I have bitten the bullet this month and jumped on the band wagon following the H.B.O. version of George R. R. Martin's, "Song of Fire and Ice" series of books. So this month I am binge watching the first three seasons on the way to following the Fourth season more-or-less as it broadcasts on H.B.O. I had certain reasons for not wanting to follow the series up to this point. For one, I didn't really want the H.B.O. series informing my mind's eye view of the characters and the locations from the books.

The H.B.O. series also represents a certain level of illiteracy.  A couple of years ago at Convergence I was invited to sit on a panel entitled "Game of Thrones" where fans of Martin's series got together for an hour talking about where they would like to see the series go.  Although there was talk about both the books and the series at one point I made a reference to the "Crowning of the Cart King" scene and was greeted by a room full of mostly blank stares and bewildered comments despite what a pivotal scene this was early in the series. I didn't understand at the time why no one seemed to get the reference.

This month having watched the H.B.O. series I realized that the whole "Cart King" sequence from the books was left out of the H.B.O. series. Though I was talking about Viserys Targaryen's death the room didn't get it because almost no one in that room had actually cracked a book.

For the most part though I am fairly happy with the interpretations from the series, having already formed my own opinions based on Martin's work. So far only the interpretation of the Eyrie as a massive stone eggplant on the Vale rather than the mountain redoubt on the top of the crags Martin describes in the books stands in glaring contrast.

However having started watching the series, it occurs to me there are a number of places where specific actors may have been miscast for certain roles.

Mads Mikkelsen should have been cast as Baelon Greyjoy. No particular offense to the actor they chose for the role, but he just isn't what I pictured for the role. Kind of milktoast for the character. Also Alfie Allen looks kind of like where Mads Mikkelsen's cheekbones went to die. Meaning, seeing the two actors side by side a viewer might infer a family resemblance between the characters. The three actors they have in the series playing Baelon, Theon, and Yara look like what they are, three completely unrelated actors who have nothing in common with each other playing roles where they are supposedly blood relatives. In addition, I know a not inconsiderable contingent of fandom, both female and some of them male, who wouldn't mind being Baelon's Salt Wives under those circumstances.

Also, Loras Tywin, the Knight of Flowers, is supposed to be the fairest, most atttractive male in all of the Kingdoms of Westeros.  So why does the actor playing Lancel Lannister look fairer? In the books he seemed rather non-descript to me. I think the actors should switch roles before its too late.  Oh no, too late!!! I am only about halfway through the second season at this point but know that both Baelon and Lancel are about to become historical footnotes.

Thirdly: Ian MacShane should have been cast as Roose Bolton of the Dread Fort. In the books,as soon as you are made aware of Roose Bolton, the master of the Dreadfort and the Banner Man of the Flayed Man; you feel like you should be hiding the good silverware and the good servants. In the series, the actor playing the character is kind of non-descript. Being so early in the series I am sure I just need to give him a chance to be diabolical. However, had they cast Ian MacShane for the part, Game of Thrones viewers would have known right away; here is a character you should trust to try and flay you the first chance he gets.

That is all for now. Thank you for your consideration.

"Winter's Tale" Take Two and "What's With the Baby in the Nutshell"?

Presently slogging through the center of "Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin for the second time. I say slogging because the center of this book is pretty dense and hard to get through. Helprin introduces, discards, and then introduces again a huge array of secondary characters whose place in the grand scheme of things will only become apparent near the end. Characters like Jesse Honey, a west coast mountaineer that Hardesty Marratta runs into while hopping freight who belongs in a Looney Toons sketch. By the way, Hardesty Marratta is another one of those secondary characters.

I burned through the first third of the novel, with Peter Lake, the Penns, the Short Tails, Athansor and the Baymen. Beautiful, tight and touching reading. I have since gotten deeply bogged down by a center that feels more like filler than a necessary means toward driving the plot. I don't blame Helprin. This book came out at a time when all publishers and editors were driving their authors to print books as fat as could be. I can almost hear his agent whispering in his ear; "Did you see how thick King made "The Stand". Keep going Mark, keep going".

Back to Hardesty who falls in love with the second great beauty in "Winter's Tale". That's right, nearly every single female character introduced in this book is an ethereal beauty, mesmerizing or bewitching, incredibly bright and also enchantingly charming or she will grow into one soon afterwards. This causes all their male counterparts to fall for them completely, obsessively, with almost 'unable to control their body functions' abandon. Just as everyone eventually falls completely in love with the greatest, most beautiful, terrible, enchanting, mesmerizing city in the world; New York City. Yeah, I got it. All roads lead to Rome.

This is why I am proud to present on page 382 Juliet Paradise. God bless you and keep you Juliet. Juliet represents the first female character in Winter's Tale given more than a line or two who will not cause uncontrollable raptures in those who look upon her or speak with her. She is not achingly beautiful like Beverly Penn, Christiana Friebourg, or Virginia Gamely. She does not have great wisdom and the knowledge of an encyclopedia like the elder Mrs. Gamely.  Nor does she have a rooster named Jack.

Instead this is how we are introduced to Juliet. "He had been pursued for a full month by a monstrous unkempt woman from Tribeca, an intellectual who did not know if it were day of night, had never seen the ocean, and thought that a goat was a male sheep. Jaundiced and liver-colored, living only through books, tobacco, and alcohol, she had the face of a bullfrog, the brain of a gnat, and the body of a raccoon."

Which reminds me of a native New Yorker that I had the pleasure to meet. Years ago I was part of singles event group run by a good friend of mine. Somewhere along the way this group attracted the attention of a man of indeterminate age from New York who I will call Carl for no particular reason. Now Carl wasn't having very good luck finding someone in the Twin Cities.

Carl walked hunch shouldered, he was a pale little gnome with a thick accent from one of the boroughs or maybe Jersey, his speech patterns sounded like car horns bouncing off of trash can lids. When he attended events with the singles group he always complained about where we were going, badgered the wait staff, and said rude things about the other people attending the event. Also if we were meeting somewhere for dinner he always got there at least a half hour before everyone else so he could eat his dinner first and complain about being bored while the rest of the people ate and chatted.

It got so bad eventually that when people RSVP'd for an event if they saw Carl was also coming they'd drop out of the event. I never checked the RSVPs and would just call up my friend and ask him what was going on for that night and who was going to be there. Not wanting to be saddled alone with Mr. New York he just wouldn't tell me about Carl. So there were a couple times when it was just me, my friend, and Carl.

One time in particular we went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for their holiday tour. The whole time that the tour guide was guiding us through the period rooms and describing the art, architecture, and holiday traditions of the times, Carl would interrupt her to ask "Who's in that painting?" "Who's in that painting?" All the paintings on the walls had plaques discussing the artist and the subject if that person was known. Carl, however, was not interested in reading the displayed information. He was more interested in interrupting the tour guide every time he walked in a new room and spied another painting.

Finally the tour guide showed us one of the most prized pieces in the MIA collection presented specifically during the holiday tour season. She told us of how a particular European village's people were protected by an American unit and particularly one soldier during World War II. As a thank you, the village presented him with a grand nativity village that was one of the prized possession of the people of the town. Not only was there a nativity creche, there was an entire village of Bethlehem with townspeople, buildings, a well in the center of the town square. The three wise men were attended by a complete camel caravan loaded with supplies and led by bearers and personal servants decked out in the livery of those three kings.

At an estate sale for this veteran one of the buyers with the MIA saw the display and immediately bought it up knowing how rare and valuable it was. In centuries past these were not uncommon nativity displays cared for by all the members of the community. The one that is now in the MIA collection is one of only a handful of these intact villages still in existence. The tour guide gave us a few minutes to look it over in detail.

Then Carl pointed to the figures in the middle of the nativity creche and said "What's with the baby in the nutshell?"

It is in "Winter's Tale" that I may have found the perfect compliment for Carl. It is a shame she lives in the alternate New York of Helprin's imagination.