This thread is sort of a belated counter-thread to** this backfired pit gem.**
From that OP:
My purpose in this thread isn’t to argue the GoT spoiler rules. Those have been hashed out extensively over the years. Any reference I make to them is only for context.
Short version: In the episode discussion threads of the Game of Thrones show, there would be arguments over what did and didn’t constitute a spoiler from the books. There were a lot of people who were somehow gravely offended at the very idea that anyone admonish them for posting what they thought was a spoiler, and they were going to be complete dickbags and give these non-spoiler wimps their medicine by ruining the episode discussion threads. DrDeth was one of those dickbags. In particular, he kept harping on the “if you didn’t read this particular series of fantasy books, you are stupid and illiterate, and I’m offended you exist, let alone you’re allowed to have a place where you can discuss things without me shitting all over it”
Because the threads were about 60% fighting and 40% discussion, we decided on a hard split between show-only threads and threads in which the show could be discussed alongside the books. The new system improved discussion dramatically, but it still apparently gravely offends him that some illiterate retarded people have the gall to have a place to discuss it. To his credit, he stopped shitting in the actual discussion threads, but he still raises the issue in other places. (A recent ATMB thread makes for his 5th year of instigating fights over it)
Part of that is that he created the thread I linked to above as a rant against my “crusade against knowledge”. You see, knowing what’s going to happen in a story is knowledge. DrDeth is apparently very proud of having this knowledge. And on a board dedicated to fighting ignorance, why, it’s absurd that anyone would hold back knowledge! So if this board existed in 1980, obviously it would be his duty to go around posting “Vader is Luke’s father!” after the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back, because he would be doing his part to eradicate ignorance and spread knowledge.
Anyway, I noticed that he’s still fucking at it
Here’s the thing, DrDickbag, I actually can read. It isn’t a helper monkey that’s writing out this post. Not only that, but I actually read books. Good ones. Often important, intellectually stimulating ones. I’m not particularly interested in fantasy books. They’re usually pretty weak, poorly written, and not terribly enriching.
Oh, but you watch the Game of Thrones show, so how could you possibly not read the books except for stupidity and an inability or unwillingness to read books!?
Because stories can have different merits told in different mediums (in addition to differing time requirements) - I’ll probably watch Avengers 2, but fuck if I’m going to dig up all of the comic books - sorry, graphic novels - that would give me backstory and tell me the whole story. There are dozens or even hundreds of movies or TV shows that I would be interested in watching, but not reading novelizations of them or their source novels.
I actually have read a book and a half of the song of fire and ice series. I’m working my way through them very slowly, when I occasionally decide to take a break from another book, when I’m in the mood, because they’re simply not that compelling. They’re okay. They’re probably in like, the 60th percentile of published novels in terms of quality. There are probably hundreds of thousands or perhaps even millions of novels that are better.
Not so with the TV show. The TV show is the best show on TV currently and among the best shows ever made. They’re doing an expert job of telling that story through the medium. So if I’m in the mood for a good TV show, there are very few places that I can go that are better than Game of Thrones. But if I’m in the mood for a novel, there could be millions of better places for my attention than A Song of Fire and Ice.
That’s assuming I want a novel when I read. Often times I do not. Often times I want to learn about the world or try to enlighten myself with a different perspective or other things you can do through the magic of books. (Reading raaaiiinnbowwwww)
That’s the thing - you hold up reading a fucking series of fantasy books as if it were the epitome of intellectual pursuit. You think you’re so fucking brilliant that you read some fantasy books that millions of other people have read. Big fucking deal. Maybe I could be a condescending dickbag and say you should read an interesting work on philosophy or neurology or cosmology or something enlightening instead of spending your valuable reading time on fantasy novels. Ever think of that, oh great master of the written word?
But no, you’re a fucking intellectual giant because you knew what would happen to some fucking fictional characters before other people did, and everyone who didn’t is a fucking illiterate moron. Better make sure they know it. And better presume that if they haven’t read a fucking series of fantasy books, that they don’t read at all, because that’s a safe bet, right?
You’re a fucking moron that’s usually a shitstain on whatever thread you choose to participate in. The next time you post something that actually makes someone think, or changes their perspective on the world, or adds anything at all to a discussion will be the first. I can tell from your participation in other threads on the board that “hey, I read a book that some other people didn’t, that makes me smart!” is probably the top accomplishment of your intellectual prowess. I can see why you treasure it so. Better fucking harp on that shit until the cows come home.
I wonder if I should even inform him that this thread exists. When he pitted me, he didn’t mention it in any thread and didn’t PM me. He actually had the nerve at one point to ask “where is that cowardly rascal?”, implying that I was too afraid to show up in a thread that he neglected to inform me existed. Ironically, when I did show up and start to kick his retarded face in, he disappeared from the thread completely, and the whole thing backfired on him massively. After calling me a coward for not showing up to a thread I didn’t know existed, when I arrived to challenge him, he slinked away and hid and hoped the thread went away. Really, if you like pit backfires, that’s some premium stuff.
And this is sort of besides the point, but I’m not sure the books are actually better than the show. They contain more information, sure. That’s the nature of having 1000 pages vs 10 hours of screen time. But so far (1.5 books in), the show is about as good an adaptation as you could practically have. Most of the changes they made made sense given the medium or even improved the story. Some of the added scenes fit thematically and added to the story. And there are areas in which the show is superior - most of the characters are expertly acted in a way that breathes life into the characters that the book sometimes lacks. The prime example is that show Cersei is a lot more interesting then book Cersei, but most of the characters on the show are more well defined than in the books.
In fact, I think it’s probably better to watch the show first and then read the books - the actors inhabit their characters so well that you see them in your mind’s eye when you read the books, and the books are improved by it. The show also gives you imagery for the world, which the books are actually fairly skimpy on. I think GRRM often spends more time describing a stew someone is making than he does the location of a major scene.
Anyway, in summary, DrDeth can’t fucking shut up about how much smarter he is than people who haven’t read a book he’s read because that is the only time he has (in his view) an intellectual edge over someone else. Because knowing how a fictional story goes is knowledge, and when you’re as short on it as he is, you desperately cling to any of it that you manage to get.
