Skip to main content

The Shame of Literary Opinion Take-Backsies

You know how sometimes you might be a person with strong opinions who will brook no opposition? At least not without yelling "YOU ARE FULL OF WRONGY WRONGNESS" at said opposition? Yes, well, as of 80 pages into Game of Thrones, I would like to confess with clenched teeth that I was...maybe...sort of wrong about it.



I tried it before and found it lacking! Or rather, I found it dumb. Because I could not handle Eddard Stark being all "By the Kingdom of Spellweather, the Isles of Kiddlypoo, and the Four Corners of Bunbury" because that is silly. But it turns out, if you keep reading past that and also indulge in some skimming, it's a really entertaining book.





Parts have been spoiled for me, because I've had the following conversation on NUMEROUS occasions:

"Tell me why Tumblr is saying this stuff about Game of Thrones."
"No! It'll ruin it if you ever read them."
"I am never, ever, ever going to read them."
"But--"
"Never."

Fortunately, I am terrible at remembering things like "plot" and only good at remembering things like Queen Elizabeth I's birthday, because it is USEFUL. So I've forgotten most of what people have told me.

The fun part about having strong opinions is -- what am I saying, it is OBJECTIVELY fun. When I was in high school, one of the things that irritated me the most was when the teacher would ask whether something was A or B and my classmates (otherwise regarded with great affection) would obnoxiously answer "Well, it's a little bit of both."

AGHHHH. 



Life is grey areas. Grey grey grey grey grey. Almost nothing is black and white. But to foster discussion, sometimes you need to throw something out like "CUBS SUCK WHITE SOX RULE," because someone's face will turn angry-red and you will have a fun argument which will end in you both agreeing that Cubs FANS suck, and you in fact have no problem with the team, aside from the fact that they are terrible at baseball.

The problem with something like Game of Thrones opposition is you have 1) Your opinion based on reading one chapter, which you called "stupid," and 2) NATIONS of people against you and your dislike. I've discussed before how bad it is to hate something because it's popular, but it's a really, really hard urge to overcome. It's totally a douchey thing to do, but it's there, like that desire you sometimes have to wear an Ed Hardy shirt, or to say "I don't know, CAN you go to the bathroom?"

Conquering these douchebag feelings is what make us better humans, and improves the quality of life for our fellow man. So I shall say RIGHT NOW that I was wrong. Game of Thrones is very entertaining. I am totally looking forward to reading about basically every character. But I will continue to be annoyed by Sherlock fans now and forever, amen.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't

How to Build a Girl Introductory Post, which is full of wonderful things you probably want to read

Acclaimed (in England mostly) lady Caitlin Moran has a novel coming out. A NOVEL. Where before she has primarily stuck to essays. Curious as we obviously were about this, I and a group of bloggers are having a READALONG of said novel, probably rife with spoilers (maybe they don't really matter for this book, though, so you should totally still read my posts). This is all hosted/cared for/lovingly nursed to health by Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) because she has a lovely fancy job at an actual bookshop ( Odyssey Books , where you can in fact pre-order this book and then feel delightful about yourself for helping an independent store). Emily and I have negotiated the wonders of Sri Lankan cuisine and wandered the Javits Center together. Would that I could drink with her more often than I have. I feel like we could get to this point, Emily INTRODUCTION-wise (I might've tipped back a little something this evening, thus the constant asides), I am Alice. I enjoy