Where Tolkien attempts to have small characters - Bilbo and Frodo - become great through a spiritual journey, the inbreaking of grace, Martin seeks to have them grow ever more despondent. Tyrion will always lose. Jon Snow will always fail. Daenerys will never quite succeed.
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The religions of GoT are feeble things, not even giving solace, but just means of manipulation and power. Heroism and glory are just cover for sins and vices. And the return of "magic" is the return of "dragons" - the very symbol of evil in the Tolkien canon.
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There is no grace in Westeros. Just lies and power and strings of happenings that have no meaning. The magical is only the manifestation of this meaninglessness and power plays - ice zombies and dragons, death and might. That's all there is. No end in sight.
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Fleeing from grace works (or arbitrarily ends) in short stories. You craft despair and just leave your reader there. Lovecraft did it. And did it better than George "I want comfort in nihilism" Martin.
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But grace is what we crave, not meaninglessness. A longer story, something purporting to reflect the complexity of life, requires that grace break in somewhere. When it doesn't, then we feel cheated. We know, in our heart of hearts, something is missing.
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Grace complete things. Finishes things. Brings them to their full stature or at least opens up visions to the fullness to come. Things can be "interesting" without grace, but never satisfying. Martin is a very "interesting" writer, but never satisfying. Because he flees grace.
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Martin almost recognizes this himself. He often speaks of "knots" in his writing, constipation of words and ideas for months on end. Perhaps this is just him having a slow process. Or perhaps this is him trying to figure out how to forever evade moments of grace.
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And in those rejections, he does nothing more than create (not badly written!) accounts of one damn thing after another. But that's all it will remain. Just one damn thing after another. Because He believes there's no point in it. And as it's His world, there won't be.
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I contend this is the fruit of his own apostasy. Turning away from the faith, from grace, he is ever haunted by it. He is the soul that heaven hounds, but never turns to find the love Heaven pours forth - "It is the alien-parasite, and I must flee!" His stories suffer for it.
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I've read ASOIAF multiple times over. I was a big proponent before the show. I still hold much nostalgia for the books. But I recognize the failure they are. Tyrion, Jon, and Dany will find no fulfilling end, for their creator rejects such a thing in rejecting grace.
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