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A Re-read with a focus on Melancholy In asoiaf


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I have Great fondness for Melancholy In Literature , and Cinema...so I'v decided in my recent re-read of the 5 books to focus on that Theme. From The Melancholy of Post red wedding chapters (Arya , Sansa , Tyrion) , and The Post Ned's Death Catelyn chapters , To The Melancholy Of Dorne (First and Last chapters In a Feast Of crows especially) , Made it Plain that George Is as good as any Classical Writer In Dipping the reader In the deep Thematic sadness of the human Condition. What are you thoughts on the subject ? what are the most melancholic chapters or characters in the books ?


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  • 2 weeks later...

I'll bite! But may I ask you to "define" Melancholy as it relates to literature in general? This may help encourage more responses. Also, it would be helpful to narrow your scope. Start with AGoT - not the entire series.



Now, add an example from the text with literary commentary to illustrate for the readers what you are looking for in their contributions.



I'll be back when I know what you are looking for in a discussion! :cool4:


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thematic melancholy means to me any piece of writing that conveys a sense of emotional dissolution..i am no literary critic..but i can feel it in the rhythm of the writing. Look at the the style and the rhythm of the tower of joy sequence, the sense of lost in bran's chapters in GoT after he wakes from his Coma...with chapter 24 coming to mind with it's beautifully sad brotherly exchange in the darkness of the room (mirroring the mood of the stark family at the time).



“I am become a sour woman, Catelyn thought. I take no joy in mead nor meat, and song and laughter have become suspicious strangers to me. I am a creature of grief and dust and bitter longings. There is an empty place within me where my heart was once.”-A Clash of Kings , here we see a great exercise in the kind of style i'm referring to , and Cat i think is his Greatest thematic accomplishment.





“Winter is coming, warned the Stark words, and truly it had come to them with a vengeance. But it is high summer for House Lannister. So why am I so bloody cold?” - A Storm of Swords , here we also see that sense of dissolution that GRRM I think writes so well , his prowess in melancholy is only matched by his prowess as a horror writer (see:Reek).
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  • 1 month later...

Hmmmm I am not sure if its the same feeling as when Catelyn feels her losses as quoted above but I find Jaime and Brienne's chapters, after they have returned to KL and then left it separately, very contemplative and yes I think with an underlying melancholy. Jaime and his 'dancing with death' every night as he trains with IIlyn - Even before leaving KL he has started feeling like a ghost - so changed people don't recognise him, and therefore invisible. He gets drunk every night with Ilyn and reviews his past. Both he and Brienne remember bits of the landscape of their lives as they travel across the damaged physical landscape. The scenes with Nimble Dick in the decaying Whispers, his death and burial, is all laden with melancholy.

 

I just had a look at definitions of melancholy. One gloss is 'soberly pensive, thoughtful' which I think fits Catelyn, and the chapters I am talking about.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That's a fascinating subject. I always find it interesting that in the books sometimes snow is associated with melancholic or even nostalgic sentiments. Sansa's snow castle chapter and Jaime's last FFC chapter when winter finally arrives and he reminisces playing in the snow with his siblings are definitely some of my favourite melancholic moments in the books. 

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