Memo #5
Memo #5—A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones
Date: May 11, 2015
To: Ongoing Readers of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones
From: Noah Johnson, Current Reader of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones
Subject: Carnivorous Marvelous Monsters Reside Within My Book
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To all ongoing readers of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones, Memo #5 is meant to serve as a marveling of dragons.
Details of my current state of reading follow: Page 632. Day 42 of reading this first book in A Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire. As I am fully involved now, no turning back, no putting this book down, a whopping 632 pages in, and the stories keep coming. Since my last entry, just over ten days ago, numerous pages have been whipped backward with a single motion of a hand, again and again. I’m rapidly moving through this book, hoping to reach the second soon, anticipation is huge now. Only free time and the existence of other obligations I like to call “daily life at CCS” will dictate whether or not I will finish soon.
For the focus of Memo #5, Daenerys will be key, so all future readers of A Song of Ice and Fire, as well as my blog notes, please pay attention. In the last large chunk of my reading, I experienced a very important chapter on Daenerys, and some of the best imagery of the book is described throughout. So, please stop and digest it all well in your future reading; please pay attention to the intensity; and please find yourself in a time of dragons. As you will know by this time, Daenerys has the blood of dragons in her, so she naturally possesses this all the time. However, now dragons begin to appear in her dreams. Drawing specific attention to Page 627, Daenerys dreams about her life and her dragons.
For Memo #5, there is one smaller passage in this section that I will focus on: “You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you? Ser Jorah’s face was drawn and sorrowful. Rhaegar was the last dragon, he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smoldered red as coals. One moment he was there and the next he was fading, his flesh colorless, less substantial than the wind. The last dragon, he whispered, thin as a wisp, and he was gone. She felt the dark behind her, and the red door seemed farther away than ever. You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?”
At this point in Daenerys’s journey with her dragon eggs, it is clear that she is constantly contemplating the idea of hatching the eggs and raising her dragons. This passage is intriguing for many reasons. For one, the imagery is undeniably spectacular, as readers can see, smell, and feel the heat from the smoldering coals, shield their eyes from the shining brazier, and imagine the wisp of a last dragon. Another reason this passage is so intriguing is the connection made between Daenerys and herself as a dragon.
As I end this Memo #5, please understand and immerse deeply into this connection—that Daenerys, indeed, wants to wake the dragon. Yes, she wants to awaken the actual dragons, but Daenerys Stormbourne also desires to awaken the dragon within herself...The one that lives within her blood and flies within her silver hair.
Read on, and find yourself in a time of dragons. Memo #6 to follow at some point in time, perhaps. Graduation Day approaches...
—Noah J.