shuke said:
I've mentioned this elsewhere (under other *ahem* names) but I finished teaching book one in a literature class. While the plot is labyrinthine enough to keep people jabbering for 60+ pages on the internet, I was surprised to see some greater themes under closer reading. Such as Martin's anti-authoritarianism.
As best noted by Adorno in
The Authoritarian Personality, authoritarianism is at heart a hatred of difference. Hard core, right wing authoritarian personalities want everyone to be the same, and go about enforcing this with guns and torture, sure, but if they're good at it, they do it culturally by using propaganda and influence to enforce rigid gender roles, sexual coding (such as heteronormativity), and static class hierarchies, such as kings, nobles, and common folk.
And under closer inspection, Martin wove a staunch anti-authoritarianism in his books, especially GOT (book 1). Look at Joffery. He's medieval Hitler, right? The ultimate authoritarian nightmare ruler. He's brutal, demanding, selfish, wants everything and everyone to conform to his ideas, and hates difference with a passion. Look at how obsessive he is about destroying all opposition. He's the one who orders Ned executed (though influenced by Littlefinger). He's wants all opposition wiped out; there can never be any compromise or meeting of terms. And he furthers this by constantly torturing the tangible object of opposition - Sansa, who isn't even an opposition anymore, just a symbol of a lost opponent already destroyed. But Joffery needs to continue demonstrating his power over difference, hence his gleeful torture of Sansa. He's a sadist, sure, but at heart he's getting off on demonstrating his power over difference - over all forms (symbolic or otherwise) of opposition.
His blood itself is a hatred of difference. Genetically speaking, he's the spawn of sameness. His parents are brother and sister. What's the first law of genetics? Spread the gene pool. Difference is genetic power. And Joffery is born of sameness, raised in a virtual incubation tube by his controlling mother, and unleashed on the world. I'm convinced this is why Martin made him the product of incest. The incest serves a plot device, sure, but on a deeper level, it pins Joffery as the ultimate authoritarian nightmare.
(This is also why I'd bet my left nut that Dany will never marry another Targaryen, despite that family's tradition of incest. Also note that tradition could be said to be partly responsible for the whole effing mess of this series - the Mad King and the rebellion his madness incited. As Ser Barristen notes, madness runs in the Targaryen family. Yea. Because that's what happens when brothers and sisters marry generation after generation.)
Also take a look at all the most sympathetic of Martin characters. John Snow - a *******, unwanted, doesn't fit neat class roles, is discarded to the Wall where all the criminals and freaks end up. Tyrion Lannister, midget hated by his own family. Arya Stark, girl rebels constantly against the gender expectations of being a lady (as exemplified by her sister Sansa). Danerys Targaryen, the girl sold to be a sex slave wife, who instead uses sex and love as her power and spits in the face of all conformity to become a general-queen. Brienne Tarth, the manly woman warrior. Most all of Martin's heroes are outcasts, freaks, and in general people who reject sameness on an almost existential level. They are the anti-authoritarians.
/end tl;dr lit-dork essay.
