title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: The second planned wave consisted of 171 planes: 54 B5Ns, 81 D3As, and 36 A6Ms, commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Shigekazu Shimazaki. Four planes failed to launch because of technical difficulties. This wave and its targets also comprised three groups of planes:


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: The second wave was divided into three groups. One was tasked to attack Kāneohe, the rest Pearl Harbor proper. The separate sections arrived at the attack point almost simultaneously from several directions.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Ninety minutes after it began, the attack was over. 2,008 sailors were killed and 710 others wounded; 218 soldiers and airmen (who were part of the Army prior to the independent United States Air Force in 1947) were killed and 364 wounded; 109 Marines were killed and 69 wounded; and 68 civilians were killed and 35 wounded. In total, 2,403 Americans were killed, and 1,143 were wounded. Eighteen ships were sunk or run aground, including five battleships. All of the Americans killed or wounded during the attack were legally non-combatants, given that there was no state of war when the attack occurred.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Of the American fatalities, nearly half were due to the explosion of 's forward magazine after it was hit by a modified shell. Author Craig Nelson wrote that the vast majority of the US sailors killed at Pearl Harbor were junior enlisted personnel. "The officers of the Navy all lived in houses and the junior people were the ones on the boats, so pretty much all of the people who died in the direct line of the attack were very junior people", Nelson said. "So everyone is about 17 or 18 whose story is told there."


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Among the notable civilian casualties were nine Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) firefighters who responded to Hickam Field during the bombing in Honolulu, becoming the only fire department members on American soil to be attacked by a foreign power in history. Fireman Harry Tuck Lee Pang of Engine6 was killed near the hangars by machine-gun fire from a Japanese plane. Captains Thomas Macy and John Carreira of Engine4 and Engine1 respectively died while battling flames inside the hangar after a Japanese bomb crashed through the roof. An additional six firefighters were wounded from Japanese shrapnel. The wounded later received Purple Hearts (originally reserved for service members wounded by enemy action while partaking in armed conflicts) for their peacetime actions that day on June 13, 1944; the three firefighters killed did not receive theirs until December 7, 1984, at the 43rd anniversary of the attack. This made the nine men the only non-military firefighters to receive such an award in US history.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Already damaged by a torpedo and on fire amidships, "Nevada" attempted to exit the harbor. She was targeted by many Japanese bombers as she got under way and sustained more hits from bombs, which started further fires. She was deliberately beached to avoid blocking the harbor entrance. was hit by two bombs and two torpedoes. The crew might have kept her afloat, but were ordered to abandon ship just as they were raising power for the pumps. Burning oil from "Arizona" and drifted down on her and probably made the situation look worse than it was. The disarmed target ship was holed twice by torpedoes. "West Virginia" was hit by seven torpedoes, the seventh tearing away her rudder. was hit by four torpedoes, the last two above her belt armor, which caused her to capsize. was hit by two of the converted 16" shells, but neither caused serious damage.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Although the Japanese concentrated on battleships (the largest vessels present), they did not ignore other targets. The light cruiser was torpedoed, and the concussion from the blast capsized the neighboring minelayer . Two destroyers in dry dock, and , were destroyed when bombs penetrated their fuel bunkers. The leaking fuel caught fire; flooding the dry dock in an effort to fight fire made the burning oil rise, and both were burned out. "Cassin" slipped from her keel blocks and rolled against "Downes". The light cruiser was holed by a torpedo. The light cruiser was damaged but remained in service. The repair vessel , moored alongside "Arizona", was heavily damaged and beached. The seaplane tender "Curtiss" was also damaged. The destroyer was badly damaged when two bombs penetrated her forward magazine.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Of the 402 American aircraft in Hawaii, 188 were destroyed and 159 damaged, 155 of them on the ground. Almost none were actually ready to take off to defend the base. Eight Army Air Forces pilots managed to get airborne during the attack, and six were credited with downing at least one Japanese aircraft during the attack: 1st Lt. Lewis M. Sanders, 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmussen, 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor, 2nd Lt. George S. Welch, 2nd Lt. Harry W. Brown, and 2nd Lt. Gordon H. Sterling Jr. Of 33 PBYs in Hawaii, 30 were destroyed and three on patrol at the time of the attack returned undamaged. Friendly fire brought down some US planes on top of that, including four from an inbound flight from .


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: At the time of the attack, nine civilian aircraft were flying in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor. Of these, three were shot down.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Fifty-five Japanese airmen and nine submariners were killed in the attack, and one, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. Of Japan's 414 available planes, 350 took part in the raid in which twenty-nine were lost; nine in the first wave (three fighters, one dive bomber, and five torpedo bombers) and twenty in the second wave (six fighters and fourteen dive bombers) with another 74 damaged by antiaircraft fire from the ground.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: According to some accounts, several Japanese junior officers including Fuchida and Genda urged Nagumo to carry out a third strike in order to sink more of the Pearl Harbor's remaining warships, and damage the base's maintenance shops, drydock facilities, and oil tank yards. Most notably, Fuchida gave a firsthand account of this meeting several times after the war. However, some historians have cast doubt on this and many other of Fuchida's later claims, which sometimes conflict with documented historic records. Genda, who opined during the planning for the attack that without an invasion three strikes were necessary to fully disable the Pacific Fleet, denied requesting an additional attack. Regardless, it is undisputed that the captains of the other five carriers in the task force reported they were willing and ready to carry out a third strike soon after the second returned, but Nagumo decided to withdraw for several reasons:


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Although a hypothetical third strike would have likely focused on the base's remaining warships, military historians have suggested any potential damage to the shore facilities would have hampered the US Pacific Fleet far more seriously. If they had been wiped out, "serious [American] operations in the Pacific would have been postponed for more than a year"; according to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, later Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, "it would have prolonged the war another two years".


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: At a conference aboard his flagship the following morning, Yamamoto supported Nagumo's withdrawal without launching a third wave. In retrospect, sparing the vital dockyards, maintenance shops, and the oil tank farm meant the US could respond relatively quickly to Japanese activities in the Pacific. Yamamoto later regretted Nagumo's decision to withdraw and categorically stated it had been a great mistake not to order a third strike.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Twenty-one American ships were damaged or lost in the attack, of which all but three were repaired and returned to service.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: After a systematic search for survivors, Captain Homer N. Wallin was ordered to lead a formal salvage operation.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Around Pearl Harbor, divers from the Navy (shore and tenders), the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, and civilian contractors (Pacific Bridge Company and others) began work on the ships that could be refloated. They patched holes, cleared debris, and pumped water out of ships. Navy divers worked inside the damaged ships. Within six months, five battleships and two cruisers were patched or refloated so they could be sent to shipyards in Pearl Harbor and on the mainland for extensive repair.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Intensive salvage operations continued for another year, a total of some 20,000 man-hours under water. "Arizona" and the target ship "Utah" were too heavily damaged for salvage and remain where they were sunk, with "Arizona" becoming a war memorial. "Oklahoma", while successfully raised, was never repaired and capsized while under tow to the mainland in 1947. The "Nevada" proved particularly difficult to raise and repair; two men involved in the operation died after inhaling poisonous gases that had accumulated in the ship's interior. When feasible, armament and equipment were removed from vessels too damaged to repair and put to use aboard other craft.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: The initial announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor was made by the White House Press Secretary, Stephen Early, at 2:22p.m. Eastern time (8:52a.m. Hawaiian time): "The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor from the air and all naval and military activities on the island of Oahu, principal American base in the Hawaiian islands." As information developed, Early made a number of additional announcements to approximately 150 White House reporters over the course of the afternoon.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Initial reports of the attack moved on news wires at approximately 2:25p.m. Eastern time. The first radio coverage (which, at the time, represented the earliest opportunity for ordinary people to learn of the attack) was on the CBS radio network's scheduled news program, "World News Today", at 2:30p.m. Eastern time. John Charles Daly read the initial report, then switched to London, where Robert Trout ad-libbed on the possible London reaction. The first report on NBC cut into a play, a dramatization of "The Inspector-General", at 2:33p.m. Eastern time and lasted only 21 seconds. Unlike the later practice with major news stories, there were only brief interruptions of scheduled commercial programming.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: A contemporaneous newspaper report compared the attack to the Battle of Port Arthur in which the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Imperial Russian Navy, triggering the Russo-Japanese War, 37 years prior. Modern writers have continued to note parallels between the attacks, albeit more dispassionately.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: The day after the attack, Roosevelt delivered his famous Day of Infamy speech to a Joint Session of Congress, calling for a formal declaration of war on the Empire of Japan. Congress obliged his request less than an hour later. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, even though the Tripartite Pact did not require it. Congress issued a declaration of war against Germany and Italy later that same day.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: The United Kingdom had already been at war with Germany since September 1939 and with Italy since June 1940, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had promised to declare war "within the hour" of a Japanese attack on the United States. Upon learning of the Japanese attacks on Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong, Churchill promptly determined there was no need to either wait or further consult the US government and immediately summoned the Japanese Ambassador. As a result, the UK declared war on Japan nine hours before the US did.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: The attack was an initial shock to all the Allies in the Pacific Theater. Further losses compounded the alarming setback. Japan attacked the Philippines hours later (because of the time difference, it was December 8 in the Philippines). Only three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battleships "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" were sunk off the coast of Malaya, causing Churchill later to recollect "In all the war I never received a more direct shock. As I turned and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American capital ships in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific except the American survivors of Pearl Harbor who were hastening back to California. Over this vast expanse of waters, Japan was supreme and we everywhere were weak and naked."


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: One further consequence of the attack on Pearl Harbor and its aftermath (notably the Niihau incident) was that Japanese-American residents and citizens were relocated to nearby Japanese-American internment camps. Within hours of the attack, hundreds of Japanese-American leaders were rounded up and taken to high-security camps such as Sand Island at the mouth of Honolulu harbor and Kilauea Military Camp on the island of Hawaii. Eventually, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans, nearly all who lived on the West Coast, were forced into interior camps, but in Hawaii, where the 150,000-plus Japanese Americans composed over one-third of the population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were interned.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: The attack also had international consequences. The Canadian province of British Columbia, bordering the Pacific Ocean, had long had a large population of Japanese immigrants and their Japanese-Canadian descendants. Pre-war tensions were exacerbated by the Pearl Harbor attack, leading to a reaction from the Government of Canada. On February 24, 1942, Order-in-Council P.C. no. 1486 was passed under the War Measures Act, allowing for the forced removal of any and all Canadians of Japanese descent from British Columbia, as well as prohibiting them from returning to the province. On March 4, regulations under the Act were adopted to evacuate Japanese-Canadians. As a result, 12,000 were interned in interior camps, 2,000 were sent to road camps, and another 2,000 were forced to work in the prairies on sugar beet farms.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: In the wake of the attack, 15 Medals of Honor, 51 Navy Crosses, 53 Silver Stars, four Navy and Marine Corps Medals, one Distinguished Flying Cross, four Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, and three Bronze Star Medals were awarded to the American servicemen who distinguished themselves in combat at Pearl Harbor. Additionally, a special military award, the Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal, was later authorized for all military veterans of the attack.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Japanese planners of the Pearl Harbor attack had determined that some means were required for rescuing fliers whose aircraft were damaged too badly to return to the carriers. The island of Niihau, only thirty minutes by air from Pearl Harbor, was designated as the rescue point.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: During the second wave, one Zero fighter flown by Petty Officer Shigenori Nishikaichi of the "Hiryu" was damaged in the attack on Wheeler, so he flew to the rescue point. The aircraft was further damaged on the crash landing. Nishikaichi was helped from the wreckage by one of the native Hawaiians, who, aware of the tension between the United States and Japan, took the pilot's pistol, maps, codes, and other documents. The island's residents had no telephones or radios and were completely unaware of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nishikaichi enlisted the support of three Japanese-American residents in an attempt to recover the documents. During the ensuing struggles, Nishikaichi was killed, and a Hawaiian civilian was wounded; one collaborator committed suicide, and his wife and the third collaborator were sent to prison.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: The ease with which the local ethnic Japanese residents had apparently gone to Nishikaichi's assistance was a source of concern for many and tended to support those who believed that local Japanese could not be trusted.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Admiral Hara Tadaichi summed up the Japanese result by saying, "We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war."


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: While the attack accomplished its intended objective, it turned out to be largely unnecessary. Unbeknownst to Yamamoto, who conceived the original plan, the US Navy had decided as far back as 1935 to abandon 'charging' across the Pacific towards the Philippines in response to an outbreak of war (in keeping with the evolution of Plan Orange). The US instead adopted "Plan Dog" in 1940, which emphasized keeping the IJN out of the eastern Pacific and away from the shipping lanes to Australia, while the US concentrated on defeating Nazi Germany.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Fortunately for the United States, the American aircraft carriers were untouched; otherwise the Pacific Fleet's ability to conduct offensive operations would have been crippled for a year or more (given no diversions from the Atlantic Fleet). As it was, the US Navy was left with no choice but to rely on carriers and submarines, the very weapons with which the US Navy halted and eventually reversed the Japanese advance. While six of the eight battleships were repaired and returned to service, their relatively low speed and high fuel consumption limited their deployment, and they served mainly in shore bombardment roles (their only major action being the Battle of Surigao Strait in October 1944). A major flaw of Japanese strategic thinking was a belief that the ultimate Pacific battle would be fought by battleships, in keeping with the doctrine of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan. As a result, Yamamoto (and his successors) hoarded battleships for a "decisive battle" that never happened.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: The Japanese confidence in their ability to win a quick victory meant that they neglected Pearl Harbor's navy repair yards, oil tank farms, submarine base, and old headquarters building. All of these targets were omitted from Genda's list, yet they proved more important than any battleship to the American war effort in the Pacific. The survival of the repair shops and fuel depots allowed Pearl Harbor to maintain logistical support to the US Navy's operations, such as the Doolittle Raid and the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway. It was submarines that immobilized the Imperial Japanese Navy's heavy ships and brought Japan's economy to a virtual standstill by crippling the importation of oil and raw materials: by the end of 1942, the amount of raw materials brought in was cut in half, "to a disastrous ten million tons", while oil "was almost completely stopped". Lastly, the basement of the Old Administration Building was the home of the cryptanalytic unit which contributed significantly to the Midway ambush and the Submarine Force's success.


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: Ever since the Japanese attack, there has been debate as to how and why the United States had been caught unaware, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans and related topics. As early as 1924, Chief of US Air Service Mason Patrick displayed a concern for military vulnerabilities in the Pacific, having sent General Billy Mitchell on a survey of the Pacific and the East. Patrick called Mitchell's subsequent report, which identified vulnerabilities in Hawaii, a "theoretical treatise on employment of airpower in the Pacific, which, in all probability undoubtedly will be of extreme value some 10 or 15 years hence".


title: Attack on Pearl Harbor

text: At least two naval war games, one in 1932 and another in 1936, proved that Pearl was vulnerable to such an attack. Admiral James Richardson was removed from command shortly after protesting President Roosevelt's decision to move the bulk of the Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor. The decisions of military and political leadership to ignore these warnings have contributed to conspiracy theories. Several writers, including decorated World WarII veteran and journalist Robert Stinnett, author of "Day of Deceit", and former United States Rear Admiral Robert Alfred Theobald, author of "The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor: The Washington Background of the Pearl Harbor Attack", have argued that various parties high in the US and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may even have let it happen or encouraged it in order to force the US into war via the so-called "back door". However, this conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels "A Song of Ice and Fire", which were adapted into the Emmy Award-winning HBO series "Game of Thrones" (2011–2019) and its prequel series "House of the Dragon" (2022–present). He also helped create the "Wild Cards" anthology series, and contributed worldbuilding for the 2022 video game "Elden Ring".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 2005, Lev Grossman of "Time" called Martin "the American Tolkien", and in 2011, he was included on the annual "Time" 100 list of the most influential people in the world. He is a longtime citizen of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he helped fund Meow Wolf and owns the Jean Cocteau Cinema. The city commemorates March 29 as George R. R. Martin Day.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: George Raymond Martin (he adopted the confirmation name Richard at 13 years old) was born on September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of longshoreman Raymond Collins Martin and Margaret Brady Martin. His mother's family had once been wealthy, owning a successful construction business, but lost it all in the Great Depression, something Martin was reminded about every day when he passed what used to be his family's dock and house. He has two younger sisters, Darleen and Janet. He is predominantly of Irish descent; a DNA test on the series "Finding Your Roots" showed him to be 53.6% "British and Irish", 22.4% Ashkenazi Jewish, and 15.6% "Broadly Northwestern European".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: The family first lived in a house on Broadway belonging to Martin's great-grandmother. In 1953, they moved to a federal housing project near the Bayonne docks. During Martin's childhood, his world consisted predominantly of "First Street to Fifth Street", between his grade school and his home; this limited world made him want to travel and experience other places, but the only way of doing so was through his imagination, and he became a voracious reader. Martin began writing and selling monster stories for pennies to other neighborhood children, dramatic readings included; he had to stop once one of his customer's mothers complained about her child's nightmares. He also wrote stories about a mythical kingdom populated by his pet turtles; the turtles died frequently in their toy castle, so he decided they were killing each other off in "sinister plots". Martin had a habit of starting "endless stories" that he never completed, as they did not turn out as well on paper as he had imagined them.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and later Marist High School. While there he became an avid comic-book fan, developing a strong interest in the superheroes being published by Marvel Comics, and later credited Stan Lee for being one of his greatest literary influences; "Maybe Stan Lee is the greatest literary influence on me, even more than Shakespeare or Tolkien." A letter Martin wrote to the editor of "Fantastic Four" was printed in issue #20 (November 1963); it was the first of many sent, e.g., "Fantastic Four" #32, #34, and others. Fans who read his letters wrote him letters in turn, and through such contacts, Martin joined the fledgling comics fandom of the era, writing fiction for various fanzines; he bought the first ticket to the world's first Comic-Con, held in New York in 1964. In 1965, Martin won comic fandom's Alley Award for Best Fan Fiction for his prose superhero story "Powerman vs. The Blue Barrier".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 1970, Martin earned a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Illinois, graduating "summa cum laude"; he went on to complete his M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Medill. Eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War, to which he objected, Martin applied for and obtained conscientious objector status; he instead did alternative service work for two years (1972–1974) as a VISTA volunteer, attached to the Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin began selling science fiction short stories professionally in 1970, at age 21. His first sale was "The Hero", sold to "Galaxy" magazine and published in its February 1971 issue; other sales soon followed. His first story to be nominated for the Hugo Award and Nebula Awards was "With Morning Comes Mistfall", published in 1973 in "Analog" magazine. In 1975 his story "...for a single yesterday" about a post-apocalyptic timetripper was selected for inclusion in "Epoch", a science fiction anthology edited by Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg. His first novel, "Dying of the Light", was completed in 1976 right before he moved to Dubuque and published in 1977. That same year the enormous success of "Star Wars" had a huge impact on the publishing industry and science fiction, and he sold the novel for the same amount he would make in three years of teaching.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: The short stories he was able to sell in his early 20s gave him some profit but not enough to pay his bills, which prevented him from becoming the full-time writer he wanted to be. The need for a day job occurred simultaneously with the American chess craze which followed Bobby Fischer's victory in the 1972 world chess championship. Martin's own chess skills and experience allowed him to be hired as a tournament director for the Continental Chess Association, which ran chess tournaments on the weekends. This gave him a sufficient income, and because the tournaments only ran on Saturdays and Sundays, it allowed him to work as a writer five days a week from 1973 to 1976. By the time the chess bubble subsequently burst and no longer provided an income, he had become much better established as a writer.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In the mid-1970s, Martin met English professor George Guthridge from Dubuque, Iowa, at a science fiction convention in Milwaukee. Martin persuaded Guthridge (who later said that at that time he despised science fiction and fantasy) not only to give speculative fiction a second look, but to write in the field himself. Guthridge has since been a finalist for the Hugo Award and twice for the Nebula Award for science fiction and fantasy. In 1998, Guthridge and Janet Berliner won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in the Novel for their "Children of the Dusk".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In turn, Guthridge helped Martin in finding a job at Clarke University (then Clarke College). Martin "wasn't making enough money to stay alive" from writing and the chess tournaments, says Guthridge. From 1976 to 1978, Martin was an English and journalism instructor at Clarke, and he became Writer In Residence at the college from 1978 to 1979.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: While he enjoyed teaching, the sudden death of friend and fellow author Tom Reamy in late 1977 made Martin reevaluate his own life, and he eventually decided to try to become a full-time writer. When his wife graduated from Clarke in 1979, he resigned from his job, and being tired of the hard winters in Dubuque, they moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1979, which they had "fallen in love with" after a visit the year before on their way to the worldcon in Phoenix.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA); he served as the organization's Southwest Regional Director from 1977 to 1979, and as its vice-president from 1996 to 1998. In 1976, for Kansas City's MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), Martin and his friend and fellow writer-editor Gardner Dozois conceived of and organized the first Hugo Losers' Party for the benefit of all past and present Hugo-losing writers on the evening following the convention's Hugo Awards ceremony. Martin was nominated for two Hugos that year but lost both awards, for the novelette "...and Seven Times Never Kill Man" and the novella "The Storms of Windhaven", co-written with Lisa Tuttle. Although Martin often writes fantasy or horror, a number of his earlier works are science fiction tales occurring in a loosely defined future history, known informally as "The Thousand Worlds" or "The Manrealm".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 2017, Martin recalled that he had started writing science fiction-horror hybrids in the late 1970s to disprove a statement from a critic claiming that science fiction and horror were opposites and therefore incompatible. Martin considered "Sandkings" (1979) the best known of these. Another was the novella "Nightflyers" (1980), whose screen and television rights were purchased by Vista in 1984, which produced a 1987 film adaptation, "Nightflyers", with a screenplay co-written by Martin. Martin was unhappy about having to cut plot elements in order to accommodate the film's small budget. While not a hit at theatres, Martin believes that the film saved his career, and that everything he has written since exists in large part because of it. He has also written at least one piece of political-military fiction, "Night of the Vampyres", collected in Harry Turtledove's anthology "The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century" (2001).


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 1982, Martin published a vampire novel titled "Fevre Dream" set in the 19th century on the Mississippi River. Unlike traditional vampire novels, in "Fevre Dream" vampires are not supernatural creatures, but are rather a different species related to humans created by evolution with superhuman powers. Critic Don D'Amassa has praised "Fevre Dream" for its strong 19th century atmosphere and wrote: "This is without question one of the greatest vampire novels of all time". Martin followed up "Fevre Dream" with another horror novel, "The Armageddon Rag" (1983). The unexpected commercial failure of "The Armageddon Rag" "essentially destroyed my career as a novelist at the time", he recalled, and made him consider going into real estate instead.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 1984, the new editor of Baen Books, Betsy Mitchell, called Martin to ask him if he had considered doing a collection of Haviland Tuf adventures. Martin, who had several favorite series characters like Solomon Kane, Elric, Nicholas van Rijn and Magnus Ridolph, had made an attempt to create such a character on his own in the 1970s with his Tuf stories. He was interested, but was too occupied with the writing of his next book, the never-completed novel "Black and White and Red All Over", which occupied most of his writing time the same year. But after the failure of "The Armageddon Rag", all editors rejected his upcoming novel, and desperate for money, he accepted Mitchell's offer and wrote some more Tuf stories which were collected in "Tuf Voyaging", which sold well enough for Mitchell to suggest a sequel. Martin was willing and agreed to do it, but before he got started he got an offer from Hollywood, where producer Philip DeGuere Jr. wanted to adapt "The Armageddon Rag" into a film. The film adaptation did not happen, but they stayed in touch, and when DeGuere became the producer for the revival of "The Twilight Zone", Martin was offered a job as a writer. Working for television paid a lot better than writing literature, so he decided to move to Hollywood to seek a new career. At first he worked as staff writer for the show, and then as an executive story consultant. After the CBS series was cancelled, Martin migrated over to the already-underway satirical science fiction series "Max Headroom". He worked on scripts and created the show's "Ped Xing" character. However, before his scripts could go into production, the ABC show was cancelled in the middle of its second season. Martin was hired as a writer-producer on the new dramatic fantasy series "Beauty and the Beast"; in 1989, he became the show's co-supervising producer and wrote 14 of its episodes.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 1987, Martin published a collection of short horror stories in "Portraits of His Children". During this same period, Martin continued working in print media as a book-series editor, this time overseeing the development of the multi-author "Wild Cards" book series, which takes place in a shared universe in which a small slice of post–World War II humanity gains superpowers after the release of an alien-engineered virus; new titles are published in the ongoing series from Tor Books. In "Second Person", Martin "gives a personal account of the close-knit role-playing game (RPG) culture that gave rise to his "Wild Cards" shared-world anthologies". An important element in the creation of the multiple author series was a campaign of Chaosium's role-playing game "Superworld" (1983) that Martin ran in Albuquerque. Admitting he became completely obsessed with the game, he stopped writing literature for most of 1983, which he refers to as his "lost year", but his shrinking bank accounts made him realize he had to come up with something, and got the idea that perhaps the stories and characters created in "Superworld" could somehow become profitable. Martin's own contributions to "Wild Cards" have included Thomas Tudbury, "The Great and Powerful Turtle", a powerful psychokinetic whose flying "shell" consisted of an armored VW Beetle. , 21 "Wild Cards" volumes had been published in the series; earlier that same year, Martin signed the contract for the 22nd volume, "Low Ball" (2014), published by Tor Books. In early 2012, Martin signed another Tor contract for the 23rd "Wild Cards" volume, "High Stakes", which was released in August 2016.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In August 2016 Martin announced that Universal Cable Productions had acquired the rights to adapt the "Wild Cards" novels into a television series. He noted that he himself would not write for the adaptation due to focusing on "A Song of Ice and Fire".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 1991, Martin briefly returned to writing novels. He had grown frustrated that his TV pilots and screenplays were not getting made and that TV-related production limitations like budgets and episode lengths were forcing him to cut characters and trim battle scenes. This pushed Martin back towards writing books, where he did not have to worry about compromising his imagination. Admiring the works of J. R. R. Tolkien in his childhood, he wanted to write an epic fantasy, though he did not have any specific ideas.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: His epic fantasy series, "A Song of Ice and Fire", was inspired by the Wars of the Roses, "The Accursed Kings" and "Ivanhoe". Though Martin originally conceptualized it as being three volumes, it is currently slated to comprise seven. The first, "A Game of Thrones", was published in 1996, followed by "A Clash of Kings" in 1998 and "A Storm of Swords" in 2000. In November 2005, "A Feast for Crows", the fourth novel in this series, became "The New York Times" No. 1 Bestseller. The fifth book, "A Dance with Dragons", was published July 12, 2011, and became an international bestseller, including achieving a No. 1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List and many others; it remained on the "New York Times" list for 88 weeks. In 2012, "A Dance With Dragons" made the final ballot for science fiction and fantasy's Hugo Award, World Fantasy Award, Locus Poll Award, and the British Fantasy Award; the novel went on to win the Locus Poll Award for Best Fantasy Novel. Two more novels are planned in the series: "The Winds of Winter" and the final volume "A Dream of Spring". On April 25, 2018, Martin announced the release date of his new book, "Fire & Blood", dealing with the history of House Targaryen, which was released on November 20, 2018. Should Martin die before finishing the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, former collaborators have said that they will not conclude the series for him.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: HBO Productions purchased the television rights for the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series in 2007. Although busy completing "A Dance With Dragons" and other projects, George R. R. Martin was heavily involved in the production of the television series adaptation of his books. Martin's involvement included the selection of a production team and participation in scriptwriting; the opening credits list him as a co-executive producer of the series. The original pilot was shot between October 24 and November 19, 2009, on location in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Morocco. It was received poorly by HBO executives that they did not make a decision for four months after the pilot was delivered. In March 2010, HBO's decision to greenlight the series was announced, with the production of the series scheduled to start June 2010. HBO however demanded the first episode be reshot, and wanted all the scenes from Morocco scrapped. The first episode (""Winter Is Coming"") premiered on HBO in the United States and Canada on April 17, 2011. It was seen initially by 2.2 million viewers. The first season was nominated for 13 Emmy Awards, ultimately winning two: one for its opening title credits, and one for Peter Dinklage as Best Supporting Actor.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: HBO ordered a second season of "Game of Thrones" on April 19, 2011, two days after the series premiere. The second season obtained a 15% increase in budget in order to be able to stage the war's most important battle, the Battle of the Blackwater, in episode nine which was written by George R. R. Martin. Filming took place during 106 shooting days. During three-quarters of those, two crews ("Dragon" and "Wolf") were working simultaneously in different locations. Alan Taylor was promoted to co-executive producer and directed four episodes, including the season premiere and finale. David Petrarca and David Nutter each directed two episodes, while series cinematographer Alik Sakharov and filmmaker Neil Marshall directed the remaining two. The second season premiered in the United States on HBO on April 1, 2012, and concluded on June 3, 2012. U.S. viewership rose by approximately 8% over the course of the season, from 3.9 million to 4.2 million by the season finale. The second season won six of the twelve Emmy Awards for which it was nominated.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: "Game of Thrones" rapidly became a critical and commercial success after the second season. HBO renewed the series for a third season on April 10, 2012, nine days after the second season's premiere. Production began in July 2012 and concluded with the wrap of the unit filming in Iceland on November 24, 2012. The third season is based on the first half of the novel "A Storm of Swords". Benioff had previously said that "A Storm of Swords" would need to be adapted in two seasons on account of its length. Benioff and Weiss also noted that they thought of "Game of Thrones" as an adaptation of the series as a whole, rather than of individual novels, which gave them the liberty to move scenes back and forth across novels according to the requirements of the screen adaptation. Season 3 saw the first significant use of the Valyrian languages, spoken in doomed Valyria and its former colonies in Essos. The constructed languages were developed by linguist David J. Peterson based on the few words Martin invented for the novels. Peterson had previously developed the Dothraki language, used principally in season 1. The third season premiered on HBO on March 31, 2013, and concluded on June 9, 2013. The third season was seen by 14.2 million viewers. It won 2 of the 16 Emmy Awards for which it was nominated.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Two days after third season premiere, HBO ordered the fourth season on April 2, 2013, which began filming in July 2013. The season is adapted primarily from the second half of "A Storm of Swords", along with elements of "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons." Showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss co-wrote seven out of ten episodes. The remaining three episodes were written by Bryan Cogman (two episodes), and George R. R. Martin (one episode). For this season, the filming lasted 136 days and was completed on November 21, 2013. The fourth season premiered in the United States on HBO on April 6, 2014, and concluded on June 15, 2014. The season was met with largely positive reviews. It won 4 of the 19 Emmy Awards for which it was nominated. With its fourth season, "Game of Thrones" has become the most-watched HBO series in history (surpassing the fourth season of "The Sopranos" which had a gross audience of 18.2 million viewers), averaging 18.4 million viewers across multiple platforms, including live viewing, encores, DVR views, HBO GO and On Demand views.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Up until the fourth season, Martin wrote one episode for each season. In 2022, Martin said that he had been estranged from the show during the production process of the last 4 seasons (starting with season 5). In the early seasons, Martin wrote and read scripts, consulted on casting decisions and visited sets. Over time, however, as he stepped back to focus on his long-delayed next “Thrones” novel, ""The Winds of Winter"". Following the gargantuan success of the fourth season, HBO ordered the fifth season on April 8, 2014,(together with the sixth season), which began filming in July 2014. The season primarily adapts the storylines from "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons," also with original content not found in Martin's novels. This season set a Guinness World Record for winning the highest number of Emmy Awards for a series in a single season and year, winning 12 out of 24 nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: With a budget over $100 million for the whole season, filming for the sixth season began in July 2015 and ended on December. The season filmed in five different countries: Northern Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Iceland, and Canada. This season saw the overall plot of the show diverging from the source material. Some of the season's storyline is derived from content not yet published in Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, although a significant amount of material from "A Feast for Crows", "A Dance with Dragons" and the upcoming sixth novel "The Winds of Winter", which Martin previously outlined to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, was used. The season was largely met with positive reviews. The "Battle of the Bastards" episode received immense critical acclaim, with many calling it one of the best television episodes of all time. U.S. viewership rose compared to the previous season, and by approximately 13 percent over its course, from 7.9 million to 8.9 million by the finale. The season won 12 of the 23 Emmy Awards for which it was nominated.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Three days before the premiere of the episode "The Red Woman", HBO ordered the seventh season. Due to necessary weather conditions required for filming, the production of the penultimate season of the show was delayed that year. Filming began only on August 31, 2016, at Titanic Studios in Belfast, and ended in February 2017. Unlike previous seasons, the seventh and eighth seasons largely consisted of original content not found in the source material. This season comprised only seven episodes. The showrunners stated that they were unable to produce 10 episodes in the show's usual 12 to 14 month time frame, as Weiss said "It's crossing out of a television schedule into more of a mid-range movie schedule". The average runtime of an episode in this season was approximately 63 minutes. The series received 22 nominations for the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards and won 9 of them, including "Outstanding Drama Series".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Unlike its prior seasons, the final one took a year gap for its production and filming. The eighth season consisted of only six episodes, though the average runtime of an episode was 68 minutes, the longest of all seasons, with "The Long Night" consisting of 81 minutes. The season was met with mixed reviews from critics, with the performances, production values and music score were praised, criticism was mainly directed at the shorter runtime of the season as well as numerous creative decisions made by the showrunners. Many commentators deemed it to be a disappointing conclusion to the series. The season received 32 nominations at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, the most for a single season of television in history. It won twelve, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Peter Dinklage.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Three years after the show ended, a prequel series, "House of the Dragon", premiered on HBO in August 21, 2022. Based on parts of the novel "Fire & Blood", the series is set about 200 years before the events of "Game of Thrones." Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik served as the showrunners for the first season. Five days after its premiere, the series was renewed for a second season by HBO. On September 1, Sapochnik departed as showrunner, with another veteran Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor replacing him as the co-showrunner for the upcoming second season.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In June 2022, it was reported that a Jon Snow sequel series with Kit Harington to reprise his role was in early development at HBO. The working title is "Snow" and Martin confirmed his involvement with the project and that Harington initiated the idea. Also in June, Martin said there were still three other live-action series in development: "10,000 Ships" (written by Amanda Segal), "9 Voyages" aka "Sea Snake" (written by Bruno Heller), and the Dunk & Egg prequel series (written by Steven Conrad), tentatively titled either "The Hedge Knight" or "Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In January 2021, an animated drama series was announced as in development at HBO Max. In July 2021, two more animated series were in development at HBO Max, with one being set in Yi Ti, a nation in Essos loosely based on Imperial China.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin's work has been described as having "complex story lines, fascinating characters, great dialogue, perfect pacing" by literary critic Jeff VanderMeer. Dana Jennings of the "New York Times" described Martin's work as "fantasy for grown ups" and Lev Grossman wrote that it was dark and cynical. Martin's first novel, "Dying of the Light", set the tone for some of his future work; it unfolds on a mostly abandoned planet that is slowly becoming uninhabitable as it moves away from its sun. This story has a strong sense of melancholy. His characters are often unhappy or, at least, unsatisfied, in many cases holding on to idealisms in spite of an otherwise chaotic and ruthless world, and often troubled by their own self-seeking or violent actions, even as they undertake them. Many have elements of tragic heroes or antiheroes in them; reviewer T. M. Wagner writes: "Let it never be said Martin doesn't share Shakespeare's fondness for the senselessly tragic."


title: George R. R. Martin

text: The overall gloominess of "A Song of Ice and Fire" can be an obstacle for some readers; the Inchoatus Group writes that, "If this absence of joy is going to trouble you, or you're looking for something more affirming, then you should probably seek elsewhere." However, for many fans, it is precisely this level of "realness" and "completeness"–including many characters' imperfections, moral and ethical ambiguity, and (often sudden) consequential plot twists that is endearing about Martin's work. Many find that this is what makes the series' story arcs compelling enough to keep following despite its sheer brutality and intricately messy and interwoven plotlines; as TM Wagner points out:There's great tragedy here, but there's also excitement, humor, heroism even in weaklings, nobility even in villains, and, now and then, a taste of justice after all. It's a rare gift when a writer can invest his story with that much humanity.Martin's characters are multifaceted, each with intricate pasts, aspirations, and ambitions. "Publishers Weekly" writes of his ongoing epic fantasy "A Song of Ice and Fire": "The complexity of characters such as Daenerys, Arya and the Kingslayer will keep readers turning even the vast number of pages contained in this volume, for the author, like Tolkien or Jordan, makes us care about their fates." Misfortune, injury, and death (including false death and reanimation) often befall major or minor characters, no matter how attached the reader has become. Martin has described his penchant for killing off important characters as being necessary for the story's depth: "when my characters are in danger, I want you to be afraid to turn the page, (so) you need to show right from the beginning that you're playing for keeps".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In distinguishing his work from others, Martin makes a point of emphasizing realism and plausible social dynamics above an over-reliance on magic and a simplistic "good versus evil" dichotomy, for which contemporary fantasy writing is often criticized. Notably, Martin's work makes a sharp departure from the prevalent "heroic knights and chivalry" schema that has become a mainstay in fantasy as derived from J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". He specifically critiques the oversimplification of Tolkien's themes and devices by imitators in ways that he has humorously described as "Disneyland Middle Ages", which gloss over or ignore major differences between medieval and modern societies, particularly social structures, ways of living, and political arrangements. Martin has been described as "the American Tolkien" by literary critics. While Martin finds inspiration in Tolkien's legacy, he aims to go beyond what he sees as Tolkien's "medieval philosophy" of "if the king was a good man, the land would prosper" to delve into the complexities, ambiguities, and vagaries of real-life power: "We look at real history and it's not that simple ... Just having good intentions doesn't make you a wise king." Per this fact Martin has been credited with the rise of grimdark fantasy, a modern form of an "anti-Tolkien" approach to fantasy writing which, according to British science fiction and fantasy novelist Adam Roberts, is characterized by its reaction to Tolkien's idealism even though it owes a lot to Tolkien's work. The Canadian fantasy writer R. Scott Bakker "says he wouldn't have been able to publish his fantasy novels without the success George R. R. Martin achieved first". Similarly, Mark Lawrence, author of "Prince of Thorns", was inspired by Martin and impressed by his Red Wedding scene.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: The author makes a point of grounding his work on a foundation of historical fiction, which he channels to evoke important social and political elements of primarily the European medieval era that differ markedly from elements of modern times, including the multigenerational, rigid, and often brutally consequential nature of the hierarchical class system of feudal societies that is in many cases overlooked in fantasy writing. Even as "A Song of Ice and Fire" is a fantasy series that employs magic and the surreal as central to the genre, Martin is keen to ensure that magic is merely one element of many that moves his work forward, not a generic deus ex machina that is itself the focus of his stories, which is something he has been very conscious about since reading Tolkien; "If you look at "The Lord of the Rings", what strikes you, it certainly struck me, is that although the world is infused with this great sense of magic, there is very little onstage magic. So you have a sense of magic, but it's kept under very tight control, and I really took that to heart when I was starting my own series." Martin's ultimate aim is an exploration of the internal conflicts that define the human condition, which, in deriving inspiration from William Faulkner, he ultimately describes as the only reason to read any literature, regardless of genre.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 2018, Martin called "The Lord of the Rings", "The Great Gatsby", "Gone with the Wind", "Great Expectations", "Lonesome Dove", "Catch-22", and "Charlotte's Web" "favorites all, towering masterpieces, books that changed my life".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 2017, Martin confirmed he would serve as an executive producer of the HBO television series adaptation of the 2010 science fantasy novel "Who Fears Death" by Nnedi Okorafor. Martin also contributed to the 2022 video game titled "Elden Ring", writing the worldbuilding aspects for it. In February 2021, it was reported that Martin and Kalinda Vazquez were developing a TV adaptation of "Roadmarks" by Roger Zelazny, which Martin pitched to HBO in 2020. Martin will be an executive producer, Vazquez the showrunner, writer and executive producer. In March 2021, he signed an overall deal with HBO. Martin will serve as an executive producer of the Peacock TV adaptation in development of his "Wild Cards" book series, together with Melinda M. Snodgrass and Vince Gerardis, Martin's manager. He will serve as an executive producer of the 2022 AMC series "Dark Winds" based on Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn & Chee books, together with the creator Graham Roland, the showrunner Vince Calandra, the lead Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, Chris Eyre, Robert Redford, Tina Elmo and Vince Gerardis. In 2021, Martin served as one of the producers of the short film "Night of the Cooters" based on the eponymous short story by Howard Waldrop.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin actively contributes to his blog, "Not a Blog"; in April 2018 he moved his blog from Livejournal to his own website.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin's official fan club is the "Brotherhood Without Banners", which has a regular posting board at the Forum of the website westeros.org, which is focused on his "A Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy series. At the annual World Science Fiction Convention every year, the Brotherhood Without Banners hosts a large, on-going hospitality suite that is open to all members of the Worldcon.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin is opposed to fan fiction, which he views as copyright infringement and a bad exercise for aspiring writers in terms of developing skills in worldbuilding and character development.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin is known for his regular attendance at science fiction conventions and comics conventions, and his accessibility to fans. In the early 1980s, critic and writer Thomas Disch identified Martin as a member of the "Labor Day Group", writers who regularly congregated at the annual Worldcon, usually held on or around the Labor Day weekend. Since the early 1970s, he has also attended regional science fiction conventions; further, since 1986, Martin has participated annually in Albuquerque's smaller regional convention Bubonicon, near his New Mexico home. He was the Guest of Honor at the 61st World Science Fiction Convention in Toronto, held in 2003.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In December 2016, Martin was a key speaker at the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2016 in Mexico where the author provided hints about the next two books in the series "A Song of Ice and Fire".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 2020, Martin gave a speech at the Hugo Awards event in which he mispronounced several names, including that of R. F. Kuang, which she considered a microaggression. Martin later apologized for mispronouncing the names.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin has been criticized by some of his readers for the long periods between books in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, notably the six-year gap between the fourth volume, "A Feast for Crows" (2005), and the fifth volume, "A Dance with Dragons" (2011). In 2010, Martin had responded to fan criticisms by saying he was unwilling to write only his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, noting that working on other prose and compiling and editing different book projects have always been part of his working process. Writer Neil Gaiman wrote on his blog in 2009 to a critic of Martin's pace, "George R. R. Martin is not your bitch". Gaiman later went on to state that writers are not machines and that they have every right to work on other projects if they want to.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In the early 1970s, Martin was in a relationship with fellow science fiction/fantasy author Lisa Tuttle, with whom he co-wrote "Windhaven".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: While attending an East Coast science fiction convention he met his first wife, Gale Burnick; they were married in 1975. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979, without issue, just before they were meant to move to Santa Fe together. Instead he settled there alone from December that same year until September 1981, when what would be his longtime partner Parris McBride moved in with him. On February 15, 2011, Martin married McBride during a small ceremony at their Santa Fe home. On August 19, 2011, they held a larger wedding ceremony and reception at Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: He and McBride are supporters of the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in New Mexico. In early 2013, he purchased Santa Fe's Jean Cocteau Cinema and Coffee House, which had been closed since 2006. He had the property completely restored, including both its original 35 mm capability to which was added digital projection and sound; the Cocteau officially reopened for business on August 9, 2013. In 2019, he opened a bookstore named Beastly Books, after Beauty and the Beast, next to Jean Cocteau. Martin has also supported Meow Wolf, an arts collective in Santa Fe, having pledged $2.7 million toward a new art space in January 2015.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In response to a question on his religious views, Martin replied: "I suppose I'm a lapsed Catholic. You would consider me an atheist or agnostic. I find religion and spirituality fascinating. I would like to believe this isn't the end and there's something more, but I can't convince the rational part of me that makes any sense whatsoever."


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin is a fan of the New York Jets, the New York Giants and the New York Mets. He is also a fan of the Grateful Dead, and says that the band's music may have influenced his work.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Martin made a guest appearance as himself in an episode, "El Skeletorito", of the Adult Swim show "Robot Chicken". He also appeared in SyFy's "Z Nation" as a zombie version of himself in season two's "The Collector", where he is still signing copies of his new novel. In "", he is killed when watching a movie at the theatre.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 2014, Martin launched a campaign on Prizeo to raise funds for Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and the Food Depot of Santa Fe. As part of the campaign, Martin offered one donor the chance to accompany him on a trip to the wolf sanctuary, including a helicopter ride and dinner. Martin also offered those donating $20,000 or more the opportunity to have a character named after them and "killed off" in an upcoming "A Song of Ice and Fire" novel. The campaign garnered media attention and raised a total of $502,549.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In 2017, Martin announced that he was funding The Miskatonic Scholarship. The Miskatonic Scholarship allows a writer of Lovecraftian cosmic horror to attend the Odyssey workshop, a six-week writing workshop held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Growing up, Martin avoided the draft to the Vietnam War by being a conscientious objector and did two years of alternative service. He generally opposes war and thought the Vietnam War was a "terrible mistake for America".


title: George R. R. Martin

text: While he did not endorse Barack Obama in 2008, Martin endorsed him for re-election in 2012 calling Obama the most intelligent president since Jimmy Carter. In 2014, Martin endorsed Democratic Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico.


title: George R. R. Martin

text: In the midst of pressure to pull the 2014 feature film "The Interview" from theaters, the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which has been owned by Martin since 2013, decided to show the film. Theater manager Jon Bowman told the "Santa Fe New Mexican", "Martin feels strongly about the First Amendment and the idea of artists having the ability to speak their minds and not having to worry about being targets."


title: George R. R. Martin

text: Immediately following Bernie Sanders' defeat in the U.S. Democratic primary election, he supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general 2016 United States presidential election, and criticized Donald Trump during the election and following her defeat, commenting that Trump would "become the worst president in American history". In response to fans of Martin who compared Trump favorably to characters from "A Song of Ice and Fire", Martin doubled-down on his criticism of Trump by making the case to his fans that Trump shares many personality traits in common with King Joffrey, a near-universally-hated character from the series, concluding that "Trump is a Grown-Up Joffrey."


title: Suicide methods

text: A suicide method is any means by which a person chooses to end their life. Suicide attempts do not always result in death, and a nonfatal suicide attempt can leave the person with serious physical injuries, long-term health problems, and brain damage.


title: Suicide methods

text: Worldwide, three suicide methods predominate with the pattern varying in different countries. These are hanging, poisoning by pesticides, and firearms.


title: Suicide methods

text: Some suicides are impulse decisions that may be preventable by removing the means. Making common suicide methods less accessible leads to an overall reduction in the number of suicides. Some ways to do this include restricting access to pesticides, firearms, and known-used drugs. Other important measures are the introduction of policies that address the misuse of alcohol and the treatment of mental disorders. Gun-control measures in a number of countries have seen a reduction in suicides and other gun-related deaths.


title: Suicide methods

text: The study of suicide methods aims to identify those commonly used, and the groups at risk of suicide; making methods less accessible may be useful in suicide prevention. Limiting the availability of means such as pesticides and firearms is recommended by a World Health Report on suicide and its prevention. The early identification of mental disorders and substance abuse disorders, follow-up care for those who have attempted suicide, and responsible reporting by the media are all seen to be key in reducing the number of deaths by suicide. National suicide prevention strategies are also advocated using a comprehensive and coordinated response to suicide prevention. This needs to include the registration and monitoring of suicides and attempted suicide, breaking figures down by age, sex, and method.


title: Suicide methods

text: Such information allows public health resources to focus on the problems that are relevant in a particular place, or for a given population or subpopulation. For instance, if firearms are used in a significant number of suicides in one place, then public health policies there could focus on gun safety, such as keeping guns locked away, and the key inaccessible to at-risk family members. If young people are found to be at increased risk of suicide by overdosing on particular medications, then an alternative class of medication may be prescribed instead, a safety plan and monitoring of medication can be put in place, and parents can be educated about how to prevent the hoarding of medication for a future suicide attempt.


title: Suicide methods

text: Media reporting of the methods used in suicides is "strongly discouraged" by the World Health Organization, government health agencies, universities, and the Associated Press among others. Detailed descriptions of suicides or the personal characteristics of the person who died contribute to copycat suicides (suicide contagion). Dramatic or inappropriate descriptions of individual suicides by mass media has been linked specifically to copycat suicides among teenagers. Writing for the "New Yorker" about celebrity suicides, Andrew Solomon wrote that "You who are reading this are at statistically increased risk of suicide right now." In one study, changes in how news outlets reported suicide reduced suicides by a particular method.


title: Suicide methods

text: Media reporting guidelines also apply to "online content including citizen-generated media coverage". The Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide, created by journalists, suicide prevention groups, and internet safety non-profit organizations, encourage linking to resources such as a list of suicide crisis lines and information about risk factors for suicide, and reporting on suicide as a multi-faceted, treatable health issue.


title: Suicide methods

text: Method restriction, also called "lethal means reduction", is an effective way to reduce the number of suicide deaths in the short and medium term. Method restriction is considered a best practice supported by "compelling" evidence. Some of these actions, such as installing barriers on bridges and reducing the toxicity in gas, require action by governments, industries, or public utilities. At the individual level, method restriction can be as simple as asking a trusted friend or family member to store firearms until the crisis has passed. According to Danuta Wasserman, professor in psychiatry and suicidology at Karolinska Institute, choosing not to restrict access to suicide methods is unethical.


title: Suicide methods

text: Method restriction is effective and prevents suicides. It has the largest effect on overall suicide rates when the method being restricted is common and no direct substitution is available."" If the method being restricted is uncommon, or if a substitute is readily available, then it may be effective in individual cases but not produce a large-scale reduction in the number of deaths in a country.


title: Suicide methods

text: "Method substitution" is the process of choosing a different suicide method when the first-choice method is inaccessible. In many cases, when the first-choice method is restricted, the person does not attempt to find a substitute. Method substitution has been measured over the course of decades, so when a common method is restricted (for example, by making domestic gas less toxic), overall suicide rates may be suppressed for many years. If the first-choice suicide method is inaccessible, a method substitution may be made which may be less lethal, tending to result in fewer fatal suicide attempts.


title: Suicide methods

text: In an example of the curb cut effect, changes unrelated to suicide have also functioned as suicide method restrictions. Examples of this include changes to align train doors with platforms, switching from coal gas to natural gas in homes, and gun control laws, all of which have reduced suicides despite being intended for a different purpose.


title: Suicide methods

text: Suicide by suffocation involves restricting breathing or the amount of oxygen taken in, causing asphyxia and eventually hypoxia. It is not possible to die simply by holding the breath, since a reflex causes the respiratory muscles to contract, forcing an in-breath, and the re-establishment of a normal breathing rhythm. Therefore, inhaling an inert gas such as helium or nitrogen, or a toxic gas such as carbon monoxide, is used to bring about unconsciousness. , organizations supporting a right to die promoted death by helium inhalation, although most cases using this method in the US were people with psychiatric conditions.


title: Suicide methods

text: Hanging is a common method of suicide. Hanging involves the use of a ligature such as a rope or cord attached to an anchor point with the other end used to form a noose placed around the neck. The cause of death will either be due to strangulation or a broken neck. About half of attempted suicides by hanging result in death. People who favor this method are usually unaware that it is often a "slow, painful, and messy method that [needs] technical knowledge".


title: Suicide methods

text: Hanging is the prevalent means of suicide in impoverished pre-industrial societies, and is more common in rural areas than in urban areas. It is also a common means of suicide in situations where other materials are not readily available, such as in prisons.


title: Suicide methods

text: Hanging was the most common method in traditional Chinese culture, as it was believed that the rage involved in such a death permitted the person's spirit to haunt and torment survivors. In the Chinese culture, suicide by hanging was used as an act of revenge by women and of defiance by powerless officials, who used it as a "final, but unequivocal, way of standing still against and above oppressive authorities". Chinese people would often approach the act ceremonially, including the use of proper attire.


title: Suicide methods

text: Suicide by poisoning, also called "self-poisoning", is usually classed as a drug overdose when drugs such as painkillers or recreational drugs are used. The use of pesticides to self-poison is the most common method used in some countries. Poisoning through the means of toxic plants is usually slow and painful.


title: Suicide methods

text: , worldwide, around 30% of suicides were from pesticide poisonings. The use of this method varies markedly in different areas of the world, from 0.9% in Europe to about 50% in the Pacific region. In the US, pesticide poisoning is used in about 12 suicides per year.


title: Suicide methods

text: Method restriction has been an effective way to reduce suicide by poisoning in many countries. In Finland, limiting access to parathion in the 1960s resulted in a rapid decline in both poisoning-related suicides and total suicide deaths for several years, and a slower decline in subsequent years. In Sri Lanka, both suicide by pesticide and total suicides declined after first toxicity class I and later class II endosulfan were banned. Overall suicide deaths were cut by 70%, with 93,000 lives saved over 20 years as a result of banning these pesticides. In Korea, banning a single pesticide, paraquat, halved the number of suicides by pesticide poisoning and reduced the total number of suicides in that country.


title: Suicide methods

text: A drug overdose involves taking a dose of a drug that exceeds safe levels. In the UK (England and Wales) until 2013, a drug overdose was the most common suicide method in females. In 2019 in males the percentage is 16%. Self-poisoning accounts for the highest number of non-fatal suicide attempts. Overdose attempts using painkillers are among the most common, due to their easy availability over-the-counter. Paracetamol is the most widely used analgesic worldwide and is commonly used in overdose attempts. Paracetamol poisoning is a common cause of acute liver failure. In the United States about 60% of suicide attempts and 14% of suicide deaths involve drug overdoses. The risk of death in suicide attempts involving overdose is about 2%.


title: Suicide methods

text: A particular type of poisoning involves the inhalation of high levels of carbon monoxide (CO). Death usually occurs through hypoxia. A nonfatal attempt can result in memory loss and other symptoms.


title: Suicide methods

text: Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas, so its presence cannot be detected by sight or smell. It acts by binding preferentially to the hemoglobin in the bloodstream, displacing oxygen molecules and progressively deoxygenating the blood, eventually resulting in the failure of cellular respiration and death. Carbon monoxide is extremely dangerous to bystanders and people who may discover the body; right-to-die advocate Philip Nitschke has therefore recommended against this method.


title: Suicide methods

text: Before air quality regulations and catalytic converters, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning was often achieved by running a car's engine in an enclosed space such as a garage, or by redirecting a running car's exhaust back inside the cabin with a hose. Motor car exhaust may have contained up to 25% carbon monoxide. Catalytic converters found on all modern automobiles eliminate over 99% of carbon monoxide produced. As a further complication, the amount of unburned gasoline in emissions can make exhaust unbearable to breathe well before a person loses consciousness.


title: Suicide methods

text: Charcoal-burning suicide induces death from carbon monoxide poisoning. Originally used in Hong Kong, it spread to Japan, where small charcoal-burning heaters ("hibachi") or stoves ("shichirin") have been used in a sealed room. By 2001, this method accounted for 25% of deaths from suicide in Japan. Nonfatal attempts can result in severe brain damage due to cerebral anoxia.


title: Suicide methods

text: Gas-oven suicide was a common method of suicide in the early to mid-20th centuries in some North American and European countries. Household gas was originally coal gas, also called illuminating gas, or town gas, which was composed of methane, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Stoves of this era required one to manually ignite a pilot light with a match; without the combustion the gas cloud would spread unimpeded. Carbon monoxide poisoning was the proximate cause of death. Natural gas, introduced in the 1960s, is composed of methane, ethane and an odorant added for safety. The suicide rates by domestic gas fell from 1960 to 1980, as changes were made to the formula to make it less lethal.


title: Suicide methods

text: In the United States suicide by firearm is the most lethal method of suicide, resulting in a fatality 90% of the time, and is thus the leading cause of death by suicide as of 2017. Worldwide, firearm prevalence in suicides varies widely, depending on the acceptance and availability of firearms in a culture. The use of firearms in suicides ranges from less than 10% in Australia to 50.5% in the U.S., where it is the most common method of suicide.


title: Suicide methods

text: Generally, the bullet will be aimed at point-blank range. Surviving a self-inflicted gunshot may result in severe chronic pain as well as reduced cognitive abilities and motor function, subdural hematoma, foreign bodies in the head, pneumocephalus and cerebrospinal fluid leaks. For temporal bone directed bullets, temporal lobe abscess, meningitis, aphasia, hemianopsia, and hemiplegia are common late intracranial complications. As many as 50% of people who survive gunshot wounds directed at the temporal bone suffer facial nerve damage, usually due to a severed nerve.


title: Suicide methods

text: Fewer people die from suicide overall in places with stricter laws regulating the use, purchase, and trading of firearms. Suicide risk goes up when firearms are more available.


title: Suicide methods

text: Gun control is a primary method of reducing suicide by people who live in a home with guns. Prevention measures include simple actions such as locking all firearms in a gun safe or installing gun locks. Some stores that sell guns provide temporary storage as a service; in other cases, a trusted friend or family member will offer to store the guns until the crisis has passed. When a person is going through a crisis, red flag laws in some places allow family members to petition the courts to have firearms temporarily removed and stored elsewhere.


title: Suicide methods

text: More firearms are involved in suicide than are involved in homicides in the United States. A 1999 study of California and gun mortality found that a person is more likely to die by suicide if they have purchased a firearm, with a measurable increase of suicide by firearm beginning at most a week after the purchase and continuing for six years or more.


title: Suicide methods

text: The United States has both the highest number of suicides and firearms in circulation in a developed country, and when gun ownership rises so too does suicide involving the use of a firearm. A 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences found an association between estimated household firearm ownership and gun suicide rates, though a study by two Harvard researchers did not find a statistically significant association between household firearms and gun suicide rates, except in the suicides of children aged 5–14. Another study found that gun prevalence rates were positively associated with suicide rates among people aged 15 to 24, and 65 to 84, but not among those aged 25 to 64. Case-control studies conducted in the United States have consistently shown an association between guns in the home and increased suicide risk, especially for loaded guns in the home. Numerous ecological and time series studies have also shown a positive association between gun ownership rates and suicide rates. This association tends to only exist for firearm-related and overall suicides, not for non-firearm suicides. A 2013 review found that studies consistently found a relationship between gun ownership and gun-related suicides, with few exceptions. A 2016 study found a positive association between gun ownership and both gun-related and overall suicides among men, but not among women; gun ownership was only strongly associated with gun-related suicides among women. During the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a strong upward trend in adolescent suicides with a gun, as well as a sharp overall increase in suicides among those age 75 and over. A 2014 systematic review and meta-analysis found that access to firearms was associated with a higher risk of suicide.


title: Suicide methods

text: A 2006 study found an accelerated decline in firearm-related suicides in Australia after the introduction of nationwide gun control. The same study found no evidence of substitution to other methods. Multiple studies in Canada found that gun suicides declined after gun control, but other methods rose, leading to no change in the overall rates. Similarly, in New Zealand, gun suicides declined after more legislation, but overall suicide rates did not change; this might be due to the highly stringent firearm storage laws and very low prevalence of handgun ownership in New Zealand. A study about Canada found no significant correlations between provincial firearm ownership and overall provincial suicide rates.


title: Suicide methods

text: In the United States, jumping is among the least common methods of suicide (less than 2% of all reported suicides in 2005). In a 75-year period to 2012, there were around 1,400 suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge. In New Zealand, secure fencing at the Grafton Bridge substantially reduced the rate of suicides.


title: Suicide methods

text: Jumping is the most common method of suicide in Hong Kong, accounting for 52.1% of all reported suicide cases in 2006 and similar rates for the years before that. The Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of the University of Hong Kong believes that it may be due to the abundance of easily accessible high-rise buildings in Hong Kong.


title: Suicide methods

text: Jumping deaths can often be prevented through the construction of fencing or other safety equipment. For example, suicide by jumping into a volcanic crater is a rare method of suicide. Mount Mihara in Japan briefly became a notorious suicide site during the Great Depression following media reports of a suicide there. Copycat suicides in the ensuing years prompted the erection of a protective fence surrounding the crater.


title: Suicide methods

text: A fatal self-inflicted wound to the wrist is termed a "deep wrist injury", and is often preceded by several tentative surface-breaking attempts known as "hesitation wounds", indicating indecision or a self-harm tactic. For every suicide by wrist cutting, there are many more nonfatal attempts, so that the number of actual deaths using this method is very low.


title: Suicide methods

text: Wounds from suicide attempts involve the non-dominant hand, with damage often done to the median nerve, ulnar nerve, radial artery, palmaris longus muscle, and flexor carpi radialis muscle. Such injuries can severely affect the function of the hand, and the inability caused to carry out work or interests increases the risk of further attempts.


title: Suicide methods

text: Seppuku is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour. It is not often used in the modern day because it is painful and slow.


title: Suicide methods

text: Suicide by drowning is the act of deliberately submerging oneself in water or other liquid to prevent breathing. It accounts for less than 2% of all suicides in the United States. Of those who attempt suicide by drowning in the US, about half die.


title: Suicide methods

text: A classification has been made of "Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking" (VSED) which is often resorted to in terminal illness. This includes fasting and dehydration, and has also been referred to as "autoeuthanasia".


title: Suicide methods

text: Fasting to death has been used by Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain ascetics and householders, as a ritual method of suicide known as Prayopavesa in Hinduism; Sokushinbutsu historically in Buddhism; and as Sallekhana in Jainism. Cathars also fasted to death after receiving the consolamentum sacrament, in order to die while in a morally perfect state. This method of death is also associated with the political protest of the hunger strike such as the 1981 Irish hunger strike in which ten prisoners died.


title: Suicide methods

text: Death from dehydration can take from several days to a few weeks. This means that unlike many other suicide methods, it cannot be accomplished impulsively. Those who die by terminal dehydration typically lapse into unconsciousness before death, and may also experience delirium and deranged serum sodium.


title: Suicide methods

text: Terminal dehydration has been described as having substantial advantages over physician-assisted suicide with respect to self-determination, access, professional integrity, and social implications. Specifically, a patient has a right to refuse treatment and it would be a personal assault for someone to force water on a patient, but such is not the case if a doctor merely refuses to provide lethal medication. But it also has distinctive drawbacks as a humane means of voluntary death. One survey of hospice nurses found that nearly twice as many had cared for patients who chose voluntary refusal of food and fluids to hasten death as had cared for patients who chose physician-assisted suicide. They also rated fasting and dehydration as causing less suffering and pain and being more peaceful than physician-assisted suicide. Other sources note very painful side effects of dehydration, including seizures, skin cracking and bleeding, blindness, nausea, vomiting, cramping and severe headaches.


title: Suicide methods

text: Another suicide method is to lie down, or throw oneself, in the path of a fast-moving vehicle, either on the road or onto railway tracks. Nonfatal attempts may result in profound injuries, such as multiple bone fractures, amputations, concussion and severe mental and physical handicapping.


title: Suicide methods

text: Some people use intentional car crashes as a suicide method. This especially applies to single-occupant, single-vehicle wrecks, although some suicidal people cause head-on collisions with heavier vehicles. Even single-vehicle collisions may harm other road users; for example, a driver who brakes abruptly or swerves to avoid a suicidal person may collide with something else on the road, resulting in harm to the driver or others. Both the targeted driver and bystanders may be traumatized by the experience, even if everyone survives.


title: Suicide methods

text: The real percentage of suicides among motor vehicle fatalities is not reliably known and likely varies by the ease of accessing a car and the ease of accessing other methods. One review article suggested that more than 2% of crashes result from suicidal intent. A study in Switzerland indicated that 1% of deaths by suicide involved a motor vehicle collision.


title: Suicide methods

text: On railway tracks above ground, somebody may simply lie down or stand on the tracks, as the speed of an approaching train prevents its easy stopping. This type of suicide may cause trauma for the train driver.


title: Suicide methods

text: Data gathered to 2014 showed that there were 3,000 suicides and 800 trespass-related injuries on the European railways each year.


title: Suicide methods

text: A large number of suicides in Japan every year involve the railway system. Suicide by train is seen as a social problem, especially in the larger cities such as Tokyo or Nagoya, because it disrupts train schedules, damages equipment, harms the drivers, and, if one occurs during the morning rush-hour, causes numerous commuters to arrive late for work. Suicide by train persists despite a common policy among life insurance companies to deny payment to the beneficiary in the event of suicide by train (payment is usually made in the event of most other forms of suicide). Suicides involving the high-speed bullet-train, or "Shinkansen" are extremely rare, as the tracks are usually inaccessible to the public (i.e. elevated and/or protected by tall fences with barbed wire) and legislation mandates additional fines against the family and next-of-kin of the person who died by suicide. As in Belgium, family members of the person who died by suicide may be expected to cover the cost of rail disruption, which can be significantly extensive. It has been argued this prevents possible suicide, as the person who is considering suicide would want to spare the family not only the trauma of a lost family member but also being sued in court.


title: Suicide methods

text: The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration reports that there are 300 to 500 suicides by train each year. The agency also reported that those suicides on railway rights-of-ways were by people who tended to live near railroad tracks, were less likely to have access to firearms, and were significantly compromised by both severe mental disorder and substance abuse.


title: Suicide methods

text: Railway-related suicides are rarely impulsive, and this view has led to research on behaviour analysis using CCTV at known hotspots. Some behaviour patterns are implicated such as station-hopping, platform switching, standing away from others, letting a number of trains go by, and standing close to where trains enter. Surveillance cameras are viewable by railway staff. Media reporting has been linked to increased rail suicide attempts.


title: Suicide methods

text: Public access to rail tracks may be restricted by the erection of fences. Fencing on both sides of the rail lines are carried out. Other preventive measures are landscaping to create tree and bush hedging as a natural fencing, and the installation of prohibitive signage. Fencing and landscaping have shown significant reductions in suicide attempts, and signage a lesser reduction. Sometimes vegetation along the tracks can obscure the view of the train driver and the removal of this is also advocated.


title: Suicide methods

text: The installation of platform screen doors in many stations and countries has significantly decreased the numbers of suicides, notably in Hong Kong. In Japan the use of calming blue lights on station platforms is estimated to have resulted in an 84 per cent reduction in suicide attempts.


title: Suicide methods

text: On the London Underground the presence of a platform drainage pit has been shown to halve the number of deaths from suicide attempts.


title: Suicide methods

text: Toward the end of the 20th century, one or two pilots in the US died by suicide by aircraft each year. The pilot was usually flying alone at the time, and was using alcohol or drugs about half the time. In the rare case of a pilot engaging in murder–suicide, the number of innocent people is sometimes very high. On 24 March 2015, a Germanwings co-pilot deliberately crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 into the French Alps to kill himself, killing 150 people with him. Suicide by pilot has also been proposed as a potential cause for the disappearance and following destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in 2014, with supporting evidence being found in a flight simulator application used by the flight's pilot.


title: Suicide methods

text: There have been documented cases of gay men deliberately trying to contract a disease such as HIV/AIDS as a means of suicide.


title: Suicide methods

text: Suicide by electrocution involves using a lethal electric shock, and is a rarely used method. This causes arrhythmias of the heart, meaning that the heart does not contract in synchrony between the different chambers, essentially causing elimination of blood flow. Furthermore, depending on the current, burns may also occur. In his opinion outlawing the electric chair as a method of execution, Justice William M. Connolly of the Nebraska Supreme Court stated that "electrocution inflicts intense pain and agonizing suffering", adding that it is "unnecessarily cruel in its purposeless infliction of physical violence and mutilation of the prisoner’s body."


title: Suicide methods

text: Self-immolation is suicide usually by fire. This method of suicide is rare due to its being long and painful. If the attempt is intervened, severe burns and scar tissue will prevail with subsequent emotional impact. It has been used as a protest tactic, by Thích Quảng Đức in 1963 to protest the South Vietnam's anti-Buddhist policies; by Malachi Ritscher in 2006 to protest the United States' involvement in the Iraq War; by Mohamed Bouazizi in 2011 in Tunisia which gave rise to the Tunisian Revolution; and historically as a ritual known as sati where a Hindu widow would immolate herself in her husband's funeral pyre.


title: Suicide methods

text: Hypothermia is an extremely rare method of suicide. As of 2015, there have been only nine cases in the scientific literature.


title: Suicide methods

text: Indirect suicide is the act of setting out on an obviously fatal course without directly carrying out the act upon oneself. Indirect suicide is differentiated from legally defined suicide by the fact that the person does not directly cause the action meant to kill them, but rather expects and allows the action to happen to them. Examples of indirect suicide include a soldier enlisting in the army with the intention and expectation of being killed in combat, or provoking an armed law enforcement officer into using lethal force against them. The latter is generally called "suicide by cop".


title: Suicide methods

text: Evidence exists for suicide by capital crime in colonial Australia. Convicts seeking to escape their brutal treatment would murder another individual. This was felt necessary due to a religious taboo against direct suicide. A person completing suicide was believed to be destined for hell, whereas a person committing murder could be absolved of their sins before execution. In its most extreme form, groups of prisoners on the extremely brutal penal colony of Norfolk Island would form suicide lotteries. Prisoners would draw straws with one prisoner murdering another. The remaining participants would witness the crime, and would be sent away to Sydney, as capital trials could not be held on Norfolk Island, thus earning a break from the Island. There is uncertainty as to the extent of suicide lotteries. While surviving contemporary accounts claim that the practice was common, such claims are probably exaggerated.


title: Mia Goth

text: Mia Gypsy Mello da Silva Goth (born October 25, 1993) is an English actress and model best known for her work in the ongoing horror film franchise "X" (2022–present).


title: Mia Goth

text: Following a brief stint modelling as a teenager, Goth made her feature film debut in "Nymphomaniac" (2013). She went on to have supporting roles in the sci-fi thriller "The Survivalist" (2015), the sci-fi horror "High Life" (2018), the supernatural horror "Suspiria" (2018), and the romantic comedy "Emma" (2020). Goth starred in Ti West's slasher films "X" and "Pearl" (both 2022), the latter of which she also co-wrote. Her performances in the films earned her widespread critical acclaim and several accolades.


title: Mia Goth

text: Goth was born in Guy's Hospital in London, England. Her mother is Brazilian and her father is Canadian, originally from Nova Scotia. Her maternal grandfather is Jewish-American artist Lee Jaffe, and her maternal grandmother is Brazilian actress Maria Gladys.


title: Mia Goth

text: Goth moved to Brazil when she was a few weeks old, because her mother, who was 20 at the time, needed help from her family to raise her. They returned to the United Kingdom when she was five and briefly relocated to her father's native Canada when she was ten. There, she attended nine schools in a single school year; Goth said that the period when they tried living with her father was very difficult. When she was twelve, she and her mother settled in southeast London, where she attended Sydenham School. Goth's mother raised her in a single-parent household, working as a waitress to support them.


title: Mia Goth

text: When Goth was 14, she was discovered at the Underage Festival in London by fashion photographer Gemma Booth, who signed her to Storm Model Management. She subsequently appeared in advertisements for "Vogue" and Miu Miu. She began to audition for films at 16, and after finishing sixth form, won her first role in Lars von Trier's "Nymphomaniac" (2013), along with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe in the segment "The Gun". Goth played Sophie Campbell in an episode of Sky Atlantic's crime drama series "The Tunnel".


title: Mia Goth

text: In 2014, she appeared in Future Unlimited's music video for "Haunted Love," directed by Shia LaBeouf. She then appeared in the Stephen Fingleton directed introductory short film "Magpie" with Martin McCann. In 2015, Goth played the lead role of Milja in the post-apocalyptic thriller "The Survivalist" directed by Fingleton, followed by roles as Meg Weathers in the disaster adventure-thriller film "Everest" (2015) directed by Baltasar Kormákur, and Hanna Helmqvist in an episode of BBC One's crime series "Wallander".


title: Mia Goth

text: She also appeared in the horror film "A Cure for Wellness" (2016) directed by Gore Verbinski and had supporting roles in Luca Guadagnino's remake of "Suspiria" (2018) and the sci-fi mystery film "High Life" (2018) directed by Claire Denis. Goth appeared in Guadagnino's short film "The Staggering Girl" (2019) and Autumn de Wilde's period romantic comedy film "Emma" (2020). She also starred in Karen Cinorre's action drama film "Mayday" (2021) with Grace Van Patten and Juliette Lewis.


title: Mia Goth

text: Goth starred in Ti West's slasher film "X", released in March 2022 to critical acclaim. She received praise for her roles as both protagonist Maxine Minx and antagonist Pearl, with West stating, "She understood the characters really well, and she understood the duality of Maxine and Pearl." She also starred in the prequel film "Pearl", which she co-wrote with West and began filming immediately after "X". The film was released in September 2022 to positive reviews. Goth's performance in the film received unanimous praise with Williams Earl, in a piece for "Variety", contending that it deserves attention from the Academy Awards.


title: Mia Goth

text: Goth will resume the role of Maxine Minx for the sequel "MaXXXine". She will next star in Brandon Cronenberg's "Infinity Pool" opposite Alexander Skarsgård.


title: Mia Goth

text: Goth met American actor Shia LaBeouf while co-starring in "Nymphomaniac" in 2012. On 10 October 2016, Goth and LaBeouf appeared to get married in a Las Vegas ceremony officiated by an Elvis impersonator. Two days later, a local official claimed that the pair were not legally married, but instead a commitment ceremony was performed. Later that month, LaBeouf confirmed their nuptials on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show". In September 2018, it was announced the couple had separated and filed for divorce. However, in February 2022, it was reported that Goth was pregnant with their first child. They have a daughter, Isabel, born in March 2022.


title: Luxembourg

text: Luxembourg ( ; ; ; ), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a small landlocked country in Western Europe. It borders Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France to the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembourg, is one of the four institutional seats of the European Union (together with Brussels, Frankfurt, and Strasbourg) and the seat of several EU institutions, notably the Court of Justice of the European Union, the highest judicial authority. Luxembourg's culture, people, and languages are highly intertwined with its French and German neighbors; while Luxembourgish is legally the only national language of the Luxembourgish people, French and German are also used in administrative and judicial matters and all three are considered administrative languages of the country.


title: Luxembourg

text: With an area of , Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in Europe, and the smallest not considered a microstate. In 2022, it had a population of 645,397, which makes it one of the least-populated countries in Europe, albeit with the highest population growth rate; foreigners account for nearly half the population. Luxembourg is a representative democracy headed by a constitutional monarch, Grand Duke Henri, making it the world's only remaining sovereign grand duchy.