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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Here’s the link to ‘A World Elsewhere’, my first proper ASOIAF fanfic. For all those who are interested in an unholy collision of ASoIaF and the American Civil War in a pseudo-Harry Turtledove manner, your niche is here.

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #fanfiction #a world elsewhere

footnoteinhistory

Happy birthday (Hiram) Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885), Commanding General of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War and 18th President of the United States!

“On April 27, 1822… delivered by a stern-faced, bearded abolitionist, Dr. John Rogers, the plump baby weighed in at ten and three-quarters pounds, with reddish-brown hair and blue-gray eyes.” -Ron Chernow, Grant

“What a man he is! what a history! what an illustration—his life—of the capacities of that American individuality common to us all… He proves how an average western farmer, mechanic, boatman, carried by tides of circumstances, perhaps caprices, into a position of incredible military or civil responsibilities… may steer his way fitly and steadily through them all, carrying the country and himself with credit year after year… Seems to me it transcends Plutarch. How those old Greeks, indeed, would have seized on him! … Nothing heroic, as the authorities put it—and yet the greatest hero. The gods, the destinies, seem to have concentrated upon him.” -Walt Whitman, 1879

#ulysses s grant

greedyforlove

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Working on this has consumed all my free time.

#pride and prejudice #sharpe #crossover #fanfiction #regency era #napoleonic wars #richard sharpe

medeapalatyna

Anyone else find it interesting that grrm can “deconstruct” tropes like the heroes journey and the secret prince etc with non-white characters (and these tropes never involve non white characters in Western fantasy media so it isn’t so much deconstruction as a boring reinforcement of the status quo).

Buuuut when it comes time to deconstructing the whole “evil brown savages” thing he has going with the dothraki he’s incapable of doing it? :) despite the fact that he managed to do it with the free folk? :) Just me? :)

xoxoctic

This has been really grinding my gears recently, so thank you for posting this today, when I can get my thoughts mostly in order. grrm has a truly fascinating track record of “deconstructing” tropes when it comes to brown bodies that really make you go “Hmmmm, do you really want to do that, George?”

Ali Nahdee wrote a piece concerning the Game of Thrones show, which touches on it’s approach to the Dothraki, “You Knew the Price” which is a great firsthand account of an indigenous person’s take of the show’s villainization of Dany and tropes used within the media. To quote on the Dothraki and their culture specifically:

“I remember the disbelief I felt when Jorah Mormont tells her that the Dothraki do not have a word for “thank you.” As if gratitude wouldn’t be at the forefront of any nomadic or indigenous community.”

Nomadic and indigenous communities trade, there is the ritualistic and social importance of gift giving in many of these societies. grrm has stated, the Dothraki are based on “Mongols and Huns, certainly, but also Alans, Sioux, Cheyenne, and various other Amerindian tribes… seasoned with a dash of pure fantasy.“ And this is really part of the problem, he doesn’t understand the societies he’s basing cultures off of in the first place. The language and culture of living Mongolians are being persecuted, today, now, but this isn’t part of the Dothraki. Because it seems that to George they ceased to be people as long as they could be an aesthetic to base a race of brown horse people who run around raping and pillaging off of.

And he’s continuing to perpetuate very harmful stereotypes with his work. As you’ve pointed out he was FINE with subverting the idea that the free folk weren’t white savages, even correcting the use of the term “wildlings” when these people became part of the actual story. But Dany’s been with the Dothraki for how long?? And they’re not even really people. They’re brown bodies to fill space and do what needs to be done to further the story (sometimes), but not really be part of it.

Maybe he is really just ignorant of what he’s written, but I really doubt it at this point. Maybe it’s just implicit bias, but that bias that he may have repeatedly subconsciously written into his story tells a very clear message: sometimes brown people aren’t really people.

**EDITED because I misremembered the subject of the article and had internalized portions above others.

nanso

It’s also deeply offensive that - in addition to mischaracterization and a lack of real research on these communities - that GRRM has lumped these various communities together, as though all nomadic communities are the same. And it’s not like there aren’t people that could give him insight into indigenous communities in the US - literally all he had to do is *pick up the phone and call the tribal historic preservation office* of the dozens of plains bands that he claims to base the Dothraki on. They are literally a phone call away. If I can do it for my job, I’m pretty sure GRRM or one of his many assistants could do it just as easily. Honestly, I’d love to know what precise research GRRM did on plains tribes.

These are living, breathing people whose ancestry and heritage he is essentially staking a [inaccurate and harmfully stereotypical] claim to with his statements re: what he based the Dothraki on - and it’s lazy and racist.

#asoiaf art #grrm critical

jeynearrynofthevale

I personally think the 3 heads of the dragon are Jeyne Heddle, Jeyne Poole, and Jeyne Westerling.

#the grand jeyne conspiracy

wagyubeefs

“the fandom has decided - ” “everyone agrees that - ” “we all know that this is the only right way to - ”

casterllyrocks

asoiaf houses: House Nymeros Martell of Sunspear

House Martell is ancient and noble.

#house martell

medeapalatyna

Sometimes i wonder if actors like Toby Stephens and Golshifteh Farahani and Mads Mikkelsen know about the way they’re carrying the asoiaf fancasting/fan-editing communities on their backs

samwpmarleau

#this is blatant katheryn winnick/henry cavill/toby regbo/deepika padukone erasure

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

So here’s the first chapter of that long-term Pride and Prejudice/Sharpe crossover fic that I’ve been going on about.

#pride and prejudice #sharpe #crossover #fanfiction #regency era #napoleonic wars #richard sharpe

miniangel

can i be honest? i think you’re all very cool and beautiful and capable. i think you deserve so much kindness and love and happiness. i hope it comes back to you tenfold. i think you deserve that.

#THAT'S queuing #me @ my mutuals