George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" was intended as a profound critique of human flaws, but its postmodern deconstruction and excessive complexity have rendered it an unfinished monument to futility, mirroring the very cyclical despair it sought to expose.
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[Music]
grr Martin Saga A Song of Ice and Fire
initially promised to absolutely
transform our perception of the fantasy
genre and leave behind a lasting
cultural impact to some extent this has
certainly been fulfilled but definitely
not in the originally intended way where
the magnum opus was supposed to stand as
a monument to a critique of human
pettiness and fanaticism and greed and
bloodthirstiness it now stands as a sad
Memorial to the transience of time the
unfinished nature of things and the
pointlessness of all our efforts
everything broken into atoms while one
weeps in silence contemplating the cycle
of human futility in the upcoming show I
will dissect the failure of the song of
ice and fire in the fantasy genre a
genre that is fundamentally a modern
continuation of Mythology and I will
show that when one loses reverence for
the mythological essence of human heroic
stories he then renders his own work
unfinishable as grr Martin sadly showed
us welcome to mag [Music]
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Mir surely we all know of the triumphs
and ultimate failure of the HBO's Game of
of
Thrones despite its Myriad flaws the
show rode the wave of hype for a considerable
considerable
time right up until the moment it
exhausted its source
material at that juncture it became
evident that the producers were clueless
about the philosophical Concepts
interwoven in the book
Source yes they understood that people
enjoyed dragons ders in the dark and
boobs from a shallow perspective it
might seem that these very qualities
Propel the show to its popularity and
don't get me wrong they certainly didn't
hurt but what truly serves as the
instinctively and universally perceived
quality of any work of art what truly
shapes its Essence is the confidence of
the work itself in its own ideals such a
piece of art embodies a clear
intellectual and philosophical
certainty the book source and the TV
series were at its root clear critique
of War violence and human folly in the
Realms of ideology and
fanaticism HBO's Game of Thrones began
to decline precisely the moment it
started to glorify War when it showed us
beautifully choreographed duels and when
it pushed Prophecies of Saviors
originally meant as misleading in the
source material into the focal point of
its interest the failure of the literary
source is a much more complex matter
George RR Martin an old school hippie
likely hasn't forgotten his original
principles however while writing short
sci-fi stories he armed himself with the
deconstructive hammer of postmodernism
so formidable that it renders building a
long Saga impossible all Hope For
answers and underlying meaning were lost
by the time of writing of the fourth
book and since then the narrative has
been nothing but smoke and mirrors
distraction for the audience and the
author himself with excessive complexity
all that just to avoid the necessity of
extracting any point it once may be had
George RR Martin is as I mentioned an
old school hippie it's worth noting his
proud decision to be conscientious
objector during the Vietnam war his work
is liberal pacifistic and
postmodern something which is
surprisingly not immediately evident to
many Martin began as a writer of short
sci-fi stories where not only his
typical methods but ALS also the
aforementioned attitudes and their teams become
become
apparent criticism of war and human
aggression the futility of scheming the
confusion of ideological fanaticism and
occasionally the dismantling of
religious Traditions as something
Insidious and
constricting Martin's characteristic
story is one of false prophecies and
Visions exploited by nefarious actors to
drive Humanity prone to failure through
belief in the Supernatural to
self-destruction all prophecies May
mythologies and religions in Martin's
works are instruments of
Destruction our protagonists are
tormented by conflicts they are
entangled in the tapestry of confusion
and false Visions they struggle with
their own needs for Pride responsibility
and search for
identity these protagonists are not
Heroes they are not chosen ones and are
not enlightened beings they are just
people entwined in the prison of human
limitations burden by their Essence and
by the weight of the question what they
ought to fulfill in this world to be
considered good more successful
people and through their tribulations
and driven by various pains they flail
their hands around and harm other
characters in The Narrative this
approach is undoubtedly compelling
certainly enjoyable to read and has its
merits however when taken to its extreme
form and when combined with Martin's
methods it becomes a catastrophically
flawed approach the writing of this 30y
year long Saga is not bad as I said it's very
very
compelling but Martin as an author is
truly cursed with a dark Synergy of
several authorial traits which
eventually cumulatively become the
design of the ruin of his own magnum
opus these traits are post modern
reconstruction outof control complexity
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Essence deconstruction is a valuable
tool only if it results in a meaningful
analysis and understanding of the entire
system you have to be capable of sifting
through the debris and extracting the
diamond of pure Knowledge from the
layers of
complexity however Martin wields his
postmodern Hammer with such a force that
he not only sweeps away his characters
and their story
but also any value that might have been
hidden within ultimately scattering his
own plot lines ideas typewriter chair
and the house that surrounds
him Martin is a man who creates his work
plagued by the dark essence of humanity
a person who interlaces his work with
unmistakable pain from unfortunate laugh
shame from the feeling that rejection of
bloodthirsty conflict is cow this
disappoint ointment that faith in
deities and prophecies is futile because
nothing will be resolved and resentment
towards what he presents as aggressive masculine
masculine
World despite all these evidently deeply
personal struggles he seems unable to
retain any ideal like a lesson or a
value worth passing
on it could be said that Martin
philosophically burnt out long before he
sat down to write Game of
Thrones but if the work lacks such a
Vision it cannot have a point it becomes
smely an empty critique offering no
alternative such a work can only be a
depressing window into endless cycle of
Despair Martin is a deeply cynical
man of course the work retains the
subtext of Martin's Proto ideals very
simplistically war and violence are bad
but Martin's deconstruction is of such a
strong character that it sweeps away in
their entirety not only the the
bloodthirsty warmongers but also the
wise and peaceful rulers and all IND different
different
bystanders I get that such is the nature
of War as a picture of absolute collapse
this is great Martin is writing to a
certain degree Hamlet like tragedy but
in Hamlet virtues and righteous path was
always present in some way Martin
deconstructs hope itself eventually the
full system of human values and
psychology is reduced to a roting
carcass at reader's feet and after his
Grand destruction he no longer has the
strength to even point out that if a war
is bad then peace is good there are no
answers only
suffering then there is a constant
subversion of expectations that Martin
employs no plan is ever fulfilled as
stated no character maintains their
archetypal role and ultimately you as a
reader are imprisoned in a realm of
absolute uncertain certainty you can't
even be sure whether the protagonist
will survive until the end of the
chapter well guess what Martin is
imprisoned with you in the same world
but you can put the book away he
can't in his attempt to condemn the sins
of humanity Martin left no room for hope
faith and tradition become misleading
illusion of false salvation honor and
wisdom become weaknesses making one
blind to daggers in the dark and so forth
forth
personally I like many others find this
deeply cynical piece of art extremely
entertaining but it seems to be working
much better in limited quantities and on
small scale for example in a short
sci-fi story for a science fiction
magazine Martin's cynicism sadly
collides with the second Pitfall of
postmodernity which is methodically
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complexity it's popular to divide
authors into two sharply defined
extremes on one hand an architect an
author meticulously planning every
detail of his work on the other a
gardener an author allowing his work to
Blossom at its own pace and in
directions it itself deems
fit as is well known Martin belongs to
the latter type of author just to note
both positions are not necessarily the
type of author but rather methods an
author employs neither should really be
neglected by any artist anyway Martin
leans relatively strong towards the
gardening method there is a virtue of
understanding one's work as something
alive it is an Endeavor to liken oneself
to God through Act of small
creation it is the author's creative
desire for the work to begin breathing
with its own life and consciously gaze
back at him
Martin achieves this in several ways the
most fundamental way he uses to achieve
authenticity of his work is the use of
the subjectivities of his
characters that is the story is narrated
from the point of view of several selected
selected
characters this method not only provides
their personal and imperfect perspective
of the world but also an intimate
glimpse into their own
Souls however the combination of this
very intimate method with Martin's
desire for complexity eventually leads
to an immensely chaotic situation look
at this infographic side by side you see
all the chapters of the five published
books and the released chapters from the
unpublished sixth book each book is
assigned a color and each chapter
traditionally named after POV character
with a sequential number is highlighted
in the color of the book in which the
character first appear as a
POV for example Davos seaworth has his
first chapter in the second book and is
hence forgiven a red
color the problem is quite evident for
the sake of coherence Martin's work
might have been better suited for a Trilogy
Trilogy
format in the first three books The
Legacy characters are wellmaintained and
the addition of new ones is very organic and
and
meaningful however with the arrival of
fourth book a paradigm shift occurs the
author sets out to explore completely
new and different plots complicating the
entire in situation of his fantasy
Universe this is of course uncomfortable
for readers and the fourth book is quite
controversial personally I definitely
don't think this is necessarily bad in
fact I find such deliberate maneuver quite
quite
entertaining unfortunately however in
the context of the entire work it is
just another nail in the coffin of its finish
finish
ability the atypicality of the fourth
book is also evident in the relatively
arbitrary series of character
suddenly stepping out of the original
methodical chapter naming and instead
their chapters now have their names
derive from some specific role in which
set character is currently present these
chapters are marked with a red dot and
note that I do not Mark chapters where
the change of character's name is
Justified in long term SanSai and her
transformation into Elaine and theon's
transformation into reek but those I did
Mark I view as a symptom the symptom
that the author
is no longer satisfied with the original
format of the work he decided to write
years ago Martin went off the
road in the fifth book the last one
published the author tries to clean up
the chaos caused by his Excursion beyond
the original theme of The Saga this one
is still feasible as the book mainly
resonates with Legacy characters from
the first and second
part however Martin cannot seem to stop
and again adds more characters and new plots
plots
by the sixth book The plots should start
to unravel but it seems impossible to
satisfactory conclude the stories of
Legacy characters from the first three
books and at the same time to resolve
the entire huge new world of plots from
the fourth and fifth
books you see I've been heading to a
point which is that it's okay to be a
gardener if you know which parcel is
your garden where the pavement has
already been laid and in which climate
zone you are
however Martin is trying to be a
gardener in the Amazon and somewhere in
the heart of the Jungle he lost the
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place do you know why Professor JRR
Tolkien did not get lost in the
Saran because he had clear mythological
Vision in which he believed Tolen
famously decided to create a new
mythology for the Anglo-Saxon World
primarily a professor of history and
Linguistics an educator who decided to
gracefully transfer the wisdom of the
past into a new age in the gentlest and
most enlightened way possible tolk's
work is immensely extensive and complex
however it does not crumble under its
own weight for a simple reason it stands
on the indestructible foundations of ancient
ancient
times in the thousands of names events
places betrayals and Wars you can always
look around and see the mighty tower
touching the heavens thanks to which you
always know where you
are I don't mean the towers of badur or
th Minit Minas morgul or the lamps of
uin and orala I mean the ubiquitous
understanding that the world originates
from the music of the inur created by
primordial Timeless de
iluvatar the omnipresent understanding
that light comes from the S of the universe
universe
and that darkness is the cacophony of
eternal struggle this struggle is not in
vain as it is against darkness in the
name of
light in contrast A Song of Ice and Fire
find its origin in Robert Frost's 1923
poem Fire and
Ice some say the world will end in fire
some say in ice from what I've tasted of
desire I hold with those who favor fire
but if it had to perish twice I think I
know enough of hate to say that for
suffice as you can see Martin's initial
Inspirations are rooted in Despair and
the end of the world omnipresent fear
that through our lust and hatred we will
be torn
aunder I feel that I feel that terrible
pain and fear every day do not
misunderstand me I do not dismiss it
what I'm saying however is that Martin
spent 30 years of his life on a monument of
of
futility no wonder that when you sit for
decades only on the topic of absolute
failure of human society you burn out
and by not having any kind of answer to
these pains by lacking any laugh or hope
and without any solid foundation under
his feet Martin's work becomes
mythologically empty and just plain depressing
depressing
imagine being such an author your work
is essentially a cry for help a
testament to your own Despair and lack
of faith and you give it to the world
waiting to see what happens and you know
what happens the World falls in love
with it falls in love with the great
dragons burning innocent people falls in
love with the deviousness of the
plotting dagger creeping through the
darkness and falls in love with the
sweaty breasts of prostitute who will be
shot by Siege crossbow in the next
scene in absolute shock over how your
point was missed you then get stuck and
you watch as the television adaptation
falls apart through your own horror and
the general misunderstanding of intimacy
of your own pain and through the
incompetence of producers who are eager
to do their Star Wars project and
through the poisoned of shallow Petty
secular consumer Society calling for
bread and
circus after all that you have made
meaningless fortune and you have plenty
time to kill Maybe by commenting on the
football season on your block plenty of
superficial mini
projects and you are left with a crowd
of disgruntled fanss with no other
sentence than finish the
book as I have already expressed the
book is undoable Martin scattered Heroes
vence everything in between he scattered
War peace violence and love
he scattered Faith tradition and hope
the only thing left is series of
eclectic views into the painful World
Through The Eyes of bunch of characters
whose name you don't even have to
remember they will all die and why
shouldn't they after all it never made
any sense or had any point from the
beginning not finishing this work is the
most befitting ending it could have it
is a depressing jumble of cynical
exclamations about the hopelessness of
human endeavor the crowds of fans hoping
for its completion succumb to the same
illusion of Salvation as Martin's
characters resolution will not come
Martin simply cannot achieve
it at the beginning I said that unlike
HBO's Game of Thrones Martin probably
hasn't forgotten his original
principles but I think that now with
them lying broken in his hands he wishes he
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