As a youth, Martin became an avid reader and collector of comic books. Fant… Read Full Bio ↴As a youth, Martin became an avid reader and collector of comic books. Fantastic Four 20 (Nov 1963) features a letter to the editor he wrote while in high school. He credits the attention he received from this letter, as well as his following interest in fanzines, with his interest in becoming a writer.

Martin wrote short fiction in the early 1970s, and won several Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards before he began writing novels late in the decade. Although much of his work is fantasy or horror, a number of his earlier works are science fiction occurring in a loosely-defined future history. He has also written at least one piece of political-military fiction, "Night of the Vampyres", collected in Harry Turtledove's anthology The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century.

In the 1980s he turned to work in television and as a book editor. On television, he worked on the new Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast series. As an editor, he oversaw the lengthy Wild Cards cycle, which took place in a shared universe in which an alien virus bestowed strange powers or disfigurements on a slice of humanity during World War II, affecting the history of the world thereafter (the premise was inspired by comic book superheroes and a Superworld superhero role-playing game of which Martin was gamemaster). Contributors to the Wild Cards series included Stephen Leigh, Lewis Shiner, Howard Waldrop, Walter Jon Williams and Roger Zelazny. His own contributions to the series often featured Thomas Tudbury, "The Great and Powerful Turtle", a powerful psychokinetic whose flying "shell" consisted of an armored VW Beetle.

Martin's short story of the same name was adapted into the feature film Nightflyers (1987).

In 1996 Martin returned to writing novel-length stories, beginning his lengthy cycle A Song of Ice and Fire (ostensibly inspired by the Wars of the Roses and Ivanhoe). In November of 2005, A Feast for Crows, the fourth book in this series, became The New York Times #1 Bestseller and also achieved #1 ranking on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list. In addition, in September 2006 A Feast for Crows was nominated for both a Quill award, and the British Fantasy Award. The series has received praise from authors, publishers, readers and critics alike.

It was announced January, 2007 that HBO Productions has purchased the broadcast rights for the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series, with the author also serving as co-executive producer on the project. The plan calls for each book from the series to be filmed over an entire season's worth of episodes. Production will take place in Europe or New Zealand and Martin is reported to have agreed to script one episode per season. Further details are expected to be announced soon.

Martin has also been an instructor in journalism (in which he holds a master's degree) and a chess tournament director. In his spare time he collects medieval-themed miniatures and continues to treasure his comic collection, which includes the first issues of Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. Although he is fairly active on the internet, he notes: "I do my writing on a completely different computer than the one I use for email and the internet, in part to guard against viruses, worms, and nightmares like this. (...) I write with WordStar 4.0 on a pure DOS-based machine."

prologue
George R. R. Martin Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Have you ever seen lightning strike?
It’s like God sending its' wrath from heaven in such a beautiful but violent way
It’s something that the mind can barely perceive
It takes lightning 350 meters per second to strike
It’s almost as fast as the speed of sound
Well that’s a metaphor for how this mixtape made me feel
I’m giving you my pain, pleasure, my love, hate and every emotion in between
Tryna to create something beautifully violent and something infinite

I hope you find whatever emotion you need on these tape

Overall Meaning

In George R. R. Martin's song Prologue, the artist begins by asking if the listener has ever seen lightning strike. Martin describes lightning as a display of God's power, delivered from heaven in a breathtakingly beautiful and violent manner. He explains that lightning moves at an unbelievable speed of 350 meters per second, which is nearly as fast as the speed of sound. Martin compares the power and speed of lightning to the emotions he is sharing with his listeners through his mixtape.

The artist then goes on to describe his mixtape as an attempt to create something that is both beautifully violent and endlessly expansive. He expresses his intention to share his own emotions with his listeners, including pain, pleasure, love, hate, and everything else in between. He hopes that his mixtape will provide listeners with the emotional experience they need at the moment and convey messages that are both powerful and meaningful.

Overall, George R. R. Martin's song Prologue is a reflection on the power of nature and the emotions that drive human experience. Through his use of metaphors and vivid language, the artist paints a picture of the beauty and violence that are inherent in both the natural world and the world of our feelings.

Line by Line Meaning

Have you ever seen lightning strike?
Have you ever witnessed the chaotic and destructive beauty of nature's wrath?

It’s like God sending its' wrath from heaven in such a beautiful but violent way
It resembles the divine anger of a supreme being, a force that is both stunning and fierce

It’s something that the mind can barely perceive
This power is almost incomprehensible to the limited and mortal abilities of human perception

It takes lightning 350 meters per second to strike
The speed of lightning is incredibly fast, striking at a velocity of 350 meters per second

It’s almost as fast as the speed of sound
The speed of lightning is comparable to the speed of sound, an impressive feat of raw energy

Well that’s a metaphor for how this mixtape made me feel
The previous comparison embodies the emotions and sensations evoked by this music compilation

I’m giving you my pain, pleasure, my love, hate and every emotion in between
Through this mixtape, I reveal and express my full range of emotions, encompassing both positive and negative feelings

Tryna to create something beautifully violent and something infinite
I am attempting to craft a creation that is both fiercely captivating and endlessly everlasting

I hope you find whatever emotion you need on these tapes
I aspire for the listeners of this mixtape to discover and experience the emotions that resonate with them the most

Lyrics © DistroKid
Written by: G. Williams, Glenn Williams

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Comments from YouTube:

Philip Chase

1y↑31

Thank you, Jimmy, for acknowledging that it must be a harsh world where a man past fifty is "old"! 😁

Kakashi Hatake

1y↑2

I take it folks past 50 don't play Tennis in Westros 😉

Philip Chase

1y↑1

@Kakashi Hatake True! 😁

The Fantasy Nuttwork

1y↑3

You’re welcome

Paul van Doleweerd

1y↑2

Young punks...

1 More Replies...

The Fantasy Nuttwork

1y↑19

An absolute pleasure. Also the thumbnail gave me a chuckle hahaha

A Critical Dragon

1y↑1

Thanks for the discussion my friend. It was so wonderful to be able to chat to you about this.

Bran Cell Books

1y↑4

This is an absolutely phenomenal video. Thank you for making it! I’m an aspiring novelist, a beginner, and I dream of one day being as good at storytelling as Martin is.

A Critical Dragon

1y↑1

Best of luck with the writing. I hope that at least some of my videos help.

Do Unicorns Read?

1y↑3

Only about half way through but I really love this new spin on your prologue analysis videos. Great idea for a fresh format, A P.!

paperC

1y↑1

Waiting eagerly for the next A Song of Ice and Fire breakdown! So much to learn from George R.R. Martin

Daniel Valente

1y↑1

Loved this! I always appreciate your breakdowns and this one in particular was incredibly in-depth. Huge fan of the channel AP!

A Critical Dragon

1y↑1

Thank you very much. I am glad that you are enjoying the videos.

Jonas Gehrlein

1y↑2

One thing which I really liked in the prologue is how Royce is used to send the message that the people in charge aren't competent or good in any meaningful way in this world. The ruling elite has done nothing to deserve the place they have in society.

Paul van Doleweerd

Art imitating life.

Feral75

Great as always AP and not a Diegetic moment anywhere to seen or was there? Hope to see more ASoIaF prologues/chapters microscopically disassembled and unveiled-revealed for the brilliant writing gone into them.

Jarrod Courtemanche

Really excellent discussion and great points about the word choices that authors use to make a scene really work. Loved it!

Dan La Pointe

1y↑1

You mentioned about the line, “His voice echoed, too loud in the in the twilit forest.” which I believe subconsciously expresses Will’s fear. He wishes Waymar was more quiet, in spite, of the wildlings raiders being dead in his mind. Is Waymar being too loud or are Will’s feelings of fear irrational? Is this fear distorting his perception? I believe it’s likely.

And interestingly, the echo would be “dead, dead, dead” as the last line spoken is, “There are things to be learned even from the dead.” This would add to your count of the word “dead”, though imaginary.

I would love to hear you talk about the rest of the chapter:) Thx

Matthew Folds

Great discussion and fascinating look at a passage that I've read many times. As someone who has trouble not speeding through to dialogue, I often miss a lot of subtext and characterizations. But I also feel like I've been sort of groomed to do so by so many writers that set a scene with less subtle exposition techniques.

A Critical Dragon

1y↑1

That is why a varied diet of books can be such an education in and of itself. The more we are exposed to different techniques, the more we can get out of new books that we read.

Andrew Lavigne

What a collab! And of one of the best prologues ever.

Karel Orlong

One thing that also struck me, is the fact that even though the wildlings are dead, nobody asks the obvious question: Who or what killed them? This helps increase the tention created by the repetition of the world dead.

Will Harper

One thing that always stuck out to me. You get a idea that experience, and skill have no bearing on rank here. Will and Gared, are both far more experienced and capable than Ser Waymar Royce. Will maybe slow, but later on warns Royce about not having the appropriate mount. And again later warns Royce that a longsword will tangle him up in the trees, a knife would be better. So is Royce truly more intelligent than Will? AP these last 4 videos have been incredible. This channel has given me inspiration when nothing else would, almost boundless knowledge about the craft, ideas, and improved my skills. A while ago I disagreed with AP about adaptation, but I tried to get across. That I was disagreeing in the most respectful light hearted way possible. I have no interest in being right. My interest is in being better, learning. Even though I humbly disagreed, I still have never thought about adaptations the same since. This channel got me through a hard time last year, and inspired me to rise above it. So yes, some of us are getting more out of this than you know.

SSJ94

1y↑1

"Dance with me, then." Iconic prologue.

Jason Morgan

1y↑2

"... There are things to be learned even from the dead". His voice echoed, too loud in the twilit forest.

Martin even hints to the word dead three or four more times.

Translation: "... There are things to be learned even from the DEAD Dead dead dead dead".

Eric McLuen

Did you make Jimmy clean the erasers after class?
For language, using the term wetnurse also puts things into perspective for the nobility and the society.
It seems writing is a lot like jazz improv. You studybthe chords/language a lot and eventually you can play just by ear for what just sounds right.

Kakashi Hatake

1y↑1

05:00 The PoV here would be Gared clearly isn't it? The very next sentence says he had seen lordlings come and go, if it was Royce's PoV, he wouldn't know that about Gared. I read this as a general PoV rather than character PoV based on "didn't rise to the bait" part and later on looked at the sky with "disinterest" part.

It's a small thing but I quite liked how Gared and Royce talk in different ways, clearly indicating they are from different social status.

Dan La Pointe

This is a character POV. The character POV is Will. Thus, the whole chapter is seen through his eyes, and we are in his mind. We see and feel things through his perception. Such as, Waymar being arrogant. We sense his envy for Waymar’s sable cloak.

Billy Alarie

This is making me feel weird things lol. I feel less alone tbh, a guy like Jimmy can be the student here, a guy I’ve always considered pretty smart, meeting his “better”. Idk that I have a thesis statement for that, just an interesting dynamic here.

A Critical Dragon

If we were discussing programming or wrestling I would be listening to Jimmy. Experience and intelligence are two separate things.

Paul van Doleweerd

Ser is used in LE Modessit's Recluce books too.

Todd

1y↑2

We don't know if hell is an actual part of Westeros, but it is clear that people in Westeros believe there are hells. Seven of them, in fact! I think 'hellbent' probably is still a slip, though. Maybe 'hellsbent' to be more in line with 'seven hells!'...but that sounds silly :) --anyway, great video guys. Very interesting.

Parvonik

1y↑1

royce is the kind of guy to die first in a horror movie.

Alex Olivera

Hahahah Jimmy on the thumbnail..Fantasic. Great stuff as always guys.

dookieshoe

1y↑1

Yes the Faith of the Seven in Westeros has a concept of Hell, seven of them in fact.

Livia the Malazan potato noob

1y↑2

the thumbnail convinced me to click faster than I normally would have 😂

The Fantasy Nuttwork

1y↑1

Me too hahaha

Eugene Murphy

Coming this summer to Madison Square Garden, The Cinnamon Function! (sounded like a band name to me)

GREAT video.

Renny Rose

1y↑1

Hell is applicable in the world of ice and fire

Omar

oh this is a nice surprise

Billy Alarie

9:45 YESSER

William Dalglish

that is one good nail

Kakashi Hatake

1y↑2

My friend had read the prologue for this book and disliked it because the prose wasn't as beautiful as LOTR. I loved this book exactly because of the prose. It fits the nature of the story. A lyrical prose would look very strange in a world as grim as this

Jonas Gehrlein

Just because some choice fits the story doesn't mean your friend is wrong for disliking it and I would agree that prose similar to LOTR would not fit the cynical tone that GRRM is going for in this book.

Kakashi Hatake

@Jonas Gehrlein I didn't say my friend was wrong for disliking it. I was mentioning it to say how two people can react differently to the writing choices