Gabriel Chase Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 "you know nothing, Jon Snow". The relentless repetition of this phrase irked me greatly. I suppose GRRM meant it as an 'endearing' thing, perhaps? Nonetheless, I loathed it. Encountering it in the TV series only made me hate it more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzy86 Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 I had to register to say.... for the nonce..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriel Chase Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 I had to register to say.... for the nonce..... Hah! I'd forgotten about that one. Yes. I have actually encountered this phrase once in Shakespeare, but in modern English parlance 'nonce' is 'paedophile', so seeing it over and over again in print does bother me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walda Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Also not a phrase but in GOT when Cersei demands that Robert kill Lady and they have some conversation about her paying for her own furs and she says: "I didn't realize my king was so niggardly..." I fucking hate that word. I know what the author is saying, but it just irritates me so much to see it used. I don't know where GRRM is at, with that. He could partly justify using this term because nygardye was a word they used that way, back then, although the way people actually talked back then is a whole lot less accessible to the modern mind than the novels of GRRM. Where I come from, in the 20th c. it was a word you could use, even with the modern spelling, without intending or being suspected of intending a racial slur. Etymologically, it is derived from the old norse word for 'miser', and only acquired its more dubious modern connotations after its homophone came into use in the late 17th c. Americas, and in places that were not a part of the trans-atlantic slave trade, its meaning was not tainted, to the best of my knowledge. But, back then, (20th c, not 17th c.) I would ask for the cheese whose manufacturing process was invented by E.W. Coon, by its brand name, without intending any offence or supposing anyone would misinterpret my request or my feelings on race. I can remember a friend from America was horrified to see the product, and I had occasionally heard racists use the product to insult/ goad indigenous Australians. People were a lot freer with the racist insults back then, and I never asked a person of colour what they thought about 'nigard' (and now don't have to - however innocent the word actually was before, you can't use it nowadays without being suspected of a desire to shock and/or offend.) So maybe it was offensive in Australia in the last quarter of the 20th century, but was too subtle to attract my attention in a culture so heavy on the casual racism. Nowadays, I would not use either of these words, partly because 'miser' and 'cheese' do a perfectly satisfactory job, and partly because I try not to express myself in the words that blatant racists make a point of preferring, for shock value, and to show their contempt for the ignorance of 'political correctness' and any kind of restriction on the entitlement of bigots to offend. This applies double when I visit the USA, where there is a large community that are known to find it offensive, and it sometimes seems to me the civil war is still not over. There are other old words that would do as well: 'stinting' or 'skinflint' or 'penurious', 'curmudgeonly', 'churlish'. Yes, the modern meaning of 'churl' and 'curmudgeon' has changed from the older ones that made them an exact synonym for 'miser', but if part of the point of using the word is to indicate that these were not modern times, "I had not thought you so churlish" would have done the job. Craster is a churl, and Walder Frey is a brabbling curmudgeon, but GRRM uses 'niggard' in every book, at almost every opportunity, regardless of the psyche or the status of the character, while he associates 'churl' only with 'base', and 'miser' only with mouths (seriously - do a key-word search if you don't believe me). It wouldn't hurt to mix it up a bit. It isn't as if he is a real stickler for medieval authenticity. There is another old word that has undergone the same kind of transformation from common usage to modern obscenity: cunny. In the medieval, this word was applied most commonly to a (dead) rabbit. In GRRM, it only has its more modern meaning. And cock was most frequently used in the medieval to refer to cockerels, for fighting and foodstuff. In aSoIaF, so far the word has been used once in a metaphorical and once in an off-stage cockfight, and once by Olenna as a metaphor for young men. Whenever the gender of a roast chicken is mentioned, it is a hen (Westerosi eat far more female animals than we do, generally). The two times roast cock is on the menu, it ain't chicken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackFyre > BlackFire Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 Thanks for that, I honestly did not know the words origin. I'm sure GRRM wasn't thinking about it's racial connotations, especially here in the good ol' USA, but for me it's a harsh word that I hate seeing. I tend to read out loud in my head (if that makes sense) and I squirm every time that word comes up. Same as fag. I had a friend in college who was British and would say "I'm going outside to kill a fag, wanna come?" The first time he said it I was as stunned as I've ever been in my life. After he explained what it meant I advised him to never say that in the US again. He didn't listen. Spent some time in a special sensitivity training seminar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Snow Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 well as soon as a female tells me she hates Dany like the others were saying I will be proven wrong. I don't hate her and I never skip chapters but I really dislike her and all her arrogance and stupid sayings and the story isn't all about her. What about the other POVs? Are they just pointless filler? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterfellbeyondthewall Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 Nuncle is definitely the worst... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YunoGasai Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 annoying phrases for me: 'your grace' (to Joffrey) 'your grace' to cersei 'sweet' cersei 'not "grace" that style is westerosi. 'his magnificence, his radiance, his worship' gah the 'your vanity' of these people is kawaiizy. most fave phrase: HODOR! (why are these characters addicted in lemon??? lemoncloak...lemony lemony lemon cakes....lemon treesss... :dunno: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirVyvin Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 'Plot armour!' As if a character surviving an ordeal is in some way unrealistic and an affront to their personal enjoyment. In a series as liberal and realistic (in dealing with mortality) as this one, it makes no sense to me to scream bloody murder about a character's story moving forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaaarrgghh Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 Sansa's reports on the doings of her "tummy" tend to annoy me. In the first book, at least she had the common decency to call it her stomach. I don't know if she says it's fluttering or whatever, but it's the fact that she suddenly starts calling it her "tummy" that irritates me a little. It sounds a bit infantile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstream Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 Most annoying for me is when a character screams "Aaaarrgghh" ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walder Frey's PR Man Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 "Dark wings, dark words" Considering most messages are carried by ravens, doesn't this mean all messages are bad?! It makes no sense! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterfellbeyondthewall Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 "Dark wings, dark words" Considering most messages are carried by ravens, doesn't this mean all messages are bad?! It makes no sense! Agreed. Just pointless. Sounds fancy though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaaarrgghh Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Most annoying for me is when a character screams "Aaaarrgghh" ;) Really? I think it's sadly underused. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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