How Game of Thrones is of our Moment: Philosophy, Politics & Westeros
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ค. 2019
- How is Game of Thrones, a show loosely based on the 15th Century War of the Roses, represented of our cultural moment?
How are the tropes it draws upon and the structure of the narrative a product of the latter half of the 20th century?
Unlike many of predecessors, it is fundamentally a postmodern show - a show that decentres and problematizes timeless devices like the heroes journey, teleological storytelling, and narrative realism.
Game of Thrones is about how power subjectifies. How even the players at the top are moved by a diversity of forces greater than they are.
In this video, I undertake a Game of Thrones analysis, looking at the philosophy, politics, and history that underpins the story through thinkers like Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault.
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Sources:
Susan Pedersen, What is Political History Now? In What is History Now?
Giacomo Giudici, From New Diplomatic History to New Political History: The Rise of the Holistic Approach
DAVID M. CRAIG (2010). ‘HIGH POLITICS’ AND THE ‘NEW POLITICAL HISTORY’. The Historical Journal, 53, pp 453-475 doi:10.1017/S0018246X10000129
Zeynep Tefekci, The Real Reason Faces Hate the Last Season of Game of Thrones, Scientific America
houselorch.blogspot.com/2016/0...
Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice
“... government is a shared myth. When the myth dies, the government dies.” Leto II
Dune, another great work.
Ending the subject that has no end by not ending. Classic.
aka the sopranos
Brilliant. That Varis and Tyrion scene had always stuck with me, and I’ve thought about it a lot throughout my MA over the last two years as I learned about thinkers like Foucault.
I would love to see this channel do more of this kind of thing, applying theory to specific bits of media or pop culture.
Thanks you! I will try to a bit more... I've done a few on True Crime, Shawshank Redemption, Jaws, etc.
@@ThenNow what was that unfinished sentence at the end? Please what did you mean? 😳 I ain't good with subtleties!
Finally something not-stupid on GoT here on YT! Thank you very much! ... Also, here's a quote by Trotsky you might appreciate:
"Naive minds think that the office of kingship lodges in the king himself, in his ermine cloak and his crown, in his flesh and bones. As a matter of fact, the office of kingship is an interrelation between people. The king is king only because the interests and prejudices of millions of people are refracted through his person. When the flood of development sweeps away these interrelations, then the king appears to be only a washed-out man with a flabby lower lip." (Beginning of 'What Is National Socialism?', 1933)
Thanks! Great quote :)
Interesting analysis-it’s a much more Machiavellian tale than your typical “Hero’s Journey,” and that’s what made it different. As soon as they kill off Ned Stark at the end of season 1, you know they’ve flipped the script.
Thank you for making these videos, you deserve much more than what you get.
But also, I'm broke.
Wow your channel is so underrated, the research is so good and the videos are very very good and deep
this video is great! sorry idk what to comment but you deserve more engagement
Got chills immediately cause of the music...
This is so great and brilliant. Wow! Thank you so much for the insight and research!
You're welcome :)
Really really good video!!!
This is interesting! Good analysis!
I assume you slam cutting to black was intentional. But great video, man. Let’s hope when and if George does finish the series we get the meaning ending it deserves.
Damn that's good. Insightful.
More of this please!!!
excellent, excellent analysis.
AMAZING VIDEO BRUDDA
Brilliant! Thank you
will you be reviewing the upcoming shows adapting tolkien and martin?
please do a topic on the numinous
So brilliant
Post-modern Constructivist theory is not complete without elite theory. The Game is nothing without players. Social Constructions are made by players of the game. And the mechanisms and levers may be systemic structures, but systems do not make decisions; individuals do. The Game is about individuals within structures; structures without individuals are dead.
Things to consider: Instrumental Causality. Endogeneity vs Exogeneity. Iron Calculus. Fog of War. Bounded Rationality. Clausewitz's Unholy Trinity (both versions). Up your game, Then&Now. ;)
Jon Snow killed Dany and broke the wheel by denying his rightful claim; a choice not unlike George Washington or Cincinnaticus. Or maybe Jamie Lannister.
Dany was a symbolic representation of the Soviet Dekulakization.
I don't think any analysis of society is complete without elite theory, as it is fundamentally accurate in how human societies govern themselves. And it cannot be escaped. Every revolution, or civil war, are just one set of elites clashing with or supplanting another. The best we can achieve is having a society which is honest about that.
Jamie’s the goat, but of a Bruce Wayne archetype too (perceived as a selfish rich playboy secretly a sacrificial hero)
Interesting
GRM studied a lot of politics (possibly majored if I recall an interview correctly) and minored in history. It definitely comes through.
Of course we are in a matrix of culture ; But that doesn’t mean I have no agency ; It just circumscribes it , to what degree it’s hard to tell, but there is self evidently enough room in a deterministic universe to allow for free will within its walls .
If that were self evident, philosophers and scientists wouldn't still be arguing about it. For my part, I don't see how we can have true free will, given that our brains are subject to the same deterministic laws as everything else in the universe. But that doesn't mean I don't think we can sensibly talk about freedom and agency as phenomenological experiences.
Perhaps free will exists within the gap opened up by the apprehension of our circumstance and of the relations of power that move us. Mabe it is the ability to respond in multifarious ways to existing structures.
We write in other people's blood, the storm ends when the white walkers come and we run out
Great
Im not much of a weberian, but do anyone have an accurate primary source for his tripartite approach concerning political leadership, claims to legitimacy and structure?
I only have a german version of his writing: Weber, Max. 1992. Der Beruf zur Politik. In: Soziologie - Universalgeschichtliche Analysen - Politik. It is a very interesting read, framing and describing the most fundamental terms and concepts of political science like "State" and "Politics (Politik)" or what it means to be a "Politician", some of which are still used without alteration from his formal definitions. Most notably he defined what the "Modern State" consists of: The bureaucracy, successfully monopolizing the use of force, legitimizing their power through legal means etc.
That's how stories should end: somewhere 63.7% before the reader gets bored
"Being honerable didn't get him far" understatement of the year lol
Okay this is fucking brilliant.
that would be great actually
Varys is a cool philosopher
The Universities that offer "The ethics of Game of Thrones" have packed classes. Sign up on day one or open or lose out. This still applies in 2022.
The show used to mean something and have themes when D&D were following the books, after they veered off, the show lost its initial consistency. D& D themselves said themes are for 10yr olds. Thanks for the video .
Ned Stark is a Hero. Because he died. Heroes are best when they are martyrs.
The very fact that we are unable to break free from the the cycle of conflict and dominance that we live by as a species, being ignorant and seemingly unaware of our commonality and core sameness as one living human organism on our planetary home, will be our ultimate undoing and death as a species, unless we are able to learn, feel and think our way out of our dilemma. Literally feeding upon our own kind…sustaining ourselves by devouring ourselves is the way of death. Learning to see self in all others and to work towards uplift and progress is the of way of life. Life is not a game, but a problem to be solved.
So many people don’t get game of thrones.
Look at it like this
Kings Landing is Rome
Winterfell is Germania
The Iron Islands is Britain
Dorne is Carthage
The Targaryens are from Sweden (the Goths)
The Unsullied are from Persia
And the The Dothraki are based on Attila and the Huns.
What do they all have in common?
They all challenged Rome at one time or another.
All Martin did was mesh all the time lines in to one.
Oh and guess what?
The VisiGoths sacked Rome much like Dany in GOT
Poor shoemaker
Good video. I think GRRM got most of his stuff through real history. Yes, war of the roses but also the Unsullied were basically copied from Turks forcing young christian males to become muslim warriors. I'd say GRRM's biggest contribution or trait, is his characters are all gray. Tolkien is very black or white. Boromir being the one of the only ones who is gray (and you could say Saruman SP?)
I agree. Tolkien is really more about divine providence (i.e. even though the characters sacrifice hugely and try to maximize their god-given talents to achieve their goal, ultimately the goal to destroy evil relies on God's intervention) and GOT is much more realistic, gray and nuanced. The former is definitely Modern and the latter Post-Modern.
Lo! Behold! Through "Thoughtform Ned", the "Game" be vindicated! 👻🥔🇺🇲
That “breaking the wheel” speech of Daenerys held some truth when she said “.. that one is on top then that one is on top and on and on it goes..” but the moment she said “I’m gonna break the wheel” I laughed.
There’s no breaking the wheel. The wheel never ends. In real life we can look all these Presidents, Prime Ministers, Dictators, Kings and Queens from past monarchies who claim they’ll change things once and for all and such promises came to dust.
The world is forever changing by nature but power doesn’t.
This video literally shows why Michel Foucault has a flawed philosophy. It falls in line with the thought of Tywin Lannister.
How ?
I actually love how the GoT ended, one of the most realistic series had thought me how barbaric politics could be
Omg you just had cut your own video in order allow us poor plebiens to figure it out! Just tell us what you think?! Lol
And today? When I hear the American leftists call for censorship, and for reeducating of Trump supporters, I think of Dany when she tells John.... "But the don't get to choose"
It is lost confidence, identity, meaning. The withered spirit. Spectacle, chaos, fragments of heroes clung onto in the end for merchandising more than meaning. Besides, historians will never catch up with Spengler if they stick to the socratic material view of mankind.
Cool word salad, dude. Hopefully historians will never have to "catch up with" Spengler and instead will rightly continue moving past him forever.
Jeez, if only contemporary society would "catch up" with Spengler and other early 20th Century German nationalist race mystics. We'd be zooming into the future.😒
@@Dorian_sapiens "We'd be zooming into the future." What is it that entices you about the future?