Hyperreality in The Game of Thrones - Essay Example

Hyperreality in “The Game of Thrones” The following essay will include as its main part an analysis of the concept of Hyperreality and most of all its connection with the popular TV-series “The Game of Thrones”. Discussing and observing the main criteria of both the series and the philosophical concept is the main goal of this analysis as well as defining the nature of the mentioned interconnection between the subjects of the research. Context The Game of Thrones is essentially a fantasy program and it was premiered on HBO on April 17, 2001. This program has been renewed for fifth and sixth season. The fifth season has been premiered on April 12, 2015. David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have created it and this program is based on a novel named “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R.R Martin. In the Game of Thrones, different families struggle for the throne of the Seven Kingdom. Theoretical Ideas Hyperreliaty is a post-modernist concept in the philosophy of the late 20th century (Pruitt, 1998). The most significant contribution to this concept was made by its creator and rightful owner French sociologist and writer Jean Baudrillard whose work “Simulacra and Simulation” created the basis and the necessary foundation of the future significant concept (Baudrillard, 1994). The simplest way to show and say what Hyperreality is can be achieved with the following example: Imagine that some kingdom’s government decided to create a most detailed and therefore the best map of the land. Imagine next this map being so detailed and big that it contained map itself as well as all the land which made map’s scale 1:1 (Baudrillard, 1983) Therefore, there appears the similarity and identity between the real land and its representation on the map. Such paradox has first appeared in the literary work by Lewis Carroll “Sylvie and Bruno” (Carroll, 2012) after which it was repeated by Jorge Luis Borges in his “On Exactitude in Science” (Borges, 1975) and finally used by Jean Baudrillard. The seeds of Hyperreaity can be seen in a lot of old and new works of art, most of all literature and cinema. “Matrix” can be mentioned as the one of the most interesting examples. But Matrix is too mainstream to serve as an original example so it better be movie “ExistenZ” by David Cronnenberg or novel “UBIK” by Philip K. Dick in which reality shatters (Dick, 2012). Such artworks show people who live in an illusionary world where their life is simulated and not lived but the fact that they don’t know it makes such illusory life the only one they know about and the only one they have (Eco, 1995). In the sphere of sociology and philosophy such concept has a long history starting from the Plato himself who in his work “Republic” define it in his famous Parable of the Cave (Plato, 2000). A lot of poets like Edgar Allan Poe (“life is just a dream within a dream” (Poe, 2007) and Charles Baudelaire’s (“I take facts for illusions and often as not, with my eyes Fixed confidently upon the heavens, I fall into holes” (Baudelaire 1991) and among the modernists and postmodernists who play with the reality as they wish (Huxley, Beckett, Cortazar). Analysis of the program Realistic on the first view “Game of Thrones” is series that nevertheless has a lot of magic and supernatural aspects. The most interesting detail that will be the core of following analysis is the fact that “Game of Thrones” is at the same time full of dragons and snowmen though it also contains in it typical historical struggle for the power, middle ages’ thematic, knights etc. Fantasy motives similar to the “Lord of the Rings” exist harmonically side by side with realistic to the edge scenes of crime, common everyday life and political strife (Tolkien, 2012). “Game of Thrones” contains real and unreal, perhaps even surreal details which makes it hyperreal and that fact makes some elements of the “Game of Thrones” contain archetypical and historical references to the real and recorded events. Most significant is the fact that fiction series based on the fiction book, not to say both of them are fantasy, became so popular and when observed closely gives viewer a lot of something similar to what he could see in other books some of which are not even fiction but history books. That makes one think that below the surface with the dragons on it (which we saw only couple times for the whole series) and magical attributes lies a fragmentary, hyperreal and full of references historical drama which reminds of real events (Lowder 2014). Such approach most probably is not author’s main idea or most important goal but then why limit the quantity of magical, truly fantasy elements and step into the field of realism with brute fighting scenes, corruption, immoderate sexual lust etc.? (Jacoby 2012) The connection with the concept of the hyperreality which can be adjusted to the series however at the same time does not exclude that such realistic patterns in the “Games” can also be a way to make George Martin’s creation not any less or even more original than its predecessor – “Lord of The Rings” by highly honored Mr. Tolkien. It also can be connected to the increasing symptoms of realism not only on TV but also in the cinema (films like “Raid” and “Drive” show fights in a more original and violent way), comics and even paintings (highly emotional expressionism is somehow violent). But the question of this essay is not realism or reality but hyperreality and therefore hyperreal or better put hyperrealistic tendencies and patterns in the “Game of Thrones”. Tyrion Lannister will be the main part in the chain of connections that will allow me to create a pattern and a hyperreal map of the series. He is a midget and he is smart. That is already a direct reference to the historical and literature events. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance midgets were used as an entertainment which hurt their pride but at the same time gave them some money for the living not to mention that even fools and jesters being normal size were playing buffoons for the money and food (Rosenwein, 1997). Here I will name 3 works of fiction that will allow to connect “Game of Thrones” with the midgets in reality and by so make hyperrealistic portrait of them in the fiction series that tries to look real (Justice, 2004). First one and most famous is the main character of “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” by Victor Hugo. Though Quasimodo is not a midget he is nevertheless strange, ugly and horrible on the outside which makes him serve our cause not to say that people call him monster (Hugo, 1993). Quasimodo loves and dies because of his love. There is even historical evidence that Hugo had a real prototype for his character. Next example is the novel “The Dwarf” by 20th century Norwegian writer and Nobel prize winner Par Lagerkvist. Because the second example is not so popular I will briefly inform you about it. The main character and protagonist of this novel is a midget, dwarf who hates everyone and everybody, he is vain, corrupted with violent and uncompromised hate towards everything living. Giving us this portrait author then at the same time starts to present some character development and shows us that while being bad and horrible on the outside Dwarf is at the same time misantrope or sociopath who tries to cure himself by serving well to his king (Lagerkvist 1967). Novel is very psychological and I don’t want to fall into details so I will just say that reading this novel and watching “Game of Thrones” one can feel a strong resemblance between them which made this aspect of the series look hyperreal for me. I should add here that anything fictional that overcomes its fictionality and effects or reflects reality can be named hyperreal because one of the most important details in the theory of hyperreality is inability to make a difference between them. Lagerkvist’s Dwarf is a smart manipulator, very intelligent, creative and imaginative. Tyrion Lannister is the only good character among the wolves from which his family consists. Well, not Wolves but Lions because almost all Wolves who were good were killed by them. So he is one of Lions despite the fact that he is a midget, a dwarf and therefore not even a complete man. Nevertheless it is still Tyrion who saves the city, helps Sansa Stark and stands individually as a smart egoistic character. The third and last example will be Aldous Huxley’s story “Sir Hercules” from his novel “Crone Yellow”. The main hero is an intelligent and pleasant midget named Hercules who alongside with his wife became offended and violently hurt by his own son of regular size (Huxley 2013). All three this novels and their characters assemble a character of Tyrion Lannister completely. Smart, pleasant, egoistic and a misanthrope who is a prey for his own relatives but himself is the best of them and who is punished for his true love (happens in the series too). Very interesting and may I say hyperreal similarity which creates and completes both real and unreal (because archetypes are so) archetype of a midget and his behaviour. My further attempt will need a strong hand and a leadership of someone to help me. For this purpose I chose Shakespeare. Shakespeare used real events, people and stories which he knew to create his plays. With his effort, experience and knowledge his masterwork became a grand and massive archetype of different things. So to speak government revolts, riots, poisoning, battles and duels, betrayal, spying, political conflicts etc. were all mentioned in a great psychological and emotional way in Shakespeare’s plays (Shakespeare 1765). Nowadays theater is not so popular and decent as it was before and so even Shakespeare is out of sight for a lot of people. But new times don`t mean that people can’t allow something new and should only stick to the old concepts. These concepts without taking into consideration whether it is detective or fantasy, movie or book are the part of the total and panoptic hyperreality. Shakespeare’s tradition echoes in the “Games of Thrones”. His plays were full of real events interpreted in a form of fiction and dressed up with interesting and witty dialogues. “The Game of Thrones” is a modern popular mythology (Lowder, 2014) like superheroes from comics. Modern day myths are not any less real (how myths can, should or can’t be real is an interesting topic of some other composition) than the ancient ones. Myths consist of the connection with reality but this connection appears on the level of subconsciousness. Remembering Karl Jung and Erich Fromm (famous German psychiatrists) it can be stated that our dreams (remember Poe and Borges) as well as our activities reflect mythological and archetypical patterns of the behaviour of our ancestors. SO speaking “Game of Thrones” being nowadays myth (like fanbase of “Star Wars” of “Star Trek” whose love to the franchise is so strong that it can be related to the religiously devoting bigotry) reflects irreal, overreal or hyperreal patterns of the history, literature, art and life itself (Martin 2012). Shakespeare here stands only as a most contrast example. Intrigues, plots, sensual love and heroic quest, original and authentical folklore of “The Game of Thrones” are all just a hyperreal synthesis of what were before. Everything in the series seems original but it follows old middle age jungle laws of the survival of the fittest. The reality in “The Game of Thrones” is similar to the period of neverending civil war in Great Britain or France in which case monsters and wild ones from the other side of the wall can be considered as a metaphorical description of the Muslims and Islamic invasions in the Europe (equal menace for everyone). To conclude this humble ambition to wider the greatness of one of the most interesting and incredibly well written and filmed series it will be stated that the connection of different details in the reality and in the series can and should be analyzed more with a better approach than this which is just a superficial essay on the theme and therefore cannot be called a serious research. Nevertheless author’s mission is complete if the basics of mentioned connection are made which may it be believed is true. At this stage it will be fair to say that hyperreal patterns are present in a lot of details. Some of them were reviewed and analysed which allows to say that hyperreality of “The Game of Thrones” shows itself through the reflecting histrorical and social, real and fictive patterns which surrounded people before. Most simply due to the conclusion of this research “Game of Thrones” can be called with name “popular history” which is similar to the “popular science” of the 20th century which not only provided interesting sci-fi novels but also prepared people for the future and helped to move the progress. List of References Baudelaire, C. (1991) The Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen: Poems. Paris: BOA Editions, Limited Baudrillard, J. (1994) Simulacra and Simulation. Chicago: University of Michigan Press Baudrillard, J (1983) Simulations. Paris: Semiotext(e) Borges, J., L. (1975) A Universal History of Infamy. London: Penguin Books Carroll, L. (2012) Sylvie And Bruno Concluded (Illustrated & Annotated Edition). Hamburg: Jazzybee Verlag Dick, P., K. (2012) UBIK. New York : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Eco, U. (1995) Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality. Rome: Minerva Hugo, V. (1993) The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. London: Wordsworth Editions Huxley, O. (2013) Crome Yellow. London: Lulu Press Jacoby, H. (2012) Game of Thrones and Philosophy: Logic Cuts Deeper Than Swords. Chicago: John Wiley & Sons Justice, A., N. (2004) Pop Art: A Case for Hyperreality and Revised Semiotics. Richmond: Virginia Commonwealth University Lagerkvist, P. (1967) The Dwarf. London: Chatto & Windus Lowder, J. (2014) Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, From A Game of Thrones to A Dance with Drago. New York: BenBella Books Martin, G. (2012) A Game of Thrones: The Story Continues Books 1-5: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire). London: HarperCollins UK Plato (2000) The Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Poe, E., A. (2007) Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Chicago: Simon and Schuster Pruitt, C. (1998) Hyperreality Bites: The Lost Point of Reference in America. Philadelphia: Co & Co Publishing Rosenwein, B. (1997) A Short History of the Middle Ages. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Shakespeare, W. (1765) The Plays of William Shakespeare in Eight Volumes. London: J. and R. Tonson Tolkien, J. (2012) The Lord of the Rings. Edinburgh: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Read More