Halfway through lunch at the Delaunay, a fashionable European-style brasserie in London, George RR Martin compares the giant slab of breaded chicken on my plate to a map of a fantasy kingdom. The fact that he is one of the world’s biggest-selling fantasy writers, and creator of the books on which the hit television series Game of Thrones is based, makes this a little less surprising than it might otherwise be. But not much. Pointing at my irregularly shaped food with his knife, he elaborates: “There are various little inlets where cities could be,” he says jovially, as if he were making the most obvious comparison in the world.
我们在伦敦的时尚欧式餐厅Delaunay的午餐吃到一半时，乔治•R•R•马丁(George RR Martin)把我盘中一大块裹着面包屑的炸鸡比作一张梦幻王国的地图。他是世界上作品最畅销的奇幻作家之一，他创作的小说被改编成了热播电视剧《权力的游戏》(Game of Thrones)，因此，他作出这样的比喻并不奇怪。他用餐刀指着我盘中形状不规则的炸鸡块，解释道：“上面有各种各样的小海湾，城市就可能在这里，”他开心地说，仿佛自己作出了世界上最一目了然的比喻。