@OminousIllustrations]

good comment

[@michaelkean5969]

YOU you Scifi or fantasy? Lord of the Rings: "i'm Blatant fantasy through and through" how about you? Star Trek:"Sci-fi to the bone" what are you? Star wars: i'm a good mixture of both and what are you Sci-fi or fantasy? Warhammer 40K: I uuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuck if i know.

[@TalonAshlar]

Mhmmmm ice cream....

[@aster3380]

I never liked sci-fi on the bases that where fantasy has unreal things that are attributed to magic which people can't explain very well, while sci-fi has unreal things that are attributed to science, which people still cant explain. Which frustrates me to no end. With fantasy I've found stories with well laid-out laws and some extent of science to magic - odd though it may sound - while sci-fi's I've read seem to wave it off as "it's complicated scince stuff!". Or maybe I've just been reading bad (as in, in my opinion) sci-fi, which gave me the wrong idea. Please tell me if I've just not been looking in the right places for the right sci-fi book, if you're willing to spend the time and effort thank you :)

[@HarryS77]

You might be interested in the work of Richard Powers. He writes sci-fi in the sense of fiction that deals with real-world science, e.g. The Goldbug Variations. Kim Stanley Robinson's books (the other guy in the interview) are great, but his Mars Trilogy, while it does deal with actual science, and things that may one day be a reality, also relies on a fair amount of "fucking magic" science.

[@MaurDL]

Yeah, I enjoy both but I'm not sure what Sci-fi you've been reading? The difference isn't really in whether or not things can be explained. Brandon Sanderson is an example of a fantasy author who goes to insane lengths to explain his complicated magic systems, but with Fantasy you more or less concede the notion: "I wish this were real", while part of the appeal of Sci-fi is the fun in imagining: "this may very well become reality". My favorite Sci-fi book that I've read was Isaac Asimov's "The Foundation" which, to this day, still has a hold on my world view and perception of humanity. The idea of "psycho-history" is very real to me, that being that the human individual is unpredictable but the larger the sample size of humans, the more human nature starts to express itself in very observable and measurable ways. Not to mention he fathered the 3 laws of robotics, which is as well laid out as they come. I don't think I've ever read a (true) Sci-fi story that relies on the use of "hand-waving" however, that defeats the fun of it. So again, I'm not sure what you've been reading?? O_o

[@balabanasireti]

No.

[@flyingpotato8627]

In science fiction you have to explain why that works, and how that would work in real life. Otherwise is science fantasy.

[@nickb220]

hm maybe fantasy is the future...

[@QueenDaenerysTargaryen]

To bad the shows writers were more interested in sci-fi than fantasy. Said so themselves in an interview.

[@oobrocks]

The other man is on LSD

[@anlumo1]

Well, I disagree with GRRM on that one. He's right that on the surface, both genres are the same (some story in a made-up universe), but they come from different angles. SciFi has always been about talking about concepts relating to modern humanity, asking “what if X would happen” and showing where that line of thinking goes. Fantasy always was just about having fun and about power fantasies. I'm not saying that it's not possible to have a fun story with no agenda in SciFi or a thoughtful story in Fantasy, but that's not how they're typically used. Maybe that's also why magic takes such a backseat in ASoIaF, GRRM doesn't really try to write a typical Fantasy story. He could place it into contemporary fiction and it would work just as well.

[@kvmairforce]

Fantasy has been around for 1000's of years that any human can do, even cave men from 10,000 years ago did it. SciFi is much more recent and you really have to be educated to do it correctly. The chances of having a extremely educated individual who also is a great writer is very, very rare.

[@balabanasireti]

No.

[@flyingpotato8627]

"far more evidence for the existence of ghosts" And to think this interview was made after it was proven in the Hadron Collider that ghosts don't exist. Ok.

[@kvmairforce]

Science fiction is not easy to write, you have to be well-educated science, advanced math, current applicable theories. Fantasy, you don't have to be educated at all, you can make anything up.

[@perfectdeath5310]

ok I dont think your giving fantasy its fair shake. You only need to know the barest minimum to write either, its just that best works are written by the most educated. Yeah, the best Sci Fi written by those educated in math and science, just like the best Fantasy is written by those educated in geography, sociology, culture, religion, linguistics, and history.

[@flyingpotato8627]

@@perfectdeath5310 Uhhh... We could say the very same thing for any work of fiction. To write good science fiction you will have to learn linguistics, sociology, culture and history too, if you are going to add new intelligent species to your story. Also, learning about religion is not that big of a deal than learning of... You know, science since it has different ramifications such as biology, psychology, physics... The idea is there.

[@ricebix]

This is the worst take in the comment section. GRRM is very well educated in history and many different subjects and you can tell he uses that knowledge in his writing. Do you think while writing asoiaf he just makes up all the details about things like the galleys and cogs and how large they are and how many oarsmen would fit on each and how a ship crew functions? Or all the intricate detail he goes into when describing the various types of clothing and armour his characters wear, and what specific materials they're made of with the multiple layers each character wears while in time with that level of advancement? Or when he describes a feast and all the different the foods, specifically how they're cooked and served, and what spices, fruits and other ingredients are used and how they are used? Or what about all the different types of horses he mentions and what they're used for? Or how about how they preserve food at the wall during winter? Or what about how the feudal system works? An interesting fantasy world isn't going to be interesting unless it is somewhat based in reality and is consistent within it's established rules and world and details. You literally can't go into as much detail as some fantasy writers do while not being "educated at all" That's probably one of the most ignorant things I've ever read.

[@RhodokTribesman]

You have to be well read in history, politics, cultures, and languages to write good fantasy. Tolkien was no dumbass, my guy.

[@pm71241]

Hmm... no... Fantasy and Sci-Fi is not alike. They are not "opposite" either, but there's one important difference. Sci-Fi (at least that which is about "the future") have to deal with the issue of being a plausible extension of our current world. This ususally is very hard and leads to anachronisms. In Fantasy on the other hand you have the options of creating an entirely self-coherent world ... and you can solve any thing by legitimately injecting magic.

[@nehuenbec]

so both are alike then. sci fi is like fantasy but answering HOW on whats being created. easy.

[@pm71241]

+Rey Try a less ignorant tone. My point was that you are allowed to define the world as you like with physics and supernatural elements as you need to explain any event. In Sci-FI (at least that which is just "some-future-earth") you are constrained by our reality. ... meaning it's a lot easier to create a coherent world in Fantasy. Sci-Fi easy fall prey to anachronisms and other stuff which sticks out.

[@balabanasireti]

Yes, they are. Bitch.

[@flyingpotato8627]

@@balabanasireti Nice ad hominem, zero arguments. That makes a good one in the defense of fantasy, sure.

[@flyingpotato8627]

@@nehuenbec No.

[@thecuriousdonkey8842]

Why is the women look like she has her eyes closed wtf

[@ssa3101]

He is not exactly a shining example of health. Is he?

[@lordblackwood6737]

Fuck off!

[@OTEP1234567891011]

Are you?

[@ssa3101]

@@lordblackwood6737 why?

[@ssa3101]

@@OTEP1234567891011 doesn't matter

[@OTEP1234567891011]

So, let me guess. His health only matters because you think he owes people a completed set of novels, Is that it?

[@itsnotatoober]

Three men on stage not gender equality

[@paulwalsh7134]

Did you just assume their genders?

[@OTEP1234567891011]

Dawww, poooooor baaaaaby.

[@dafty4183]

pretty ignorant comment, being as most women can't even read, let alone write.

[@waldoman7]

stupid isn't a contest

[@__-fi6xg]

I allways tough science fiction is cool and Fantasy is gay cuz Ghost Whisperer sucks ass and there was no other Fantasy Show i remember from 90s in Germany.

[@phantomfire8228]

4:54