“A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb.”
― W.H. Auden
Come down with the flu and spend your convalescence watching television? Maureen Dowd recently got her wish and, while languishing in bed, became hooked on "Game of Thrones." In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Bring Me My Dragons!" (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/opinion/sunday/dowd-bring-me-my-dragons.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0), Dowd tells us:
"After a marathon of three seasons of 'Game' and the beginning of the fourth, starting this Sunday, I’m ready to forgo reality for fantasy.
Who wants to cover Chris Christie’s petty little revenge schemes in New Jersey once you’ve seen the gory revenge grandeur of the Red Wedding?
Who wants to see W.’s portraits of leaders once you’re used to King Joffrey putting leaders’ heads on stakes?
Who wants to hear Hillary Clinton complain about a media double standard for women once you’ve gotten accustomed to the win-don’t-whine philosophy of Cersei, Daenerys, Melisandre, Margaery, Ygritte, Brienne and Arya? As it turns out, the show not only has its share of strong women, but plenty of lethal ones as well.
It all seems so tame and meaningless in Washington after Westeros."
Well, I read the first four of the Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" books, before getting bogged down in the fifth. What happened? Perhaps my reality is different from that of Maureen.
Have you ever witnessed the aftermath of a suicide bombing? Believe me, it's much worse than anything depicted in the "Red Wedding."
Have you ever visited in the hospital two friends from your reserve combat unit after they had their faces burned away by a Molotov cocktail? In comparison, the scarring of Tyrion Lannister's face is inconsequential.
More recently, have you taken the time to witness on YouTube the ghastly savagery perpetrated by Assad's forces and the rebels in Syria? In terms of cruelty, they put King Joffrey to shame.
Am I ready to forgo reality for fantasy? How about forgoing reality for some well-deserved boredom, allowing me to plant tomatoes and cucumbers (Summer is coming!) without reawakening my PTSD?
Well, in the novel, Tyrion had his nose cut off. In the TV show, it's just a stylish scar.
ReplyDeleteBut in fact, fiction is how people escape from reality. Reality is just so much....more real. And less fancy. And there is no escaping stuff like war and poverty and violence.