I apologise for not posting over the weekend. It hasn’t been a good one and ended with me
suffering a migraine. As a result of
lack of sleep and being unable to look at my laptop screen, I have just
finished reading the first book in the epic A Song of Ice and Fire series by
George R. R. Martin. Having watched the
television programme first, I wasn’t sure of the book. Of course, the books are always better than
the programme/film, that’s a fact, but I knew what was going to happen and in
such a long book I wondered if that would take away the magic.
Of course it didn’t!
Game of Thrones is beautifully written, the characters
are very well developed and the world is utterly immersible. What did strike me immediately when reading
the book is that the story made sense!
While there are so many characters that I sometimes wonder who is who
and didn’t they go to Kings Landing and I’m sure they died a few pages back,
the story itself is much easier to follow.
I didn’t have to stop and think, what?
Why are they doing that? What’s
going on? Which I often have to do
during the television programme.
My favourite characters have not changed, in fact I think
I love Tyrion, Daenerys and Arya all the more.
Other characters, including secondary ones, also have a little more life
breathed into them than the television programme would have you believe, but
then that is the magic of the novel.
Two things really struck me when reading this book and it
is these that I would like to look at; the role of women in this fantasy world
and the use of sex.
I have already touched on the use of sex in thetelevision series in this post, so I’ll start with this.
Most of the examples that truly shocked me when reading Game
of Thrones are in the first half. It is
a book of two halves; sex and death.
While the deaths are devastatingly painful, the sexual content is
utterly shocking. Death is death but Game
of Thrones contains various types of sex; loving sex, incestual sex,
prostitution and rape and even mixtures of these.
As I followed Bran climbing walls and scampering along
rooftops while his dire wolf sat, waiting for him, I prepared myself for the young
Stark discovering Jaime and Cersei Lannister in the throes of sibling
love. In the series, Bran discovers them
naked and in the middle of intercourse, Jaime taking Cersei from behind
(positions are also important in fiction such as this). In the novel, Bran actually discovers brother
and sister to be fully dressed and discussing things that show the
reader/viewer exactly the same message as the sex scene of the programme.
‘There were soft, wet sounds. Bran realised they were kissing. He watched, wide-eyed and frightened, his breath
tight in his throat. The man had a hand
down between her legs, and he must have been hurting her there, because the
woman started to moan, low in her throat.
“Stop it,” she said...’
In the defence of the programme makers, a sex scene of
brother and sister gives the message of incest and the hint of Joffrey’s true lineage
in the shortest possible time. It also
gives a sense of their relationship, as Jaime takes Cersei from behind
suggesting a lack of respect (it is often the position used when having sex
with slaves).
In the novel, Jaime seemingly begins to force himself on
his sister, although she does not push him away. So the two scenes give the same message but
it does still not justify creating a crude sex scene in the place of good
dialogue. While the sex scene was short
and shocking, it can also be viewed as offensive. In fiction, crude erotica should only be
included where absolutely necessary. The
novel has proven that this crude, unloving sex scene was not necessary.
The scene I was truly dreading was Daenerys’ wedding
night with Khal Drogo. I don’t
completely remember this scene in the programme but I do know that it is forced
sex. Words will always make rape scenes
worse than the visual of the television programme and I read through Dany’s
wedding with trepidation. I needn’t have
worried. Khal Drogo is gentle and slow,
repeating the word ‘no’ to her until it ends in a question. ‘No?’
‘Yes,’ replies Dany, allowing him inside her. While I feared for this young girl in the
arms of such a big, strong man who doesn’t even speak to same language, their
love is apparent right from the beginning.
That was the feeling I was left with after this sex scene which is a
very different feeling to that of the programme. The end of that episode left me worried sick
about Dany and with that dirty feeling of the idea of rape.
‘She could sense the fierce strength in his hands, but he
never hurt her. He held her hand in his
own and brushed her fingers, one by one.’
So why have the television programme makers of Game of
Thrones decided to go with the horrid, sordid side of sex instead of the
detailed scenes of the novel?
Probably because it’s easier, the sex scenes are shorter
and it would take too long to show the viewer that Dany was actually ok and
places Drogo’s hands on her or show that King Robert is not Joffrey’s father
through conversation.
I’d like to think that was the only reason but I have a
feeling that it’s not. The programme
makers could not include these scenes if there wasn’t an audience for it. Are these types of sex scenes really what the
public want? I certainly don’t.
These sex scenes are the easy way out. The scenes in the novel aid in developing the
characters. The reader feels the emotion
and knows exactly what’s going on the character’s mind. It can be difficult to get these across in a
television programme but this is certainly not an excuse to just make it into a
rape scene, or create nakedness when originally there was none. Just because a novel’s characters are complex
should not mean that the complexity cannot be visually translated.
The use of sex as a tool in this fantasy world, the
positions used and the use of prostitution and marriage also tells a lot about
the view and role of women in the world.
In my next post, I will take a brief look at the role of women in Game
of Thrones.
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