It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
The story, in its ideology, is reflective.
It is reflective of the United States at this particular historical conjuncture.
It is not a critique of the status quo, asserting a transcendent hope or possibility. It is a reactive argument in favor of it through a mirroring effect representing our ideological landscape in inverted form.
You can have Black people close to power — but not in power. The Black man (Grey Worm) must be literally castrated to be “good,” to be safe. Pulled from the dregs, freed by whiteness, Black men can’t pose a sexual threat to white women. They must be thankful.
The Black woman, Missandei, must bear European standards of beauty — be light, non-threatening, sexually desirable, submissive. When she is executed, it is purely as foil in furtherance of the plot demand to energize the coming confrontation between two visions of white supremacy, the Lannisters and the Targaryens. She is a tool to further white supremacy and to ideologically reinforce it.
Much like the Wildings, the Dothraki and the Unsullied — particularly reprehensible representations of the role of poor peoples of colors’ obligation to function as imperial cannon fodder — Missandei’s continued role in the narrative was dependent on her willingness to follow the leadership of an idealized white hero.
There’s a certain parallel there…. The people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of “winter is coming,” which has the potential to destroy all of them and to destroy their world.
Dowd: I wonder how “Game of Thrones” provides insights into the mind-sets and strategies of modern-day geopolitics?
Martin: I’ll pass on that one.
Manjoo: Many observers have pointed out that “Game of Thrones” offers a perfect metaphor for understanding climate change. What do you think of this interpretation?
Martin: It’s kind of ironic because I started writing “Game of Thrones” all the way back in 1991, long before anybody was talking about climate change. But there is — in a very broad sense — there’s a certain parallel there
originally posted by: Mike Stivic
Thoughts?
This is what grrm said
There’s a certain parallel there…. The people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of “winter is coming,” which has the potential to destroy all of them and to destroy their world.
Some how the author of this article twisted those words ..
According to a Pew Research Center analysis of race/ethnicity and sex among validated voters in the 2016 presidential election, white men were the only group in which a majority voted for Donald Trump — 62 percent — although a plurality of white women did also — 47 percent. We are living through a flagrant display of a white male exertion of power, authority and privilege, a demonstration meant to underscore that they will forcefully fight any momentum toward demographic displacement, no matter how inevitable the math. The fear of white male displacement is a powerful psychological motivator and keeps Trump’s base animated and active.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on.
This series deserves a final season that makes sense.
The story betrays our obsession with walls, not just the southern border wall, but “other” walls as well — walls that “other.” In other words, “Game of Thrones” is also a show about our relation to the prison, our obsession to disappear people, who, once on the other side of the wall, are not “people” anymore. The wall represents the boundaries of “us” as a nation, and those who are not “us” and must be excluded: the criminal and the immigrant.
originally posted by: FyreByrd
originally posted by: Mike Stivic
Thoughts?
This is what grrm said
There’s a certain parallel there…. The people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of “winter is coming,” which has the potential to destroy all of them and to destroy their world.
Some how the author of this article twisted those words ..
The author, Timothy Malone, did not address Martins intended theme for his work but the unconscious theme that evolved.
You are being far to literal in your assessment of the piece and I suspect that the story was not designed as a statement of anything in particular.
Why must you see this as an attack, it isn't. Personally, I think it is rare for an author to sit down with 'an agenda' in writing a novel - I think these works take on a 'life' of there own and can't help but comment on contemporary life. The more universal the theme(s) that shine through the more powerful the work.
originally posted by: Mike Stivic
a reply to: FyreByrd
I don't see it as an attack .I see it as an author trying to force a narrative that simply isn't there.
No offense friend, my critique was of the author, not you or your thread.
Respectfully,
~meathead
originally posted by: ketsuko
Making these stories politically relevant and immediate limits their lifespan, and no really good author is trying to go there.
originally posted by: nightbringr
'Unconscious theme'? Puhlease.
So now we are to believe Martin unconsciously wrote this all with climate change and white supremacy in mind? (Unconsciously?)
What hyperbole. Why do people obsessed with social justice and climate issues obsess so much that they see imaginary are parallels in everything, even if there clearly are none?
Moving on.........
Finally, the unconscious mind comprises mental processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that influence judgements, feelings, or behavior (Wilson, 2002).
According to Freud (1915), the unconscious mind is the primary source of human behavior. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see.
originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: FyreByrd
And a theme is something you start to think about before you start writing.
So none of this was a thing back then when Martin started writing.
Also, this article is not arguing about Martin's intent in writing the novels, nor the television's show runners but about the possible audience perceptions (conscious and unconscious) of the story.