![]() And the reason for that is that the House is deliberately visually indistinct and uninteresting – a long bungalow without any windows is basically a grey box, more the suggestion of a building than real architecture. ![]() Almost all of them display the House as a great tower the decision to not show the House as described in the books is pretty universal. When you look at that description, it’s almost impossible to square it with the way the House of the Undying is represented on the show, in official artwork, or indeed in most fan artwork. Long and low, without towers or windows, it coiled like a stone serpent through a grove of black-barked trees whose inky blue leaves made the stuff of the sorcerous drink the Qartheen called shade of the evening…” “In this city of splendors, Dany had expected the House of the Undying Ones to be the most splendid of all, but she emerged from her palanquin to behold a grey and ancient ruin. When I said back in Dany I that Daenerys’ story in ACOK is a prophet narrative, it was this chapter that I had in mind, because there is nothing as prophetic than going to a place where the barriers between the physical and spiritual worlds become thin, having a series of visions, and going through a gauntlet of temptation on the road to enlightenment.Īnd appropriately for such an experience, and right on the heels of Arya’s fairytale adventure, the whole thing starts off with a dreamlike air, as it becomes impossible to tell reality from illusion: Thus, while throughout the chapter one can see GRRM setting up a Rule of Three structure and then immediately diverging from it, as if deliberately taunting me. As a lifelong fantasy genre fan, I’m quite familiar and comfortable with prophecy, but in Dany IV, George R.R Martin throws the normal rules of narrative clarity out the window and plunging headlong into full-on 1960s psychedelica with the brio of someone who lived through it. ![]() Dany IV looms very large in the ASOIAF fandom there’s a reason why it ranks at the top of Tower of the Hand’s narrative rankings of A Clash of Kings, and why probably more has been written about this chapter than any other.Īnother reason why I’m somewhat trepidatious is that, after preparing for this essay, is that Dany IV is maddening to try to put into some rational structure. I have to admit that I come to this chapter with a little bit of trepidation. SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Synopsis: Dany goes to the House of the Undying to open the doors of perception, maybe play some prog rock.
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