0:06 [Music]
0:10 grr Martin Saga A Song of Ice and Fire
0:12 initially promised to absolutely
0:14 transform our perception of the fantasy
0:17 genre and leave behind a lasting
0:21 cultural impact to some extent this has
0:23 certainly been fulfilled but definitely
0:26 not in the originally intended way where
0:28 the magnum opus was supposed to stand as
0:31 a monument to a critique of human
0:33 pettiness and fanaticism and greed and
0:36 bloodthirstiness it now stands as a sad
0:38 Memorial to the transience of time the
0:41 unfinished nature of things and the
0:44 pointlessness of all our efforts
0:47 everything broken into atoms while one
0:49 weeps in silence contemplating the cycle
0:53 of human futility in the upcoming show I
0:55 will dissect the failure of the song of
0:57 ice and fire in the fantasy genre a
1:00 genre that is fundamentally a modern
1:02 continuation of Mythology and I will
1:05 show that when one loses reverence for
1:07 the mythological essence of human heroic
1:10 stories he then renders his own work
1:14 unfinishable as grr Martin sadly showed
1:17 us welcome to mag [Music]
1:26 [Music]
1:29 Mir surely we all know of the triumphs
1:31 and ultimate failure of the HBO's Game of
1:32 of
1:35 Thrones despite its Myriad flaws the
1:37 show rode the wave of hype for a considerable
1:38 considerable
1:40 time right up until the moment it
1:42 exhausted its source
1:45 material at that juncture it became
1:47 evident that the producers were clueless
1:49 about the philosophical Concepts
1:50 interwoven in the book
1:53 Source yes they understood that people
1:55 enjoyed dragons ders in the dark and
1:58 boobs from a shallow perspective it
2:00 might seem that these very qualities
2:03 Propel the show to its popularity and
2:05 don't get me wrong they certainly didn't
2:08 hurt but what truly serves as the
2:10 instinctively and universally perceived
2:12 quality of any work of art what truly
2:15 shapes its Essence is the confidence of
2:19 the work itself in its own ideals such a
2:21 piece of art embodies a clear
2:23 intellectual and philosophical
2:26 certainty the book source and the TV
2:28 series were at its root clear critique
2:30 of War violence and human folly in the
2:32 Realms of ideology and
2:35 fanaticism HBO's Game of Thrones began
2:37 to decline precisely the moment it
2:39 started to glorify War when it showed us
2:42 beautifully choreographed duels and when
2:44 it pushed Prophecies of Saviors
2:46 originally meant as misleading in the
2:48 source material into the focal point of
2:51 its interest the failure of the literary
2:55 source is a much more complex matter
2:58 George RR Martin an old school hippie
3:01 likely hasn't forgotten his original
3:03 principles however while writing short
3:06 sci-fi stories he armed himself with the
3:09 deconstructive hammer of postmodernism
3:11 so formidable that it renders building a
3:14 long Saga impossible all Hope For
3:17 answers and underlying meaning were lost
3:19 by the time of writing of the fourth
3:22 book and since then the narrative has
3:24 been nothing but smoke and mirrors
3:26 distraction for the audience and the
3:29 author himself with excessive complexity
3:31 all that just to avoid the necessity of
3:35 extracting any point it once may be had
3:38 George RR Martin is as I mentioned an
3:41 old school hippie it's worth noting his
3:43 proud decision to be conscientious
3:46 objector during the Vietnam war his work
3:49 is liberal pacifistic and
3:50 postmodern something which is
3:52 surprisingly not immediately evident to
3:55 many Martin began as a writer of short
3:58 sci-fi stories where not only his
4:00 typical methods but ALS also the
4:02 aforementioned attitudes and their teams become
4:03 become
4:05 apparent criticism of war and human
4:08 aggression the futility of scheming the
4:10 confusion of ideological fanaticism and
4:12 occasionally the dismantling of
4:14 religious Traditions as something
4:15 Insidious and
4:17 constricting Martin's characteristic
4:19 story is one of false prophecies and
4:22 Visions exploited by nefarious actors to
4:25 drive Humanity prone to failure through
4:27 belief in the Supernatural to
4:29 self-destruction all prophecies May
4:31 mythologies and religions in Martin's
4:34 works are instruments of
4:36 Destruction our protagonists are
4:39 tormented by conflicts they are
4:40 entangled in the tapestry of confusion
4:43 and false Visions they struggle with
4:46 their own needs for Pride responsibility
4:47 and search for
4:50 identity these protagonists are not
4:53 Heroes they are not chosen ones and are
4:55 not enlightened beings they are just
4:58 people entwined in the prison of human
5:01 limitations burden by their Essence and
5:03 by the weight of the question what they
5:04 ought to fulfill in this world to be
5:07 considered good more successful
5:09 people and through their tribulations
5:12 and driven by various pains they flail
5:14 their hands around and harm other
5:16 characters in The Narrative this
5:18 approach is undoubtedly compelling
5:21 certainly enjoyable to read and has its
5:24 merits however when taken to its extreme
5:27 form and when combined with Martin's
5:30 methods it becomes a catastrophically
5:33 flawed approach the writing of this 30y
5:36 year long Saga is not bad as I said it's very
5:37 very
5:40 compelling but Martin as an author is
5:42 truly cursed with a dark Synergy of
5:45 several authorial traits which
5:48 eventually cumulatively become the
5:50 design of the ruin of his own magnum
5:54 opus these traits are post modern
5:57 reconstruction outof control complexity
6:04 [Music]
6:06 Essence deconstruction is a valuable
6:09 tool only if it results in a meaningful
6:12 analysis and understanding of the entire
6:15 system you have to be capable of sifting
6:17 through the debris and extracting the
6:19 diamond of pure Knowledge from the
6:21 layers of
6:23 complexity however Martin wields his
6:26 postmodern Hammer with such a force that
6:28 he not only sweeps away his characters
6:30 and their story
6:32 but also any value that might have been
6:35 hidden within ultimately scattering his
6:39 own plot lines ideas typewriter chair
6:41 and the house that surrounds
6:45 him Martin is a man who creates his work
6:48 plagued by the dark essence of humanity
6:50 a person who interlaces his work with
6:54 unmistakable pain from unfortunate laugh
6:56 shame from the feeling that rejection of
6:58 bloodthirsty conflict is cow this
7:00 disappoint ointment that faith in
7:03 deities and prophecies is futile because
7:05 nothing will be resolved and resentment
7:08 towards what he presents as aggressive masculine
7:10 masculine
7:12 World despite all these evidently deeply
7:15 personal struggles he seems unable to
7:18 retain any ideal like a lesson or a
7:20 value worth passing
7:22 on it could be said that Martin
7:24 philosophically burnt out long before he
7:26 sat down to write Game of
7:29 Thrones but if the work lacks such a
7:32 Vision it cannot have a point it becomes
7:35 smely an empty critique offering no
7:37 alternative such a work can only be a
7:40 depressing window into endless cycle of
7:44 Despair Martin is a deeply cynical
7:47 man of course the work retains the
7:50 subtext of Martin's Proto ideals very
7:53 simplistically war and violence are bad
7:55 but Martin's deconstruction is of such a
7:57 strong character that it sweeps away in
7:59 their entirety not only the the
8:02 bloodthirsty warmongers but also the
8:04 wise and peaceful rulers and all IND different
8:05 different
8:07 bystanders I get that such is the nature
8:10 of War as a picture of absolute collapse
8:12 this is great Martin is writing to a
8:15 certain degree Hamlet like tragedy but
8:18 in Hamlet virtues and righteous path was
8:21 always present in some way Martin
8:25 deconstructs hope itself eventually the
8:27 full system of human values and
8:29 psychology is reduced to a roting
8:32 carcass at reader's feet and after his
8:35 Grand destruction he no longer has the
8:37 strength to even point out that if a war
8:40 is bad then peace is good there are no
8:43 answers only
8:46 suffering then there is a constant
8:48 subversion of expectations that Martin
8:51 employs no plan is ever fulfilled as
8:53 stated no character maintains their
8:56 archetypal role and ultimately you as a
8:58 reader are imprisoned in a realm of
9:00 absolute uncertain certainty you can't
9:03 even be sure whether the protagonist
9:04 will survive until the end of the
9:07 chapter well guess what Martin is
9:09 imprisoned with you in the same world
9:12 but you can put the book away he
9:15 can't in his attempt to condemn the sins
9:18 of humanity Martin left no room for hope
9:20 faith and tradition become misleading
9:23 illusion of false salvation honor and
9:25 wisdom become weaknesses making one
9:28 blind to daggers in the dark and so forth
9:29 forth
9:32 personally I like many others find this
9:35 deeply cynical piece of art extremely
9:37 entertaining but it seems to be working
9:40 much better in limited quantities and on
9:42 small scale for example in a short
9:44 sci-fi story for a science fiction
9:47 magazine Martin's cynicism sadly
9:50 collides with the second Pitfall of
9:52 postmodernity which is methodically
9:58 [Music]
10:00 complexity it's popular to divide
10:02 authors into two sharply defined
10:05 extremes on one hand an architect an
10:07 author meticulously planning every
10:10 detail of his work on the other a
10:13 gardener an author allowing his work to
10:15 Blossom at its own pace and in
10:18 directions it itself deems
10:21 fit as is well known Martin belongs to
10:24 the latter type of author just to note
10:26 both positions are not necessarily the
10:29 type of author but rather methods an
10:31 author employs neither should really be
10:35 neglected by any artist anyway Martin
10:37 leans relatively strong towards the
10:40 gardening method there is a virtue of
10:43 understanding one's work as something
10:46 alive it is an Endeavor to liken oneself
10:50 to God through Act of small
10:53 creation it is the author's creative
10:55 desire for the work to begin breathing
10:58 with its own life and consciously gaze
10:59 back at him
11:02 Martin achieves this in several ways the
11:05 most fundamental way he uses to achieve
11:07 authenticity of his work is the use of
11:09 the subjectivities of his
11:11 characters that is the story is narrated
11:13 from the point of view of several selected
11:14 selected
11:16 characters this method not only provides
11:19 their personal and imperfect perspective
11:22 of the world but also an intimate
11:24 glimpse into their own
11:27 Souls however the combination of this
11:29 very intimate method with Martin's
11:31 desire for complexity eventually leads
11:34 to an immensely chaotic situation look
11:37 at this infographic side by side you see
11:38 all the chapters of the five published
11:40 books and the released chapters from the
11:43 unpublished sixth book each book is
11:46 assigned a color and each chapter
11:48 traditionally named after POV character
11:50 with a sequential number is highlighted
11:52 in the color of the book in which the
11:54 character first appear as a
11:58 POV for example Davos seaworth has his
12:00 first chapter in the second book and is
12:02 hence forgiven a red
12:05 color the problem is quite evident for
12:07 the sake of coherence Martin's work
12:08 might have been better suited for a Trilogy
12:09 Trilogy
12:12 format in the first three books The
12:15 Legacy characters are wellmaintained and
12:17 the addition of new ones is very organic and
12:18 and
12:20 meaningful however with the arrival of
12:23 fourth book a paradigm shift occurs the
12:25 author sets out to explore completely
12:28 new and different plots complicating the
12:30 entire in situation of his fantasy
12:33 Universe this is of course uncomfortable
12:35 for readers and the fourth book is quite
12:38 controversial personally I definitely
12:40 don't think this is necessarily bad in
12:42 fact I find such deliberate maneuver quite
12:43 quite
12:46 entertaining unfortunately however in
12:49 the context of the entire work it is
12:51 just another nail in the coffin of its finish
12:52 finish
12:55 ability the atypicality of the fourth
12:57 book is also evident in the relatively
12:59 arbitrary series of character
13:01 suddenly stepping out of the original
13:04 methodical chapter naming and instead
13:06 their chapters now have their names
13:08 derive from some specific role in which
13:11 set character is currently present these
13:14 chapters are marked with a red dot and
13:16 note that I do not Mark chapters where
13:18 the change of character's name is
13:20 Justified in long term SanSai and her
13:22 transformation into Elaine and theon's
13:25 transformation into reek but those I did
13:28 Mark I view as a symptom the symptom
13:29 that the author
13:31 is no longer satisfied with the original
13:33 format of the work he decided to write
13:36 years ago Martin went off the
13:39 road in the fifth book the last one
13:42 published the author tries to clean up
13:44 the chaos caused by his Excursion beyond
13:47 the original theme of The Saga this one
13:49 is still feasible as the book mainly
13:51 resonates with Legacy characters from
13:52 the first and second
13:55 part however Martin cannot seem to stop
13:57 and again adds more characters and new plots
13:59 plots
14:01 by the sixth book The plots should start
14:04 to unravel but it seems impossible to
14:06 satisfactory conclude the stories of
14:08 Legacy characters from the first three
14:11 books and at the same time to resolve
14:13 the entire huge new world of plots from
14:15 the fourth and fifth
14:17 books you see I've been heading to a
14:20 point which is that it's okay to be a
14:23 gardener if you know which parcel is
14:25 your garden where the pavement has
14:28 already been laid and in which climate
14:30 zone you are
14:32 however Martin is trying to be a
14:34 gardener in the Amazon and somewhere in
14:37 the heart of the Jungle he lost the
14:43 [Music]
14:46 place do you know why Professor JRR
14:48 Tolkien did not get lost in the
14:50 Saran because he had clear mythological
14:53 Vision in which he believed Tolen
14:55 famously decided to create a new
14:58 mythology for the Anglo-Saxon World
15:00 primarily a professor of history and
15:03 Linguistics an educator who decided to
15:05 gracefully transfer the wisdom of the
15:08 past into a new age in the gentlest and
15:11 most enlightened way possible tolk's
15:14 work is immensely extensive and complex
15:16 however it does not crumble under its
15:19 own weight for a simple reason it stands
15:21 on the indestructible foundations of ancient
15:22 ancient
15:26 times in the thousands of names events
15:29 places betrayals and Wars you can always
15:31 look around and see the mighty tower
15:34 touching the heavens thanks to which you
15:36 always know where you
15:39 are I don't mean the towers of badur or
15:42 th Minit Minas morgul or the lamps of
15:46 uin and orala I mean the ubiquitous
15:48 understanding that the world originates
15:50 from the music of the inur created by
15:53 primordial Timeless de
15:56 iluvatar the omnipresent understanding
15:58 that light comes from the S of the universe
15:59 universe
16:01 and that darkness is the cacophony of
16:04 eternal struggle this struggle is not in
16:07 vain as it is against darkness in the
16:08 name of
16:12 light in contrast A Song of Ice and Fire
16:16 find its origin in Robert Frost's 1923
16:18 poem Fire and
16:21 Ice some say the world will end in fire
16:24 some say in ice from what I've tasted of
16:28 desire I hold with those who favor fire
16:31 but if it had to perish twice I think I
16:33 know enough of hate to say that for
16:41 suffice as you can see Martin's initial
16:44 Inspirations are rooted in Despair and
16:47 the end of the world omnipresent fear
16:49 that through our lust and hatred we will
16:50 be torn
16:54 aunder I feel that I feel that terrible
16:56 pain and fear every day do not
16:59 misunderstand me I do not dismiss it
17:02 what I'm saying however is that Martin
17:04 spent 30 years of his life on a monument of
17:05 of
17:08 futility no wonder that when you sit for
17:10 decades only on the topic of absolute
17:14 failure of human society you burn out
17:16 and by not having any kind of answer to
17:20 these pains by lacking any laugh or hope
17:22 and without any solid foundation under
17:25 his feet Martin's work becomes
17:27 mythologically empty and just plain depressing
17:29 depressing
17:32 imagine being such an author your work
17:34 is essentially a cry for help a
17:36 testament to your own Despair and lack
17:39 of faith and you give it to the world
17:42 waiting to see what happens and you know
17:44 what happens the World falls in love
17:46 with it falls in love with the great
17:49 dragons burning innocent people falls in
17:51 love with the deviousness of the
17:53 plotting dagger creeping through the
17:55 darkness and falls in love with the
17:57 sweaty breasts of prostitute who will be
17:59 shot by Siege crossbow in the next
18:02 scene in absolute shock over how your
18:05 point was missed you then get stuck and
18:07 you watch as the television adaptation
18:10 falls apart through your own horror and
18:12 the general misunderstanding of intimacy
18:15 of your own pain and through the
18:17 incompetence of producers who are eager
18:20 to do their Star Wars project and
18:22 through the poisoned of shallow Petty
18:24 secular consumer Society calling for
18:26 bread and
18:29 circus after all that you have made
18:31 meaningless fortune and you have plenty
18:34 time to kill Maybe by commenting on the
18:36 football season on your block plenty of
18:38 superficial mini
18:40 projects and you are left with a crowd
18:42 of disgruntled fanss with no other
18:45 sentence than finish the
18:48 book as I have already expressed the
18:52 book is undoable Martin scattered Heroes
18:55 vence everything in between he scattered
18:58 War peace violence and love
19:02 he scattered Faith tradition and hope
19:04 the only thing left is series of
19:06 eclectic views into the painful World
19:08 Through The Eyes of bunch of characters
19:09 whose name you don't even have to
19:11 remember they will all die and why
19:14 shouldn't they after all it never made
19:16 any sense or had any point from the
19:19 beginning not finishing this work is the
19:21 most befitting ending it could have it
19:23 is a depressing jumble of cynical
19:25 exclamations about the hopelessness of
19:28 human endeavor the crowds of fans hoping
19:31 for its completion succumb to the same
19:34 illusion of Salvation as Martin's
19:37 characters resolution will not come
19:39 Martin simply cannot achieve
19:42 it at the beginning I said that unlike
19:45 HBO's Game of Thrones Martin probably
19:48 hasn't forgotten his original
19:51 principles but I think that now with
19:54 them lying broken in his hands he wishes he
