The Abject In A Song Of Ice And Fire And Game Of Thrones.

The Abject in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones.

The abject status of Tyrion Lannister in his relationship with his father and sister (Cersei and Tywin).

His physical appearance is frequently used by his family to belittle and humiliate him. Tywin, in particular, is disdainful of Tyrion's physical disability and sees him as a stain on the Lannister family's reputation and his own personal curse.  He blames him for the death of his mother in childbirth, even though Tyrion is the only one that is completely blameless.  He did not ask to be brought into the world.  In one scene in A Clash of Kings, Tywin tells Tyrion, "You are an ill-made, spiteful little creature full of envy, lust, and low cunning." This shows how Tyrion's abject status is linked to his physical deformity, as well as his position within the Lannister family.

Cersei also uses Tyrion's abject status to undermine him, portraying him as weak and powerless. In A Storm of Swords, Cersei says of Tyrion, "He is a dwarf, a stunted twisted little monkey who's no fit consort for a queen." Cersei's use of animalistic language here further emphasizes Tyrion's abject status, as she portrays him as subhuman and less than fully human by representing him as a monkey.  This is similar to her father’s treatment of Tyrion in calling him a “creature.”  

Despite his family's efforts to marginalize and exclude him, Tyrion is a character who refuses to be defined by his abject status. He is highly intelligent and resourceful, and often uses his wit and cunning to outmaneuver his enemies. In A Clash of Kings, and on the show Game of Thrones in the Battle of the Blackwater, for example, he manages to repel an attack on King's Landing by using a hidden cache of wildfire to destroy a large portion of Stannis Baratheon's fleet.

By representing Tyrion as abject, Martin is able to highlight the often cruel and arbitrary nature of social hierarchies. Tyrion's exclusion from society is not based on anything he has done, but rather on factors outside of his control, such as his physical appearance and his family background. This serves as a critique of the unjust nature of social systems and the way in which they marginalize and exclude certain groups of people.

By portraying Tyrion as both abject and heroic, Martin is able to challenge the dominant narratives of heroism and villainy in fantasy literature. Instead of being a typical hero who embodies strength and perfection, Tyrion is a flawed and vulnerable character who is forced to navigate a hostile world in order to survive. Through his character, Martin is able to explore the complexities of power, politics, and identity, and to challenge readers' assumptions about what it means to be a hero or a villain.

Further Reading:

Young, J. R. (2021). Useful little men: George R. R. Martin's dwarfs as grotesque realists. Mythlore, 39(137), 77-95,77A

Felluga, D. (2011) "Modules on Kristeva: On the Abject." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory.  Purdue U.

This may start wars.  I am afraid to answer.  

Okay here’s an ask game

Send me a ship and I’ll answer three questions based on if I ship it or not.

Ship It

What made you ship it?

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Don’t Ship It

Why don’t you ship it?

What would have made you like it?

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

I feel better about posting my chapters late now. I was “writing.” 

The first two years of writing a story is just Thinking™️

Calling him stupid is a far stretch.  I have not yet encountered this. 

About your Tyrion post, Sansa fans and some others like to say that Tyrion is not as smart as he thinks he is. I've argued with a Cersei fan who claimed Cersei was smarter than him. I think they are insecure about their faves. Oh but when Tyrion compliments Sansa's habilities then it's fine to say he's clever.

No matter how much one hates Tyrion, saying that he is stupid - especially the book version - is just plain nonsensical. I have no time for even addressing this nonsense. The rebuttal is just cutting and pasting Tyrion's entire ACoK arc lol. He's canonically the smartest POV character we have in the books.

And with regards to Sansa, while listening to the ACoK audiobooks I realized that the only chapter where Sansa possibly actually learns something is with Tyrion, when he explains the battle strategies of Robb’s victory at Oxcross to her.

We keep hearing about Sansa having a political arc while being a hostage in King’s Landing. And I just don’t get this in ACoK. There are so many Tyrion chapters one after the other that involves heavy politicking and then we shift to a Sansa POV where she is getting fooled into believing Dontos because Florian and Jonquil is a thing in the songs. Even Cersei is making decisions and being a leader, but again, a lot of those discussions is happening with Tyrion. 

If GRRM had given Sansa more chapters hanging around Tyrion, watching him do politicking, then one could possibly surmise that he intends for her to be a political leader like him. However, apart from that little conversation in that one chapter we don't get similar convesations between the two in ACoK/ASoS

In my head, this is how relieved Sansa was to be free of Joffrey.  

I was watching television and the Neutrogena commercial came on with the tag line “For people with skin,” and I thought they did my dude Uncle Frank dirty. LOL  

Apparently I am silly.