History is written in blood…
…from this excellent Rolling Stone interview with George R.R. Martin, who as far as I’m concerned is just about the most honest, intelligent, and valuable writer alive.
Really. All he’d have to do is take a heartwarming liberal political stance. Say that the Song is an allegory for Western political persecution of the lower class, post-colonial atrocities toward “the other,” whatever, jargonjargonjargon. Mix in some chummy back-patting with John Stewart. Hello Nobel Prize. But no, he doesn’t, because he’s a storyteller. So that’s what he does. Tell a story for the sake of the story. How few writers actually do that. How few writers admit that they don’t have answers…

When can we be redeemed? Is redemption even possible? I don’t have an answer.