Episode 216: Game of Thrones' Fantasy Politics
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2019
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Discussing the TV show (2011-2019) based on the books by George R.R. Martin.
What's the role of a mass-consumed fantasy series in today's society? Is it our "fantasy" to have all these horrible things happen to us? Is this an edifying prompt to engage in public moral thinking, or a spectacular distraction of the kind that those Marxist theorists keep warning us about?
We get into the function of fantasy and how a more "realistic" show plays with that, the extent to which we're supposed to identify with the characters, depiction of moral complexity, low art vs. high art, identity issues, and more. With guest Sabrina Weiss.
End song: "Fire and Blood" by Sacrifice Feat. Mark Lint; hear the interview on Nakedly Examined Music #24.
Don't miss the Citizen-only spoiler-filled follow-up discussion between Mark and Wes.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the partially examined life of podcasts by some guys who have one |
| 0:10.6 | point set on doing philosophy for living with them thought better of it. |
| 0:13.8 | Our question for episode 216 is something like what can fiction tell us about statesmanship? |
| 0:19.2 | Or perhaps what role do mass-consuming fantasy TV shows have in society and we're talking |
| 0:23.3 | about the TV series Game of Thrones as aired from 2011 through 2019? |
| 0:27.2 | More information about this podcast please visit partially examined life.com. |
| 0:31.6 | This is Mark Linson-Mayer, the least buff actor to play the role of the mountain, talking |
| 0:36.3 | to you from beyond the wall in Madison, Wisconsin. |
| 0:38.8 | This is Wes L.I. with a stack of stolen books in Old Town. |
| 0:44.2 | And this is Sabrina Weiss, the sand snake from Dorne, the land of heat and spice. |
| 0:48.7 | Alright, so this is not a normal philosophy topic, but we wanted to do something super timely. |
| 0:55.7 | We've all been catching up on this. Seth does not know anything about the show, did not |
| 0:59.4 | want to participate Dylan is in Italy. |
| 1:01.8 | So our ringer today Sabrina, you are on episode 37 on John Locke, so long ago. |
| 1:06.7 | Wow, when you guys were just getting started, I'm glad to see you guys are doing so well now. |
| 1:10.8 | And you've gotten your PhD, right, since we talked to you last. |
| 1:14.1 | Yes, I did. |
| 1:15.1 | That was in science and technology studies and I came out to Arizona, worked on a research |
| 1:21.2 | project for a while and decided I wanted to get back into teaching. |
| 1:24.8 | Currently I'm teaching for a gifted online students with a GHF. |
| 1:29.9 | Excellent. |
| 1:30.9 | Yeah, I looked at old previous guests that we had and tried to see who was likely to be |
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