HereAndGone2
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User ID: 4074
HereAndGone2
2hr ago
Yeah, I get the impression that is Martin's problem. He's worked it all out, he knows what the ending is, and it just needs to be written. But that's the boring part that he's already done in his head. So instead he sets off down rabbit-holes with new stories (like "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms") to occupy him, because mentally he's already finished with the Starks and the rest of them. He knows what comes next, there's no fun in writing it because there's nothing that will pop up along the way (which is why he gets distracted by side characters on their side missions with "ooh, what's this, what is going on here?" and meanders off for five hundred pages).
HereAndGone2
2hr ago
There are hints of this in the books, not about lack of toilet facilities as such, just the kind of difficult terrain they run into:
The ground now became damp, and in places boggy and here and there they came upon pools, and wide stretches of reeds and rushes filled with the warbling of little hidden birds. They had to pick their way carefully to keep both dry-footed and on their proper course. At first they made fair progress, but as they went on, their passage became slower and more dangerous. The marshes were bewildering and treacherous, and there was no permanent trail even for Rangers to find through their shifting quagmires. The flies began to torment them, and the air was full of clouds of tiny midges that crept up their sleeves and breeches and into their hair.
‘I am being eaten alive!’ cried Pippin. ‘Midgewater! There are more midges than water!’
‘What do they live on when they can’t get hobbit?’ asked Sam, scratching his neck.
They spent a miserable day in this lonely and unpleasant country. Their camping-place was damp, cold, and uncomfortable; and the biting insects would not let them sleep. There were also abominable creatures haunting the reeds and tussocks that from the sound of them were evil relatives of the cricket. There were thousands of them, and they squeaked all round, neek-breek, breek-neek, unceasingly all the night, until the hobbits were nearly frantic. The next day, the fourth, was little better, and the night almost as comfortless. Though the Neekerbreekers (as Sam called them) had been left behind, the midges still pursued them.
That's before they even get into Mordor:
Upon its outer marges under the westward mountains Mordor was a dying land, but it was not yet dead. And here things still grew, harsh, twisted, bitter, struggling for life. In the glens of the Morgai on the other side of the valley low scrubby trees lurked and clung, coarse grey grass-tussocks fought with the stones, and withered mosses crawled on them; and everywhere great writhing, tangled brambles sprawled. Some had long stabbing thorns, some hooked barbs that rent like knives. The sullen shrivelled leaves of a past year hung on them, grating and rattling in the sad airs, but their maggot-ridden buds were only just opening. Flies, dun or grey, or black, marked like orcs with a red eye-shaped blotch, buzzed and stung; and above the briar-thickets clouds of hungry midges danced and reeled.
‘Orc-gear’s no good,’ said Sam waving his arms. ‘I wish I’d got an orc’s hide!’
There is also mention of how it's easy to track the Orcs because of the trail of destruction they leave behind them:
Then they left Parth Galen. The afternoon was fading as they came back to the glade where Boromir had fallen. There they picked up the trail of the Orcs. It needed little skill to find.
‘No other folk make such a trampling,’ said Legolas. ‘It seems their delight to slash and beat down growing things that are not even in their way.’
‘But they go with a great speed for all that,’ said Aragorn, ‘and they do not tire. And later we may have to search for our path in hard bare lands.’
HereAndGone2
2hr ago
The more subtle example is Wilson, who is a pretty nice guy (at least on the surface) and considered almost saintly because he works in paediatric oncology, one of the toughest jobs there is. And he is a pretty decent guy - except in his personal life. Multiple marriages and divorces, mostly caused by his inability not to cheat. His most solid and long-lasting relationship is his friendship with House, and there are explorations during the series of how maybe this is kinda messed-up co-dependent that is not so good for either of them.
I slogged on until the middle of volume eight or so, if I remember correctly, then gave up about half-way through that because "No. Dammit, come to some kind of conclusion. Your main characters don't talk to each other so you set up artificial problems that could be solved if they just told each other what was going on, and while YKINMKATO I am not interested in the umpteenth description of pseudo-lesbian BDSM, ta very much".
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