As a Former Student (we don't call it "alumnus") of Texas A&M, I have been by the Cushing Library a lot. I had even gone in once. It's not a typical library. You don't study there, there isn't a Starbucks on the ground floor and encyclopedias at the top; in fact, you have to leave your backpack at the door. It is a library in the sense that it houses books and artifacts pertaining to literature. In 2010, the Cushing Library hosted an exhibit of it's Sci-Fi and Fiction collections. I missed it. But when I heard that the "American Tolkein," George R.R. Martin, housed his manuscripts there, I almost died. How had I missed that piece of information the entire four years I was a student there? I was not a happy camper. But then, I learned that this manuscripts and artifacts would be on display in an exhibition that GRRM himself was going to host! I looked online for tickets. If I wanted to eat breakfast with him and sit at a small table and have a Q&A session, I missed my chance by weeks (and a few hundred dollars), but the lecture he was giving after the library closed on Friday, March 22nd was free! Hallelujah!! You bet your britches I was going. I even convinced my friend, Kat, to come too.
The road trip to College Station was a blast. we blared music and sang loud to it. And just so you know, Kat and I sound like angels when we sing. It's just beautiful. So when we left Dallas, it was 50 degrees outside. College Station was 80. But it was great to be back. The campus, founded in 1876, has plenty of old beauty to take in, plus I love to people watch. A&M has about 50,000 students now, and about 500 of them were in line to get into the Cushing Library to see the GRRM exhibit. Turns out, Martin was also in the library doing autographs! Well, since 1% of the student population was in line in front of us, I thought I had time to go back to the car to grab my phone which I had by accident left in the car. The campus is very very very large. We had a pretty good parking spot, but I did not make it back to the library before they closed it. I may die with this regret. However, Kat, the best friend ever, did get to go in. They handed her the "Deeper Than Swords" book as she walked into the exhibit. Martin signed it and she said thanks, and walked out. Then they closed the exhibit. Martin had a lecture to give. When I got back to the library and saw that the doors were shut, there was no line, and Kat was standing outside with a black, magazine sized quasi-book, I knew what I had missed. Like I said, Kat is the best friend ever. She GAVE ME THE AUTOGRAPHED BOOK. I may not have gotten to meet GRRM, who Kat said seemed like he was so over standing around singing things, but I have his signature on a book that maybe 2000 or so copies were made. That's pretty special.
Kat and I head to the lecture held in Rudder Auditorium. It's free, right? Yes, but you still need a ticket... Box office says they've been sold out for weeks and weeks. Well, I didn't come here to not see and exhibit and not hear one of my favorite authors speak. Kat and I debated sneaking in. We had kind of decided on it too, until I gave it one last shot. I walked up to the lady over seeing ticket-taking at the door.
"The lecture is free, right?," I asked.
"Yes," she replied.
"But you still have to have a ticket?"
She nods.
"And you're sold out?"
Nods again.
I turn back to Kat, not sure what to do. We may have said things like, "I can't believe we drove all this way for this." "I figured they would just hand out tickets and it would be first come first serve." "Only current students could have gotten tickets then. That's not really fair." We also may have made sad faces. In any case, the Goddess of the Door took pity on us and said, "A generous benefactor has left you these two tickets." Once again, Hallelujah! We thanked her profusely, knowing she handed us tickets she had just taken from someone ahead of us. It was general admission. We could sit anywhere! We had pretty good seats, made friends with the people next to us, or got annoyed by them in Kat's case. Either way, we had made it. We were there. Soon enough, GRRM was being introduced.
The Dean of Libraries chided us for never coming to the library before, but said if any students were skipping class because of this, it was 100% worth it. The man knows his priorities. Cait Coker, nerd girl 2.0 (and I mean that as a sincere compliment to that awesome lady), had the honor of introducing Martin. Coker spoke of how Martin had the ability to create characters so complete that characters we once hate, we may love later. That they are so real and human that we can see the good in them along with the bad, and those characteristics speak to us on a level that we can relate. She did of course say that not all evil characters turn into ones we like. That learning to love them "doesn't always happen; sometimes we can't wait to them to die *cough Joffrey cough*." That got a big laugh. Everybody hates that guy. Then she said that Martin can obviously bring people together. He mixes genres. Sci-fi fans and fantasy fans can enjoy his books. Some people there have never read the books, but love the tv show. "But there is one thing we can all agree on," Coker ended. "We all think he's pretty damn cool." That's the damn truth. GRRM entered the stage to a standing ovation. Like I said, we were all excited. When we finally quieted and sat, Martin began.
George R.R. Martin was born in New Jersey. He lived his whole adolescent life in Bayonne and dreamed of leaving and going on adventures. As a child he could see the lights of Staten Island shining in the night outside his window across the bay, and this is when he decided he wanted to see the world. Martin admits that now he's not so impressed by Staten Island.
His first taste of adventure writing came by reading comic books. At the height of the comic book era in the 50s, Martin saw first Superman and the Justice League. Then his aunt gave him "Have Spacesuit. Will Travel" by Robert A. Heinlein, and his love for books began. Martin recalls the nickname "George With-His-Nose-in-a-Book Martin" from his class mates, and admits he is "a voracious reader still." He has seen the world now, and has even created new ones, and the "lights of Staten Island at night...the small things of life...all that is gone, but I remember the books." Books changed Martin's life, and he remembers not so much his own "adventures" in childhood, but can recall the stories he read that made him feel that he were embarking on that same journey with the hero. "I am, I think, the sum total of all the books I've read," Martin states. "I have lived a thousand lives, loved a thousand loves, walked distant worlds in a thousand times, because I read." If there were ever an author who could immerse a reader such as I am completely in the world of make-believe, a world of magic and dragons, a world of prophecy and fate, a world of turning wheels and whispers, it is George R.R. Martin and his Westeros. If you have never, if you had thought not, if you might be interested, if you know you hate fantasy, I recommend A Song of Ice and Fire to you. Read it. Just read it. When Martin began writing his series, he says, "At the beginning I didn't know anything. I was alone in the dark forest with a wolf and a sword." Even if you start at this point in your relationship with literature, you can make it out of the dark forest. And Martin can lead you there. He has certainly taken me on a journey I will never forget, and indeed continue to devour. Martin's books are so complete. While he is never lost in the twisted plots, you find yourself in such suspense that you are almost afraid to turn the next page, but you must satisfy that curiosity to know what this artist has planned for the characters in whom you are now so deeply invested. It is obvious he pours into his writing, and I thank him for that.
Thank you, GRRM for being the kind of author I have always dreamed of being: life-changing and inspirational.
That lecture, hearing this amazing author speak, I will never forget it.
