However, I'm not sure that he tends to literally describe how things taste or feel, but mentions the characters, say, "running their fingers over a length of velvet" or "biting into a lemon tart topped with rich cream," and I fill in the texture and flavor myself. That is, he doesn't necessarily say, "it was soft and plush" or "the cream was sweet and bland and the lemon filling was tart."
It's a very exterior approach to characters, except that he combines it with direct reportage of what characters are thinking or feeling. Mary Gentle took the former approach with her Valentine White Crow stories, but those are some of the most sensorily detailed writing I've read; she especially cares about bodies in motion, smells, and the quality of light. Also she never tells you what anyone thinks, only what you can reasonably infer from observation. With regard to Martin, I bet the technique you're describing is part of what contributes to my sense of flatness when reading him.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-10-03 07:09 pm (UTC)It's a very exterior approach to characters, except that he combines it with direct reportage of what characters are thinking or feeling. Mary Gentle took the former approach with her Valentine White Crow stories, but those are some of the most sensorily detailed writing I've read; she especially cares about bodies in motion, smells, and the quality of light. Also she never tells you what anyone thinks, only what you can reasonably infer from observation. With regard to Martin, I bet the technique you're describing is part of what contributes to my sense of flatness when reading him.