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I started reading Julian Barnes recently (god I love his writing so much!), and certain passages from his books reminded me a lot of ASOIAF characters, and inspired me to write a few ASOIAF fics. Only two have been posted so far, I'm still working on the rest.
A Love (and Grief) Story (READ HERE)
Every love story is a potential grief story. If not at first, then later. If not for one, then for the other. Sometimes, for both. (Levels of Life, Julian Barnes)
Alyssa Velaryon and Robar Baratheon were married for thirty years before death tore them asunder.
The Disillusioned (READ HERE)
No, that was not quite right: not shattering, because that implied a single great crisis. Rather, what happened to human illusions was that they crumbled, they withered away. It was a long and wearisome process, like a toothache reaching far into the soul. But you can pull out a tooth and it will be gone. Illusions, however, even when dead, continue to rot and stink within us. (The Noise of Time, Julian Barnes)
Aegon V Targaryen, his thwarted dream for a better realm, and the long, wearying process of disillusionment that eventually curdled his dream into an obsession with dragons.
The Reckoning (IN PROGRESS)
So, he had lived long enough to be dismayed by himself. […] And this, perhaps, was their final triumph over him. Instead of killing him, they had allowed him to live, and by allowing him to live, they had killed him. (The Noise of Time, Julian Barnes)
Rhaegar survives, and has to account for himself, to himself, and to his daughter Rhaenys.
A Roaring Uplift (IN PROGRESS)
Together, in that first exaltation, that first roaring sense of uplift, they are greater than their two separate selves. Together, they see further, and they see more clearly. (Levels of Life, Julian Barnes)
The Queen Regent and the Hand of the King fell in love while they were sharing the rule of the realm.
A Great Unrest (IN PROGRESS)
You get towards the end of life – no, not life itself, but of something else: the end of any likelihood of change in that life. You are allowed a long moment of pause, time enough to ask the question: what else have I done wrong? […] There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond these, there is unrest. There is great unrest. (The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes)
Maekar Targaryen marking the twenty-fourth anniversary of his brother’s death, during the final year of his reign.
The Remorseless (IN PROGRESS)
Because his monsters had doubts, bad dreams, pangs of conscience, guilt. They saw the spirits of those they had killed rising in front of them. But in real life, under real terror, what guilty conscience? What bad dreams? That was all sentimentality, false optimism, a hope that the world would be as we wanted it to be, rather than as it was. (The Noise of Time, Julian Barnes)
Doubt, guilt and remorse were foreign concepts to Tywin Lannister.