Oh, man. Oh, man. We can’t believe we missed this one when it first hit the streets. But better late than never.
In the middle of yet another discussion about how women are marginalized in nerd media and why they shouldn’t be, Kotaku links to this absolutely hilarious review of “Game of Thrones” from Ginia Bellafante.
Granted, professional critics having a…less than informed take on specific genres is nothing new, but this actually manages to come off as, well, weird. And sad.
And hilarious.
Some of the best parts under the jump.
Keeping track of the principals alone feels as though it requires the focused memory of someone who can play bridge at a Warren Buffett level of adeptness. In a sense the series, which will span 10 episodes, ought to come with a warning like, “If you can’t count cards, please return to reruns of ‘Sex and the City.’ ”
Wouldn’t “Entourage” be a better example?
Embedded in the narrative is a vague global-warming horror story.
WHAT
The strange temperatures clearly are not the fault of a reliance on inefficient HVAC systems. Given the bizarre climate of the landmass at the center of the bloody disputes — and the series rejects no opportunity to showcase a beheading or to offer a slashed throat close-up — you have to wonder what all the fuss is about.
At this point, you realize she didn’t even bother to read the press materials.
The series claims as one of its executive producers the screenwriter and best-selling author David Benioff, whose excellent script for Spike Lee’s post-9/11 meditation, “25th Hour,” did not suggest a writer with Middle Earth proclivities.
Because, of course, fantasy writers never write straight fiction and vice versa. EVERYBODY STAY IN THEIR LITTLE BOX! SCHNELL!
And, then, of course, there’s this gem:
The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first.
This is sexist in just about every way imaginable. No, really, it actually is worse than it reads at first glance.
First of all, women write a hell of a lot of SF&F: Octavia Butler, Esther Friesener, Anne McCaffrey, Anne Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton, Connie Willis…it’s a really long list. Secondly, women read a lot of fantasy: we don’t have any hard facts, but if there’s not gender parity, it’s probably swinging in the favor of the ladies. Thirdly, Lorrie Moore? Seriously? Not that Moore is a bad writer at all (she isn’t, and in fact if you’re in the mood for some non-fantasy reading, she’s quite good), but she’s the stereotype of what women look for in fiction: sensitive, about “female topics”, etc.
Then again, we can’t really expect Ginnie here to understand that when she closes with this:
If you are not averse to the Dungeons & Dragons aesthetic, the series might be worth the effort. If you are nearly anyone else, you will hunger for HBO to get back to the business of languages for which we already have a dictionary.
And how did that prediction turn out? Take it away, “Parks and Recreation!”
UPDATE: Lothar Of the Hill People, in addition to having an awesome handle, also dug out her responses to the big fat piles of hate mail she got, and manages to completely miss the point of valid criticisms while continuing to condescend to her audience. It’s the delicious comedy salt on this failure pile in a sadness bowl.
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The people who write for the New York Times really do live on another planet from the rest of humanity, don’t they?
No wonder they had to be bailed out by the Mexican cell phone king.
Abe Froman, the Cell Phone King of Mexico?
Did she really just tell women, unless you’re some kind of Brainiac, stick to “Sex In The City”? Why not just tell them to kick off their shoes and waddle their pregnant asses over to the kitchen? I can only imagine what would have been made of this if a man had written it.
Maybe this Cleveland Steamer will motivate you to do research on an assignment you didn’t want, biotch.
its irresponsible journalism of the NYT to choose her to review this show. while i would say that it needn’t necessarily go to a nerd reviewer or fantasy reviewer, the piece should have at least been written by someone who is open minded to the genre or, in fact, sees no genre at all. shows are shows, stories are stories.
@Carl To be fair, this came up because women were profoundly pissed off about it. She didn’t get any sort of free pass due to having a vagina. I just found the review so hilariously tone-deaf I had to weigh in.
The irony is that there is plenty for women (not even feminists) to dislike in Game of Thrones (as well as Martin’s Song of Ice & Fire books, which in most ways are worse than the TV show with its gratuitous T&A), but she throws out all that fertile ground for critique in favor of nyah nyah nyahh nyahh only geeks would like this, and today’s hip & smart women would rather go shoe shopping!
Let’s not make sweeping generalizations based on this one piece about the NYT, though. Especially when arts & entertainment “news” is rarely treated as such by papers like the NYT. Hell, the podunk newspaper I wrote for treated anything dealing with TV, movies, or music as fluff–even when Kurt Cobain killed himself (the A&E editor snuck a joke about hunting season & shotguns into the piece–no way they’d ever even think about doing the same in other sections).
What’s really surprising is that Bellafonte’s piece made it into the print edition, and was given the goofy headline “A Fantasy World of Strange Feuding Kingdoms.” Not that the NYT is known for great headlines, but that has to be the goofiest, most banal way to headline the piece–they might as well have titled it “Generic and Tone-Deaf Review of a Fantasy TV Show” and it would inform and intrigue the reader as much. Playing devil’s advocate, I’d think they should’ve titled it: “A Complicated Mess: New Fantasy TV Series Goes for Skin & Gore to Broaden Appeal.” I’d totally disagree with the piece & the headline, but at least the headline would reflect the writer’s (simplistic and off-base) stance.
Oh hey, look: Bellafante responded to what sounds like a lot of complaints about her piece.
[artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com]
I browsed through the last 7 months or so of her pieces for the NYT, and not a single one held any appeal to me. The titles and glimpses at the subject matter told me all I needed to know: that I wouldn’t enjoy living in Ginia Bellafante’s world, and don’t care to read what she has to say about anything.
Lothar, for finding that, I update the post and tip my hat to you. That just makes this so, so much funnier!
Ah, I remember when this review first came out telling my wife that since she was a mere girl she could no longer enjoy watching GOT. Never have I received such a dismissive eye-roll. Shockingly my two daughters became fans of the show as well. I guess I am a failure as a parent and husband. The utter shame….
BobJ, you are a horrible father. Don’t you know girls are supposed to hate things like character and plot development? IT’S NOT TOO LATE, SHOW THEM SOAP OPERA-oh wait.
@Dan Understood.
@ Lothar I’m just thinking about how Tom Bissell had to write a letter of apology for his (significantly less) tone-deaf joke about women in his Skyrim review on Grantland, and it’s heartfelt and contrite nature [kotaku.com]. Compare and contrast to Bellafante’s comments.
Well, Carl, the important thing to understand here is that Tom Bissell is a decent human being who made a joke, and genuinely feels apologetic for offending people when no offense was sincerely meant, while Ginia Bellafante is a troll.
I’ll be goddamned if the Times gets a pass. Their chief movie critics are A.O. Scott and Manolha Dargis, both of whom are the most pretentiously braindead fucks to ever have their words stain newprint with ink. I read the Times every day because it’s coverage of actual news is still miles above anything else, but once you get past that first section (skipping the op-ed section, which is also the worst thing in the Wall Street Journal) the level of privileged New York elitist bullshit that is tone deaf and dismissive of so much of the world is just sickening.
@Dan: Do I have to turn in my nerd card for letting girls into the club house?
In all seriousness, I wouldn’t say my wife was a particular fan of the fantasy genre, nor my youngest daughter. Both of them enjoy quality story telling though. My oldest daughter is more of a genre fan, but I wouldn’t call her a nerd either (and honestly, I think the lines of those distinctions are becoming more blurred over the years). When I first read Bellafante’s review, I was pretty astonished at its antiquated tone. I’ve been around long enough to know that SF/fantasy genre had long been considered trash (and apparently Salman Rushdie thinks so), I just thought things had lightened up lately. Bellafante’s completely blinkered attitude to the genre probably had her writing her review before she saw a minute of footage. Like Martin says, it’s just elitist bullshit. That she chose to insult half the population of the planet over it boggles the mind.
Speaking as somebody who actually has training in film, Scott and Dargis are actually pretty solid. They’re not exactly the barroom brawlers of film criticism, but they know their film and Dargis in particular will rip a pretentious art film to shreds no matter what the content if it sucks, which is more than I can say about most newspaper critics. That said, they’re not that great with genre movies, although Scott can show surprising awareness of horror movies.
@Martin — I’m totally with you on the NYT and the sections outside regular news; I was just responding to the people who were painting news with the same brush as their (both legitimate and biased) critiques of non-news stuff.
Dan, while I respect you and your opinion, I have yet to read anything Dargis wrote that wasn’t a POS.
I look back at the years I’ve been coming to the various Uproxx blogs with this handle, and I think I should’ve stayed in-character. This would be a perfect time for my Lothar shtick.
I am Lothar, of the Hill People! Far have I traveled, and many midgets have I seen! Stay a while, and we will speak of entertainment critics whose noses are so far in the air they would drown in a drizzle! For I am Lothar, of the Hill People!
Hey, fair enough; criticism is as subjective as movies themselves.
That pretentious little nugget cost me $40,000.
My wife isn’t into the fantasy genre, but she loved GoT and has started reading the books. She is currently reading ASoS. This NYT writer is an idiot.
The line that really got me was one about the book club and the Hobbit, I took a Tolkienism class in college and my female professor would defiantly demand that at least one of J. R. R.’s works be included.