July 9, 2014

George R.R. Martin Has 2 Words for People Scared He’ll Die Before Finishing “Game Of Thrones” Series

Ball so hard.Screenshot: <a href="http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/panorama/leute/Fuck-You-to-those-people/story/24094113">tagesanzeiger.ch</a>

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Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is 65 years old. Because of this, some of his fans are deeply worried that he won’t finish writing his A Song of Ice And Fire fantasy book series (which began in 1996, and is the basis for the hit HBO show) before he dies. (See: the case of fellow fantasy author Robert Jordan.)

Well, he was asked about this during a recent interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. Here’s his response:

Well, I find that question, you know, pretty offensive, frankly, when people start speculating about my death and my health. So, ‘fuck you’ to those people. [Laughs.]

You can watch the “fuck you”—and Martin’s accompanying flipped middle finger—here.

This isn’t the first time Martin has addressed this concern among his readers. In 2012, he wrote a blog post trolling his fans who are so obsessed with the series that they routinely berate him for working on other projects. It reads:

Reading. I just finished THE KING’S BLOOD, the second volume of Daniel Abraham’s “Dagger and Coin” series. Books like this remind me why I love epic fantasy. Yes, I’m prejudiced, Daniel is a friend and sometime collaborator… but damn, that was a good book. Great world, great characters, thoroughly engrossing story. The only problem was, it ended too soon. I want more. I want to know what happens to Cithrin, and Marcus, and Geder, and Clara. And I want to know NOW. God damn you, Daniel Abraham. I know for a fact that you are writing more Expanse books with Ty, and more urban fantasies as M.L.N. Hanover, and doing short stories for some hack anthologist, and scripting some goddamn COMIC BOOK, and even sleeping with your wife and playing with your daughter. STOP ALL THAT AT ONCE, and get to writing on the next Dagger and Coin. I refuse to wait.

“Fuck you” is more succinct.

(h/t Gawker)

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“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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