When a writer begins a blog post with, "I usually make it a policy not to comment on reviews, especially negative reviewers," as George RR Martin did yesterday, you know what follows will be delicious.
First, I'll get some links out of the way so you can do background reading if you like. The New York Times review in question is available here: the review that started it all.
tor.com's response
the writer's response
more drama via Google for your viewing pleasure
Ginia Bellafante has written a textbook example of the oft-heard claim that some reviewers and critics simply hate genre fiction. Thus, I present to you my review of her review, execpt I'm actually going to refer to specific points in the material I'm criticizing.
Her review is best summarized as a dismissal of A Game of Thrones as "boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half," here referring to women. Boy fiction, huh? Clearly, she has not read the source material, and she is unfamiliar with the fantasy audience, much of which is female. I wouldn't have been surprised had she gone on in the very next sentence to denounce romance as nothing but bodice-rippers. It's the same sort of nonsense we genre writers have had to put up with since, well, about as long as the notion of genre fiction has been around.
Ms Bellafante wastes no time in drawing attention to her own short-term memory and attention span. Early in the review, she writes that, in her opinion, "[keeping] track of the principals alone feels as though it requires the focused memory of someone who can play bridge at a Warren Buffett level of adeptness." I don't think it's reasonable or appropriate for her to project her own shortcomings onto the viewership at large, but that's her prerogative.
She goes on to baselessly impose the modern global-warming/climate-change debate on a story that was first written twenty years ago. Ms Bellafante writes, "Embedded in the narrative is a vague global-warming horror story." Apparently, she has never heard of the Fimbulwintr of Norse myth, or the many other examples in ancient religions that are antecedent to the idea.
Her first truly offensive statement comes with a knock on little people by equating them with the dwarves of fantasy. She writes, "We are in the universe of dwarfs, [...]" No, Ms Bellafante, we are not. She never mentions the name of the character she's referring to, who happens to be Tyrion, but he is not a dwarf in the mythological or Tolkienien sense. He's a dwarf in the little-person sense, and we have plenty of those in the real world, thank you very much. I'm sure they appreciate your disdain.
She asks, "What is “Game of Thrones” doing on HBO?" I don't know, Ms Bellafante. Probably the same thing True Blood is doing there: earning money for the network, like any other show.
She proceeds to question why someone of Mr Benioff's caliber would deign to participate in the production of a fantasy television show. To her credit, she notes that he "fell in love" with the story and actively sought to involve himself. Clearly, he saw something in the source material that Ms Bellafante did not, yet it doesn't seem to have occurred to her that her own view may not reflect the audience's.
One of the comedic highlights of the review is her denigration of the incest plot point, which she describes as "sibling intimacy [...] hardly confined to emotional exchange." Later, she lauds the Rome HBO series, which I agree was quite good. However, she has obviously forgotten that brother-sister incest was a plot point in that show, too. Whoops. That has to be embarrassing.
Another show she considers an example of HBO at its "most intelligent and dazzling" is The Sopranos. Because that was such an excellent portrayal of "real-world sociology," right? Why, it might as well have been a documentary. And it certainly can't be described as a show centered around the "notions that war is ugly, families are insidious and power is hot."
By far the most offensive paragraph is the one in which Ms Bellafante suggests that the sex "has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise." My reaction has been better expressed in some of the links provided above, but let it suffice to say that there are a lot of women upset about that and related statements.
All of that said, I can only conclude Ms Bellafante was not serious and has instead carefully crafted a troll review designed to violate not just logic but also as many standards of good taste as possible. By the way, I searched teh intrawebz for a photo of her, and here's what I came up with:
First, I'll get some links out of the way so you can do background reading if you like. The New York Times review in question is available here: the review that started it all.
tor.com's response
the writer's response
more drama via Google for your viewing pleasure
Ginia Bellafante has written a textbook example of the oft-heard claim that some reviewers and critics simply hate genre fiction. Thus, I present to you my review of her review, execpt I'm actually going to refer to specific points in the material I'm criticizing.
Her review is best summarized as a dismissal of A Game of Thrones as "boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half," here referring to women. Boy fiction, huh? Clearly, she has not read the source material, and she is unfamiliar with the fantasy audience, much of which is female. I wouldn't have been surprised had she gone on in the very next sentence to denounce romance as nothing but bodice-rippers. It's the same sort of nonsense we genre writers have had to put up with since, well, about as long as the notion of genre fiction has been around.
Ms Bellafante wastes no time in drawing attention to her own short-term memory and attention span. Early in the review, she writes that, in her opinion, "[keeping] track of the principals alone feels as though it requires the focused memory of someone who can play bridge at a Warren Buffett level of adeptness." I don't think it's reasonable or appropriate for her to project her own shortcomings onto the viewership at large, but that's her prerogative.
She goes on to baselessly impose the modern global-warming/climate-change debate on a story that was first written twenty years ago. Ms Bellafante writes, "Embedded in the narrative is a vague global-warming horror story." Apparently, she has never heard of the Fimbulwintr of Norse myth, or the many other examples in ancient religions that are antecedent to the idea.
Her first truly offensive statement comes with a knock on little people by equating them with the dwarves of fantasy. She writes, "We are in the universe of dwarfs, [...]" No, Ms Bellafante, we are not. She never mentions the name of the character she's referring to, who happens to be Tyrion, but he is not a dwarf in the mythological or Tolkienien sense. He's a dwarf in the little-person sense, and we have plenty of those in the real world, thank you very much. I'm sure they appreciate your disdain.
She asks, "What is “Game of Thrones” doing on HBO?" I don't know, Ms Bellafante. Probably the same thing True Blood is doing there: earning money for the network, like any other show.
She proceeds to question why someone of Mr Benioff's caliber would deign to participate in the production of a fantasy television show. To her credit, she notes that he "fell in love" with the story and actively sought to involve himself. Clearly, he saw something in the source material that Ms Bellafante did not, yet it doesn't seem to have occurred to her that her own view may not reflect the audience's.
One of the comedic highlights of the review is her denigration of the incest plot point, which she describes as "sibling intimacy [...] hardly confined to emotional exchange." Later, she lauds the Rome HBO series, which I agree was quite good. However, she has obviously forgotten that brother-sister incest was a plot point in that show, too. Whoops. That has to be embarrassing.
Another show she considers an example of HBO at its "most intelligent and dazzling" is The Sopranos. Because that was such an excellent portrayal of "real-world sociology," right? Why, it might as well have been a documentary. And it certainly can't be described as a show centered around the "notions that war is ugly, families are insidious and power is hot."
By far the most offensive paragraph is the one in which Ms Bellafante suggests that the sex "has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise." My reaction has been better expressed in some of the links provided above, but let it suffice to say that there are a lot of women upset about that and related statements.
All of that said, I can only conclude Ms Bellafante was not serious and has instead carefully crafted a troll review designed to violate not just logic but also as many standards of good taste as possible. By the way, I searched teh intrawebz for a photo of her, and here's what I came up with:
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