Further to my last post on the religions of Game of Thrones, I spotted a couple of academic takes on the world Martin has shown us. I’ve decided to collate them here as they are very interesting:
So, again, there’s my take on the genealogy of religions I think Martin is tracing for us:
“All men must die, but we are not men” – Daenerys Targeryen. Thoughts on a Game of Thrones and Religion
The there is Peter Antonioni’s view of the technological development (or not) of Westeros, here:
Game of Thrones: Why Hasn’t Westeros had an Industrial Revolution?
Dr Antonioni is Senior Teaching Fellow and resident non-linear thinker in the department of Management Science.
I would like to ask Dr Antonioni whether the lack of a Protestant Ethic in Westoros could be one reason for this lack of development, but that’s because I’m a Weber-head 😛
Finally, and from a field I know NOTHING about, some Stanford boffins have considered the geology of Westeros and the surrounding countries:
Game of Thrones Geology
As a colleague and friend of mine, Dr David Robertson, has pointed out, there is a fictional precedent for a project of imagination like this. He cites Jorge Luis Borges’ short story, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” where there is a conspiracy by intellectuals to imagine, and therefore create, a fictional world. Here are some more details from the Oracle, Wikipedia.
Now, I’m not suggesting a conspiracy to bring Westeros into reality like some kind of tulpa, (although there are some parts of it I would like to visit on my Hols.), but I think a book bringing together these serious academics considering Game of Thrones seriously might be a lot of fun 🙂
Professor Beth Singler 