Waiting for Winds of Winter or Waiting for Godot #YouPrefer
A thread 🧵about GRR Martin's yet-to-be-completed A Song of Ice and Fire
A Game of Thrones - the first book in GRR Martin’s epic saga A song of Ice and Fire - came out in August 1996.
@GRRMspeaking originally planned this as a trilogy, but the scope of the work forced him to expand it to a 7 book series. The last two books are yet to be published.
The series was a reaction to Tolkien inspired fantasy tropes.
Martin wanted to ask “was Aragorn a good king? What were his tax laws like? Does a good warrior make a good king?”
Here is the original letter that GRRM wrote to the publisher outlining the series
PC- @Waterstones
While the books and the hit HBO show have a ridiculous following. The series is particularly (in)famous for fan theories. Some of the fan theories are, well, ummm, I.N.S.A.N.E
Exhibit 1) All the Brandon Stark’s or as the redditor observant_hobo calls it “All-Bran Serial” theory.
This is based on one of the several stories that Old Nan tells Brandon Stark: reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comme…
Exhibit 2) Jojen Paste Theory: This is about Jojen Reed who unfortunately occupies a minor place in the shows, but is fairly important in the books. This theory involves blood sacrifice, a paste that Brandon Stark consumes and more!
Exhibit 3) Lord Varys is a mermaid. Yes you read that right. We cannot even explain this so please read wikiofthrones.com/6568/game-of-t…
Exhibit 4) The Bolt-On Theory ie. Roose Bolton is an immortal skin shifting vampire! The crux of the theory is that the Boltons are vampire Lords and that there has only been one Bolton patriarch.
One of the primary reasons cited is the frequent leeching that Roose Bolton undergoes in the books to remove bad blood. #ok But if this floats your boat this reddit thread indulges in paralysis by analysis! reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comme…
For many such fan theories and some amazing discussions head over to reddit.com/r/pureasoiaf where ONLY the books are discussed and reddit.com/r/asoiaf where the books, the show, and everything in between are discussed.
While a lot of ink/youtube snark has been directed towards GRRM for not finishing A song of Ice and Fire.
We would like to point you to @neilhimself’s immortal words “George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.”
Finally, the entire series has spawned an industry of nerd-related collectibles & spin-offs: coins, limited edition books, maps, signed original art, art prints, video games, board games, calendar, cookbooks etc all set in the world of ASOIAF.
Warning: DON'T CHECK THE PRICES
Here is a peek into the @SubPress signed limited edition (limited to 500 copies) of A Game of Thrones that we are EXCITED to own.
You can say, we put this 🧵only to show these off.
Some of the content in these were based on discussions with Satyajit Chetri. Do read his blogpost on his favourite unfinished book series.
A trip from Mysore to Bangalore is simply incomplete without indulging in the mouthwatering Maddur Vada in Maddur.
In 1938, the town of Shivapura in Maddur proudly hoisted the Indian national flag, leaving an indelible mark on India's freedom struggle!
A thread🧵
In 1938, The Indian National Congress held its session in Haripura village in Surat, Gujarat.
The session was presided by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. At a time when hoisting the national flag was banned by the British, the Indian flag was hoisted at the Haripura session!
The Haripura Congress session where the tricolor was hoisted, inspired the Mysore leaders to hold a similar event!
But, the administration in Mysore got a whiff of these plans & banned public gathering. This did not stop leaders like Siddalingaiah & others
Arun Shourie once called the BJP government policies Congress plus Cow. During the first ever election in 1952, Congress had a pair of bullocks as its election symbol.
It is because of this lady from Tamil Nadu that the Congress Party has the hand as a symbol. 🧵
The very first elections took place in 1952. Given that the large portion of the population were illiterate, Sukumar Sen, India's first chief election commissioner decided on symbols to identify each party.
The congress party chose a pair of bullocks as its symbol.
Even during Nehru's time, there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the "Kamraj Plan". It required Congress Leaders to give up government posts, in order to strengthen the party.
K Kamraj realized that the party was losing its vigor and resigned from his post as CM of Madras to focus on rebuilding the party.
Jamnagar these days is famous for being the epicenter of Reliance industries and for welcoming the who's who of the world for a pre-wedding.
But in 1942, it played a significant role in saving over 1000 Polish children from certain death in WW2.
A thread 🧵
In 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland which started World War 2. Some Poles tried to escape the wrath of the Germans by moving into Soviet territory.
The Soviet authorities forced hundreds of thousands of Poles to migrate deeper into Soviet territory, including Siberia.
The invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in 1941 prompted the USSR to declare an amnesty, resulting in the liberation of these Polish exiles. They were asked to find refuge themselves.
They embarked on arduous journeys to various destinations.
"Except for cricketers, poets, and singers, others found it relatively hard to come to India."
This was director John Mathew Matthan's rationale for portraying a ghazal singer as the villain!
25 years ago, crime drama changed forever with the release of Sarfarosh!
A Thread 🧵
John Matthew Matthan was an ad-film director, and "Sarfarosh" was his debut. But, he was an assistant to Govind Nihalani in Nihalani's first film "Aakrosh" and in "Gandhi," where Nihalani was the cinematographer!
He met Naseeruddin Shah on the sets of Aakrosh!
Aamir Khan's rationale to work with a debutant was as follows:
"When I read the script, I realized the social implications of what the film was trying to say (...) I reacted emotionally to it because of what I had been going through as an Indian, it talked of Hindus & Muslims living together."