How to play the Game

George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novel Game of Thrones is the first novel in a seven book series titled The Song of Ice and Fire which has been turned into a hit HBO show.  This post is confined to the first book and will not address the show’s sleaziness, but those interested in reading about that should check out Douthat’s critique here.

Instead, I’ll focus on this article’s comparison of Martin and Tolkien.  Martin has been described as the anti-Tolkien because his work is realistic while Tolkien is idealistic or fantastic.  One example of Martin’s apparent hardheadedness is his portrayal of Eddard ‘Ned’ Stark.  Ned’s storyline presents the reader with the political problem of dirty hands: the desire to stay out of politics and war in order to remain morally pure. 

For two-thirds of the book Ned appears to be the traditional hero who is guided by honor.  But by the novel’s end his unwillingness to commit a base action leads to his death and sets up a civil war for the second novel. He is contrasted with the members of the House Lannister and Lord Petyr Baelish, also called Littlefinger, who all commit immoral means to attain their ends. 

But is Martin really criticizing Stark for his idealism here?  Ned’s son, Rob, is clearly inspired by him and is the white knight by the story’s end.  Catelyn, Eddard’s wife, says repeatedly that Ned had taught Rob the art of politics and war well.  And House Stark is the family the reader is supposed to root for. 

Maybe the better comparison to Ned is Catelyn, not Littlefinger and the Lannisters.  Ned and Catelyn share the same set of convictions yet there are several instances in the novel where Catelyn relies upon misdirection and equivocation in order to obtain her goals e.g. the capture of Tyrion Lannister.   She is prudent when thinking about what to say (and not say) when counseling her son, arranging a marriage pact with House Frey, and pleading with House Tully and Lords of the Riverlands to avoid civil war. 

The same cannot be said of Ned, however noble he might be.   His virtues are those of the solider, not statesman. Ned helped Robert Baratheon win the War of the Usurper, but he did not help him rule the Seven Kingdoms afterwards.   

Cersei Lannister presents the problem of the Game of Thrones as some sort of Hobbesian Choice.  Presented this way, the heroes and villains are indistinguishable from each other.  Luckily, Catelyn’s statesmanship shows the rules of the game are not as black and white as Cersei suggests.

LOST AND FOUND

Fans of the hit TV show LOST speculated after the first couple of seasons that it was secretly a presentation of Purgatory.  The buzz over this thesis grew to such large proportions that the producers had to release a letter denying the rumors.  Now two years after the show is finished, one of the writers is admitting it is Purgatory in a “literal and figurative” sense.  Or to use Douthat’s formulation, it is “not Purgatory, but Purgatorial.”  The show’s souls are LOST morally and spiritually.

The writer goes on to say this religious notion is detached from the idea of a Personal God who judges and forgives his creatures.  Instead, God is impersonal like the Greek Logos or Hindu Brahman.  This impersonal God made it easier to pacify the scientific materialist crowd which was a subset of the show’s fan base.  Divine judgment and mercy is replaced with Modern Autonomy:  The LOST characters forgive and find themselves.  The show is a synthesis of catholic and secular ideas, which is probably due to the writers trying to please different fans or factions.  It has been said all synthesis is a miracle and so one element must be watered down for the sake of the other.  In this case, the pre-modern elements seem stronger.

The denial of an external authority is only in regards to a person’s vertical duties (God); it does not apply to his horizontal duties to other people.  Early in the show, Jack Sheppard says they must either “live together or die alone.”  The series finale reveals the characters must enter Heaven together.  The Writers believe Heaven, not Hell, is other people.  A person’s worth is measured by his fulfillment or failure to live up to his social duties.

The role of memory is another example of how the LOST characters are not ‘unencumbered individuals’; on the contrary, they past weighs them down. Their previous misdeeds haunt them and form the material for their current dilemmas.  However, their prior experiences do not determine their current actions; the crux of every episode focuses upon whether a character will use his freedom to break from his past or remain mired in it.

There were plenty of problems with the show e.g. unanswered questions and a six season run when five would do; nevertheless, its vision of the human person is what made this drama work.

Films About Something

Thomas Hibbs has updated his book Shows About Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture in light of films and TV shows of the last decade like Christopher Nolan’s movies and AMC’s Mad Men.

He says Nihilism has been the reigning philosophy in Hollywood since the 1960’s.  By Nihilism, he means a state of meaninglessness in which there is no objective standard for distinguishing actions as true or false, noble or base.   Despite Nihilism’s current reign over television and film, he says there has been a reemergence of the classical notion of Quest in a lot of the popular films of the last decade e.g. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and the Batman films.  In Quest stories, the hero has extraordinary duties of cosmic significance imposed upon him.  The pursuit for justice and goodness do not necessarily mean the quest will be accomplished; instead the quest points to the existence of such goods.  It also does not mean the heroes are perfect, but they are trying to overcome their flaws.

Hibbs believes these films are an encouraging sign, though he concedes there are plenty of counterexamples e.g. torture porn in films, music videos, and games.  One issue he only briefly mentions is recent Quest films are all from the fantasy or comic book genres.  Does the absence of realistic Quest films suggest things are even worse than Hibbs hopes?