How Online Communities Sing the Song of Fire and Ice (Giroux)

Introduction
In seeking to examine how increasing and evolving levels of technology have affected the world of literature, it is sensible to first examine how new communicative technologies have been introduced and received throughout history, and the manner in which these technologies have altered human forms of communication. The first of these technological advancements, somewhat ironically, is the written word. It is odd to think of writing as an invention, but as Walter Ong notes, it possesses all of the characteristics of technology, including the implementations of tools by highly skilled practitioners toward an understood end. Similarly, it is hard to imagine a time when the value of writing as a means of communication, and the reading that must accompany it in order for that communication to take place, would have been questioned by society, but Plato was adamant about the shortcomings of writing as a communicative tool when compared with the spoken word. He felt that it lacked the defensive and debative aspects of oral discourse that allow for formulation of thought, encouraging a memorizing of facts and declaring this an act of learning without ever truly being made to understand the subject. Moreover, it left the writer helpless, both in choosing his audience and defending his message to them. Ong, on the other hand, explains that the written word has become such an integral communicative tool that it has fundamentally altered the manner in which the brain works, and as practitioners of this technology, humans are constantly experimenting with the foundation of the written word in hopes of achieving forms of communication more attuned to their wants and needs as communicators. Less surprisingly, the introduction of computers, and particularly the internet, has incited a similar debate, with certain writers like Nicholas Rushkoff feeling that the unlimited exposure and discourse facilitated by the internet can only help the function of the written word, while others, like Nicholas Carr, echo Plato’s misgivings, fearing that the internet is creating a form of reading that more resembles skimming, searching for keypoints without engaging in a truly deliberative process.

Not surprisingly, just as these theorists and philosophers have debated on the benefits and detractions of communication increasingly based on literacy and how this idea of literacy has changed with the introduction of new media, literary critics have sought to anticipate how readers engage texts in this evolving environment. Biographical critics held that all that needed to be interpreted from a text couxld be found in careful examination of the social, political and personal contexts under which an author composed a text. “New Critics” felt that such an approach put too much emphasis on factors that existed outside of the text and thus favored an approach aimed at close analysis of the text and drawing evidence from it to reach interpretive conclusions. The problem with such an approach, as Plato anticipated is that once a conclusion about the text has been reached, there is no way that the text can argue or suggest a distinctive interpretation. If a text is purely objective, as such critics would suggest, and it is misinterpreted by the reader, it would seem that both the reader and the author are marginalized in such a communicative discourse, as neither arrive at the intent of their endeavor. Consequently, new critical approaches have embraced the reader’s interpretation as primary to any authorial intention and seek to understand how it is that particular readers arrive at certain interpretations and the implications that arise from these conclusions. Critics like Stanley Fish, Norman Holland and Wolfgang Iser have actively pursued an understanding of how readers interpret texts, what these interpretations say about the readers and also the methods by which these readers arrive at these interpretations. Holland endorses a pyschoanalytic approach, suggesting that readers projects their own “ fears and wishes onto” onto a text, allowing the “reader to reexperience his or her self-defining fantasies and to grasp their significance.” In a similar sense, Iser proposes that “the text [i]s a multilayered structure through which readers wander, constructing projections ( "protentions ") of new experience and reinterpretations ( "retentions ") of past experience.” Finally, Fish sees the reader as an interpreter that draws not only on these personal experiences, both conscious and subconscious, described by Holland and Iser, but also based on reinforcing or refuting interpretations that they encounter in their “interpretive communities.”

If the increasing human dependence on literature as a communicative discourse has inspired the emergence of various new media as a means of disseminating the written word, it is not surprising that online communities have sought to engage texts in new technological environments. In the same sense, if this changing of literary conventions has necessitated an alteration in the critical approaches with which readers approach and interpret these texts, it is not surprising that these new online communities can be analyzed through these modern critical approaches. Analyzing online communities that have developed surrounding George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Ice and Fire provides valuable insights into the critical questions of how these communities make use of technological media and the impact that this has on their relationship with Martin’s text. The text, which currently is comprised of five separate novels, but will ultimately consist of seven installments once completed, has a wide web presence and various communities, like theA Song of Fire and Ice Wikia, the A Song of Fire and Ice fan forums, variouspieces of fanfictionrevolving around the texts as well as an online role playing gamebased on Martin’s series of books. Examining the manner in which these communities function, with particular attention paid to the role of knowledge communities, interpretive communities and also authorial intentions will provide for valuable insight into the manner in which online literary communities both conform to and transcend the theories proposed by Plato, Ong, Carr and Rushkoff, while at the same time demonstrating how the modern critical theories of Fish, Holland and Iser can indeed be applied to these nonconventional literary forms.

Knowledge Communities
Knowledge communities, according to the “Spoiling Survivor” article, “are held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge.” As the article goes on to explain, Levy proposed that knowledge communities “make available to the collective intellect all of the pertinent knowledge at a given moment.” In light of this nature, Wikias and web forums are natural manifestations of this sort of community, as they not only provide an archive for information, but also facilitate the addition of content by a variety of members, as opposed to traditional websites whose content is overseen by a choice number of contributors. Fan forums are an obvious example of a knowledge community and the forum dedicated to A Song of Fire and Ice is no exception. For example, if a reader was seeking information on the geography of Westeros, the land in which the majority of A Song of Fire and Ice’s plot unfolds, they could simply go to the forum dedicated to “The World of Fire and Ice” (Westeros) (pictured) and get information about the size of the continent, its signature geographic features and regions, as well as how it compares to other parts of Martin’s fictional world.

Similarly, the very structure of the Wikia devoted to A Song of Fire and Ice is designed in a manner aimed at pointing members in the direction of the information that they are seeking. There are sections that describe the individual books that comprise the series in detail, sections aimed at compiling any information about the books that have yet to be published as well as sections dedicated to analyzing the settings and characters that populate the story. At first glance, the function provided by web forums and Wikias as knowledge communities appears to be the type of knowledge compilation that Plato would have been critical of. Plato was concerned with the role that writing would have in the educational process when he lamented that written communication would merely provide “the appearance of wisdom… for [those active in such communication] will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things when they are for the most part ignorant.” Certainly, this exasperation would have only been heightened had Plato the foresight to anticipate a medium like the Wikia in which any member of the community may write and read any content dealing with the subject matter. Indeed, Plato would have feared that such a medium would exponentially increase the type of false knowledge he is wary of. In contrast, however, Levy suggests that a knowledge community engages in “ ‘a collective discussion, negotiation and development and they prod the individual members to seek out new information for the common good.”

In light of this, it seems more accurate to describe the Wikia and web forum more in line with Walter Ong’s proposition of how communicative tools, when properly internalized and utilized, can actually enhance the human ability to communicate. Ong notes that like a symphony involves the use of communicative tools, the instruments, in order to transcend normal communicative means while still producing a distinctly human process, all technological advancements in communication hold the potential to do the same if properly utilized. This theory seems to apply well to Web forums and Wikias as they utilize tools to provide members with a level of access to both information, and the debates that surround this information, that could not be facilitated without these technological media. Nicholas Carr holds that many of these tools provided by the internet serve to dumb down the analytical processes associated with reading, but these knowledge communities actually seem to encourage a heightened level of attention paid to the text. In order to properly engage in the discussions facilitated by these “tools” of discourse, members must not only actively engage and analyze the source text, but also are rewarded for higher levels of participation within the communication by higher levels of understanding with the content.

Plato would have been, and indeed Carr is, wary of the consequences that would accompany such wide dissemination of the written word facilitated by the internet, but the tools provided by the web forum and Wikia demonstrate how these online tools can allow for the development of online knowledge communities that allow for a transcendence of these concerns.

Interpretive Communities
Many of the components that define the Wikia and web forum as a knowledge community also help to define the groups that comprise these communities as interpretive, in keeping with Fish’s critical theory. Fish holds that “what determines an interpretation’s validity is not the identity of the reader or the norms of aesthetic theory but the ideals and methods of the reader’s "interpretive community." Indeed, this can be witnessed in certain forum threads aimed at interpreting complex components of the story. Generally, when a theory gains initial acceptance by the community, it will continue to be accepted and is more likely to ultimately be acknowledged as accurate interpretation. For example, one poster suggests the theory that “The Others are closely, closely associated with the Starks, and they are coming South to restore the Starks to their seat in Winterfell and destroy the Lannisters/Freys/Boltons/Greyjoys.” Early responses to this theory are highly supportive, “Wow, I actually really love this idea!” and thus the interpretation gains traction within the community. There are numerous instances of similar threads and this serves as a basic reinforcement of how interpretive communities function.

Another form of interpretive community can be seen in analyzing the online role playing game that has been inspired by A Song of Fire and Ice. The most obvious manner in which the interpretive critical theories can be applied to this practice can be seen in applying Holland’s psychoanalytic approach to the simulation method of experiencing Martin’s story. Holland suggests that a reader will project their own characteristics on to the characters in the story in an effort to come to terms with their own fears and insecurities, hopes and dreams. Role playing games allow readers to not only project their thoughts and traits onto characters in the story, but to actually insert a version of themselves into the story that they are interpreting. This is not a process merely undertaken by a singular or even few programmers and instead was an interactive process in which members of the community provided insight about what the world should look like, when the game should be set in relation to the plotlines of the story, how closely the game should approach the plotlines of the story and how characters should be organized with the game (see screenshot).

This, alone, is a serious interpretive undertaking, asking the community to come to a consensus on which parts of Martin’s books they would like included in the game and how they will make visual representations of these components based on their interpretations. Indeed, even the very formulation of one’s own character is an interpretive decision that reflects the psychoanalytic criticism of Holland. Each noble house within the story is assigned a general set of traits, the Starks are noted for their loyalty while the Lannisters are portrayed as materialistic, power hungry and vengeful, and yet still always repay a debt that is owed by them. Thus, Holland would propose that a player’s decision to join one of these houses, or any of the various other ones which also have noteworthy traits, is a psychoanalytic depiction of their self-consciousness.

As has been discussed, many of the online communities function as both knowledge communities and interpretive communities and this is certainly true of the role playing simulation as well. Indeed while it is a largely interpretive process, it is still one that must be supplemented by a thorough knowledge of Martin’s story, a knowledge that is more easily compiled by a community with the tools provided by the online environment than an individual with only the text to rely on for information.

Authorial Intention
One of these tools that can be seen in use on the Wikia page is a video interview with author George R.R. Martin in which he describes several of the themes present in his epic story and how he has attempted to transmit them through the text. This, of course, is a part of the interpretive community, in that Martin, as he engages the questions that many members of the Wikia are seeking answers to, has been adopted into the community seeking to interpret the text. This seems to hybridize the biographical criticism with the interpretive criticism that Fish advocates, which brings in to question the role of authorial intent. If knowledge communities are focused on simply compiling what amounts to primarily objective knowledge about the text, then these communities seem more focused on authorial intent and how it shapes their understanding of the books. Conversely, interpretive communities, as their name would suggest, are far less concerned with authorial intent and instead seek to draw out meaning from the text as facilitated by other members of their interpretive community. What is unique about the online communities examined to this point is that none of them operate as exclusively knowledge or interpretive communities and, consequently, the role of authorial intent cannot be overlooked.

That is to say even the mediums that appear largely knowledge oriented like the Wikia and web forums still pay a great deal of focus to authorial intention, as evidenced by the video of Martin on the front page of the Wikia, as well as biographical threads in the forums, threads that focus on his works outside of this story and threads that focus on comments he has made regarding the story. Similarly, in the role playing game examined, while it is a subjective construction of Martin’s world, there are still major elements of the game that parallel thematic interests in the books, including the nature of the different houses, which demonstrates a degree of attention paid to authorial intention. The conclusion that must be reached is that the new media neither fully divorce nor marry the reader to the intentions of the author and thus, neither Plato who would have suggested that the words lose meaning because of the author’s inability to defend them to his audience, nor “new critics,” who would have insisted that the text has a singular, objective interpretation can be entirely correct.

Fan fiction, of which there is a great deal revolving around A Song of Fire and Ice, may be thought of a new literary medium which is entirely disengaged from authorial intent. The practice, after all, is comprised of readers taking the general story, setting, and/or characters from an author’s work and infusing them into a separate piece of fiction with the focus being placed on themes and stories that interest the reader. Despite this apparent disregard for authorial intent, which in many cases is readily apparent, many of the stories explore themes and characters in a way that is very much in keeping with the manner in which Martin tells the story. For example, one piece of fanfiction involves the story of what would happen in the bastard daughters of Robert Baratheon had approached his brother Stannis, whose right to the throne had been usurped by Robert’s bastard son Joffrey. Though it deals with characters and events that were not described or alluded to by Martin, it also deals with themes such as the treachery that accompanies unchecked pursuit of power and how this pursuit can corrupt even the most honorable men, themes which are readily explored in Martin’s story. This simple example shows how a medium like fanfiction, which appears to have an inherent disregard for authorial intention, may still play off of themes intended to be received by the author. In large part, this phenomenon can be accredited to the modern human’s adoption of these wired methods of engaging a text. If online literary communities seek to strike a balance between the interpretive agency of the community and the objective or knowledge-based aspects of the text, which inherently promote authorial intention, it is not surprising that as members of communities engage in fanfiction, they too adopt components of the authorial intent while also introducing interpretive components of their own.