Author also tells rapt Edinburgh book festival audience how he grew up in an age when fantasy was frowned on
George RR Martin: 'It's not a democracy. You can’t just insert things because everyone wants to see them.' Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian
There is plenty of bloody, ruthless violence in George RR Martin's novels, and lots and lots of sex – but why is there more explicit gay and bisexual sex on display in the Game of Thrones TV adaptation than in his books? The question was asked as Martin addressed an audience at the Edinburgh international book festival on Monday night – why do his A Song of Ice and Fire novels only hint at the subject?
Martin, who has two more in the series to publish, said he would put it in if it lent itself to the plot. He said the books are narrated through his "viewpoint" characters, so he was more limited than the TV shows. "Frankly, it is the way I prefer to write fiction because that is the way all of us experience life. You're seeing me from your viewpoint, you're not seeing what someone over here is seeing
.
Because none of the viewpoint characters are gay, there are no explicit gay sex scenes in the early books. "A television show doesn't have those limitations," he said. "Will that change? It might. I've had letters from fans who want me to present particularly an explicit male sex scene – most of the letters come from women."
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Martin, who has two more in the series to publish, said he would put it in if it lent itself to the plot. He said the books are narrated through his "viewpoint" characters, so he was more limited than the TV shows. "Frankly, it is the way I prefer to write fiction because that is the way all of us experience life. You're seeing me from your viewpoint, you're not seeing what someone over here is seeing
.
Because none of the viewpoint characters are gay, there are no explicit gay sex scenes in the early books. "A television show doesn't have those limitations," he said. "Will that change? It might. I've had letters from fans who want me to present particularly an explicit male sex scene – most of the letters come from women."
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