Why the Game of Thrones is That Good

Often its easy to point out what we don't like in books, or movies. On the same note its easy to forget to mention what we do like about them. Here's a quick overview of why GOT, or the Song of fire and Ice series, is that good. Starting with the top 6 reasons.

This is mostly spoiler free- No references to specifics within the plot are given. You should be safe to read it if you haven't already finished the series.

What this book does right

(6) Everything is Important but How Much So ?


This book has the ability to the separate interesting elements that are all important but the degree to which they are, is to be deciphered . In some cases there's a purposeful lapse, of some new information, a curious side note were you might wonder of the significance of and its place within the story. Its at these times when the Author George R.R. Martin (GRRM) is almost toying with the reader, occasionally hinting that some of those briefly mentioned rumors or insights can be significant while others could be purposefully misleading. This introduces a great deal of mystery. To compound this even more, the characters often express questionably relevant story elements within their own perspective, which is fallible at that ! This ups the ante even more as the reader lingers over an element introduced by those characters, and has to examine the characters disposition and motivations (which are thoroughly developed ) to ponder the relevancy and the validity of their statements. To good

(5) Depth of Character, Characters that Live and Breathe.

Character development and depth of personality is astounding well done. You could subject almost any of the cast to a Myers-Briggs test, and come out with a consistent personality type. Actions and events are foreshadowed just within knowledge of the persona's of the characters themselves. Even more intriguing GRRM has given many of these characters, their own chapters to feature their perspectives. Within these perspectives we get something vital to a good story -character flaws. For much of the book, Its not the events and the locations that drives the story's but the beautiful inevitability of complex characters, clashing ideals, and vocations scrimmaging in all out tragic Neo-Shakespearean manner.

Before this, just when the characters and plot rear into a gut wrenching climax ; those few moments preceding is when they're offered the choice to opt out, to escape ! The reader so desperately attached to these characters, longing and now yelling out at their ruffed up paperback copies, to take them ! These escapes sounds so good to, for everyone expect the characters themselves, and always sealed with that fatal flaw their fates are as inevitable as more burnt tossed then re-bought copies, of the book itself.

(4) Logic.

There is something very beautiful about logic. The placement consistency and ability to find a framework to express ideas, becomes all to rich in times where the form is as beautiful as the figure within it. The story is imbued with both character logic, (characters that act in dictates within their own personalities, and plot logic- (the ability for sides to act knowingly based on exclusive interests). This is so prevalent, that sometime after finishing the first book, I made a prediction based where I saw the story progressing. The waring or reconciliation of certain factions, it was, and to this end I predicted a particular and odd event that would have to happen to a character for this to come about. (Yes I'm involved in some sort of wacky interpretative dance/work-about to keep this spoiler free) This event on the outsets sounded and seemed both spectacular and random. Then when the event did occur later on, it only confirmed the layers of thought that went into this prediction were based on a long chain of casualty that the author would not forgo ! It wasn't so random! There is significant, deliberation in the outline of the plot bringing together elements that transforms narrative, naturally with a consistency and an affinity to its form.

(3) Plot Twists.

With logical consistency the characters, plot, story and world become much more believable. The incredible plot twist live within this logic, are foreshadowed within its form while still managing to surprise and shock the reader. That is, while sitting on the edge of your chair screaming "Holy" expletive "How", (stutter). "Why did that happen": It is after these not so calm moments, when you force yourself to settle down afterwards, to recollect your thoughts and say, "Yeah I knew it all along, the clues were there". Yet it ties in so well, with such a delicious sense of timing that its unraveling is unreal. This series of books has some of the best plot twists ever written in Fantasy.


(2) Strong Female Characters.

It almost goes without saying, when reading a fantasy novel you can expect a good deal of misogyny. Often times, it is argued as a consequence of "the times of the book", or the inexperience of the authors with the opposite sex. (Fantasy writers are not exactly rock stars). That's why it is so refreshing to witness such powerful engaging multidimensional female characters. Written in a way, with such a spectacle, that you could only think of Homers (the blind Greek author's) vivid pictorial depictions of battle glory as equally astounding . I should probably stop here, I just implicated the whole lot of fantasy writers as horse in carriage blindsided to the opposite sex. In many ways though the female characters are equal to if not better developed then any of their male counterparts. GRRM does really well in depicting characters that resound with readers regardless of their sex.

Finally the most Important reason why these books are that good

1) Bad-Ass Midgets


Yeah

Movember and the Creative Process

Its Dec 1 today one day after "Movember" in Canada has ended. "Movember" is where the month before December is renamed in a way to emphasis the mustache in November (stay with me). Every year in November mustaches are grown by Canadian men (I think its only the men) to raise funds and awareness for men's health, more specifically prostate cancer. Now this is all high and good, but looking around I've come to secretly suspect it could just be a ploy so that Mexican drug dealers and Middle Eastern tyrants, can better blend into the general populace. I might be bias, but I would have liked "Soultember" Soul Patches in September instead. How many world dictators do you know with only soul patches :P If you would like to learn more about Movember - Maybe even prepare for it next year, in-between the process of planing your next military coup- here's the link http://ca.movember.com/.

All kidding aside I really would like to post up part 2 of my article on dealing with pain. It might help a few people, though seeing as I'm still not 100 percent yet, I thought I would hold off just a bit. So instead I'm going to attempt to go back to one of my personal goals of this blog and attempting to delve into the creative process . The goal being, to describe thoughts and developments that are in play during the time one pickups the brush and begins, till when the paint has fully dried. Instead of painting however I'm going to focus on music, since well I don't think a creative roundabout for some stick figures and spilled paint bordering somewhere near the lines, would make for a very interesting read.

In the past I've wanted to read other accounts, to learn and to see what it is that a great painter would, or know and experience how a great poet would write. In this sense I've been mostly disappointed. While there are a few cases where the artist leaves us incredible accounts of the process, at times this is not so and the artist recount of their process might more accurately resemble a case study on the effects of hard drugs usage. Either that or you, get the "how do you do that" ? "I don't know I just do" response.

While at first glance this would seem like a brush off (no pun intended), and it very well may be depending on who your asking and what kind of irritable "artistic" mode they're in. In other cases however it can make sense for someone to explain it in this manner. The reasoning being; many skills are often ingrained internally on a level similar to muscle memory. This is beneficial for the artist because when your not conscious of the process while you are working, it frees up the mind to focus on finer details. Here you are in the action of doing not having to worry about how you are doing it. So the creative actions can take place without much reflection at the given moment in which it occurs. In this case many people just take it as is without really reflecting to much on it. This is fair in that sense but the important point here is, what comes about "naturally" and "effortlessly"can for some people be broken down and expressed in such a way that would not only give more insight into what they are doing but also provide help for others allowing them to experience some of the mindset.

While we all think differently and the actions of creating something artistically will differ tremendously between persons, I strongly believe that by delving into the mindset of the artists , we can impart a form of knowledge that can be more valuable then sometimes even years of theory alone. Lets consider traditional theory and its goals of breaking things down into mechanistic values and attempting to relay that working knowledge into a standardized process. There is one great dilemma with this; we are not machines. The information we receive will always be symbolically interpreted and translated into forms the individual adapts from the raw theory. That is, disposition, tendencies, style and expression will filter the knowledge itself. So why then is static theory created in this way ? Well for convince when you are teaching so many people a set method at one time its almost a necessity.

The very process by which the artist actually breaks down the raw knowledge is in itself unique, with its own merit. Consider the Italian Renaissance, one of the great esteemed artistic movements of western art. In this case and time, without having a standardized theory and the need to efficiency teach massive amounts of people at once, they relied on apprenticeships. Apprenticeships were remarkable for creating the likes of Michelangelo , Leonardo (and eventually all the ninja turtles :P) as well as many other incredible talented artists. Following the dark ages there was no set theory in many of the fields, so a teacher, would teach the apprentice not by stale derivative methods, but through their own free understanding and processing of the art (which in itself is an art). The teacher would impart their form of interpretation, working knowledge, post theory and even take into consideration and sometimes even teach based on the predisposition of the pupil. It could be said that the individual interpretation of art was largely responsible for the reemergence of art as a dominate cultural force in the West.

End of Part One

For those of you stricken with the post Movember blues. Perhaps your to afraid to turn on the news to see the toppling of another 3-rd world dictatorships, fearing that yet another good mustache has met its end. Stayed tuned for part two of this article. (Disclaimer : part 2 has nothing to do with mustaches but actually starts off with the question "Can creativity be taught"?)