I was on a walk, for some reason narrating my own marriage as though I were Martin, when I realized Martin doesn't really do romantic love. He does filial piety, he does narcissism, he does lust, but he doesn't really do romantic love. At least not that I've seen through the TV show and my skimming of the books. Here's what I've seen:
Ned, the emotional peak and core, is in an arranged and initially cold marriage; they grow a respectable bond, but it's brutally severed on both ends. Not a romance you'd write home about.
Jon and Dany are the second tier of heroes, and lucky for us, they're romantically involved -- but alas! she's his aunt, and he murders her. Not a storybook romance.
Jaime and Cersei are a preeminent romance, but -- here we are again -- they're incestuous and murderous. Hardly Disney fodder.
Arya and Gendry are far too brief, and doomed by her nature anyway, and possibly not canonical by Martin. Doesn't count.
Tyrion and Shae may genuinely love each other, but she's his half-prostitue half-slave, and alas! he murders her. Why does Martin hate love?
Robb and his wife (I can't remember her name) are the best Nicholas Sparks story so far, at first, but they're founded on betrayal, and thereby they too collapse. If the best romance you write ends in the Red Wedding, you aren't a writer of romance.
Martin is very sensual, so he needs to flirt with romantic love, but I think we can see that it isn't his forte. Typically it collapses simply into sex or violence -- he can't sustain its subtle buoyancy, or he doesn't believe his world supports that. I think that if our world supports it, then his does, thus it just isn't his forte. He's better with love of nation, love of honor, and, above all else, love of ego.
No comments:
Post a Comment