The internet’s weekly dose of indignant self-righteousness came last week with Ginia Bellafonte’s awesomely out-of-touch review of the new HBO show Game of Thrones, in which she argued, among other things, that GoT has a ton of sex in it as a pandering appeal to the ladies. ‘Cause we like sexing and hate anything else that is awesome, especially dragons. (Maybe she didn’t realize they’re baby dragons? Maternal instinct—ACTIVATE.)
Here’s the money quote:
The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.
Man, it was fun being mad at her for that. (Unsurprisingly, I had a several conversations on the subject at the Stumptown Comics Fest over the weekend. Nerds be pissed.)
Today Bellafonte addressed the criticism on ArtsBeat. I believe her argument boils down to “gimme a break, nerd ladies!”
Writing criticism is completely personal and often impressionistic. I write from a perspective that is my own, not one that seeks to represent a big tent of varying opinion. As I wrote in the review, I realize that there are women who love fantasy, but I don’t know any and that is the truth: I don’t know any. At the same time, I am sure that there are fantasy fans out there who may not know a single person who worships at the altar of quietly hewn domestic novels or celebrates the films of Nicole Holofcener or is engrossed by reruns of “House.”
I like “quietly hewn domestic novels” (although I do NOT like that phrase) and I LOVE Nicole Holofcener films. I’ll be your token nerd-friend, Ginia. Wanna watch a little Doctor Who this weekend? It’s ALMOST as finely wrought as Housekeeping.
I was promised dragons and there’s no dragons till like the sixth book in the series. It’s all bullshit. Your time would be better spent re-reading Richard III.
Nice to hear the ol’ Umbrage Factory is chugging along smoothly, bad economy or no.
Is this the main thing people were whining about at Stumptown? Pretty weak…
Dragons are totally the next ninjas, zombies, or pirates. I will keep saying this until it is true.
(Although I have not read Game of Thrones to my DEEP embarrassment. How can I be a Nerd if I don’t keep up with the reading? Ok, I’m off to multcolib to start the reserving process. Shit, I’m #202 on 26 copies.)
@ROM this was the only thing people were whining to ME about, which, after last year, was totally awesome.
I won’t watch it (I am a woman who loves fantasy novels), it will prevent him from finishing the series. Actually the series is really dirty and I don’t know how they can put it on tv.
Getting this chick to write about Game of Thrones was like sending a vegan to review a ham factory. Which is fine I guess, it’s just that any words beyond “s’not for me” are wasted.
I do like how she seems to think “personal and often impressionistic” is a functional stand-in for “not actually knowing what you happen to be talking about.”