Tag Archives: asoiaf

Winter is Coming….to College

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Game of Thrones has made its way into many people’s lives but this coming Spring, it is making its way into college courses.

Professor Samuel Avery at the State University of New York at Cortland will be offering a course based on the first three Game of Thrones books and how they compare to the HBO show.

Avery expresses:

As an educator, it has been my experience that college students are generally alliterate – meaning that they CAN read but choose not to. This is problematic because the act of reading is often so closely linked to the success of a person. The more a person reads, the better a person writes and the better a person writes, the more successful that person is likely going to be. 

There are many colleges who are now offering courses based around television shows. Syracuse University offers courses on Doctor Who and Star Trek and Buffalo State offers one on Breaking Bad. This is not uncommon. In fact, the University of Virginia had its own Game of Thrones course this past summer that discussed fan culture and online spoilers that really make you question the logic and theories behind the characters and story.

While Avery also explains that the HBO show will be discussed, the texts will be the primary source. Through analyzing the first three texts, students will look into storytelling techniques and character development. Avery also expresses that the class will be fun because he plans to split up his students into different houses and have them ‘fight it out’ as Starks, Lannisters, Baratheons, and Targaryens. He ultimately explains that his students should be ready for betrayals, battles, and book in the Spring.

Personally, I think this is fantastic! I wish my school would get courses like these. I would love this! I think it’s a great idea because it’s a course on something you actually want to read whereas most literature classes don’t have very enjoyable material. As someone who has taken countless literature courses in school, I can say that not every piece of material is fascinating. I would love to take a whole course dedicated to Game of Thrones. 

What do you guys think? Would you take this course? Any problems you see with it? I’m curious as to how compelling Avery’s argument was with the Dean in order to get this class going. I really wonder about that. Haha

You can check out the full article HERE

Hope you enjoyed!

POV Chapters. Favorite? Least Favorite?

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This should be fun! I came across this on my RSS feed and it is basically your favorite POV character and your least favorite POV character….here’s a further explanation:

Who’s the best and worst POV character? To clarify, the best being the most enjoyable to read, like seeing X’s name at the beginning of a chapter and that feeling of “Hell yeah!” The worst not being someone you particularly don’t like, but that gives you the feeling of it dragging on and being uninteresting and bland. (This could be someone you like as a person)

With that being said, my favorite POV character would be Sansa Stark. I love all of her chapters (that I’ve read) and she is so sweet and innocent and it’s cute….I just want to see her come into her own. I also really enjoy Tyrion Lannister’s POV chapters just because it’s Tyrion, do I need a further explanation? 😛 However, I hear Cersei Lannister’s chapters are really awesome in the later books. I can’t wait to read them!

Now, my least favorite POV character. Hmmm….I have three that just kind of seem to drone on for me and they are Jon Snow, Arya Stark, and Bran Stark. Now, hear me out! I love Arya on the show…she is amazing but I don’t care much for her chapters in the books, no idea why. As for Bran, his story line is so complex that it is hard to follow at times and I just feel like I’m suffering through it at times and I don’t want to do that. Now, with Jon, I just don’t care much for him as a character so reading his chapters aren’t that thrilling for me. -shrugs- no idea why though. He has such a great fan base and I am just not into it.

How about everyone else? Favorites? Least favorites? I’m curious! 🙂

Also, here is the link to the page where I found this. Enjoy!

QUIZ: How long would it take you to read the entire GoT series?

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This popped up on my RSS feed the other night and I really wanted to share it with everyone. Basically, you read an excerpt from a novel and the quiz calculates how fast you read and then you take a short quiz on what you read and then how long you would be willing to dedicate to reading ASOIAF everyday.

According to Huffington Post:

It would take the average person – – regardless of his or her allegiance to Westeros – – well over a year to read the entire series. Of course, variables include how much time said reader was able to devote to reading each day.

Now, I’ve had the books for almost a year now and I’ve only managed to read half of the first book. I’ll give GRRM credit…he writes exquisite detail but holy heck, it’s a lot to take in. Also, when you read story after story for your literature classes in school, reading for fun doesn’t sound all that fun anymore….that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

I took the quiz and it told me that I could read the entire series in 184 days (which is 240 days faster than the average person) if I spent 30 minutes a day devoted to reading…which I don’t. Also, I read 325 words per minute so I guess that’s a bonus?? Haha

Anywho, here is a link to the article and TAKE THE QUIZ! It’s fun! 🙂