Catching-up
Wow! Well I'm through the sequence where Arya humiliates Joffrey, then her "trial" before King Robert and the slaying of Lady, Sansa's wolf (not to mention the ill-starred "Butcher's boy"). Also, the attempt on Bran's life, and Bran's flight-dream as he comes out of his coma. All this is quite an amazing tapestry-like weaving together. Now I'm in the midst of the chapter wherein Catelyn and Ser Rodrik hasten by boat to the King's digs to ascertain the provenance of the knife that had been used in the attempted murder of Bran. Things seem to be heating up, do they not? Nate, I hope I'm not spoiling anything for you, but I think you're probably still ahead of me, no?
Update
News of my fellow-blogger Nate, whom we all feared had wandered too far north of the Wall or something: seems he's needing to get a library-card, with which he can use a library computer, and thus return to posting here. Nate, I found out yesterday, has been outpacing me in his reading, so I will have to do some catching up. Thanks to all the recent commenters. It's cool to have these other voices joining in the conversation.
The P.O.V. Issue
Allright, I had better keep this blog going, now that we're getting noticed by the good folks at
Tower of the Hand. I want to say something about the the p.o.v. issue. I've read comments here and there from people who were confused by Martin's constant changing of narrative perpsective. To me it seems quite natural and wonderfully dramatic. It's impact is to give the sense of a web-like intricacy of motives and intentions.
Easily as stunning, though, is the fact that the story is largely moved forward by dialogue. Most of the sheer informational bulk of the novel is transmitted to us via dialogue, as opposed to narration. I think that's really neat.
BTW, Nate, I'm up to page 118, having just read the dialogue between Robert and Eddard on horseback. We find out nothing particularly new here (heck, we already knew Jaime was a murderous calculating immoral untrustworthy conspiratorial creepy ambitious slimeball), but we do get a sense of the immensely flawed nature of King Robert. The man is like a great rock teetering at the edge of a precipice. His fall will be great indeed.
Tyrion
Okay, I took a week off from the book after Bran had his little fall. I came back then to Stark's castle with 4 days having passed, Bran clinging to life, and Bran's dire wolf howling incessantly, as author Martin takes us "behind the eyes" of one who is looking like the most interesting character yet--Tyrion Lannister.
In a book of memorable lines, my favorite so far has to be this one (p. 86):
"Something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack."
It occurs to me that I've never heard a wolf howl. Probably a good thing.
