A Song of Confusion and Slight Reader Discomfort.

I just recently started reading George R.R. Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series because I really enjoy the show and my summer reading list was blank save for 'Go Set a Watchman'.

As a voracious reader I understand that in novels, especially fantasy novels, nothing is 'real', it's all a figment. As I was reading the first chapters of 'A Game of Thrones', it struck me as odd that Daenerys is only 13 years old when she weds Khal Drogo. Martin wrote enough about the wedding night that it made me slightly uncomfortable, even though, in reality, there is no real act being committed.

I didn't think anything else of it until my boyfriend (not a reader) said something about how he couldn't wait until the new season of Game of Thrones came out. I mentioned, "Did you know that in the books Daenerys is...13!" The look on his face was a mixture of shock and slight disgust and he made a comment about how it was strange that a man who writes fiction about 13 year olds getting raped is making millions, but Jared from Subway makes a comment about middle school girls being hot and all he got was a search warrant.

To me, the strange part isn't the quasi rape, it's that eventually, Martin writes of consensual sex between a behemoth horse lord, and a 13 year old girl. I can see why he chose to make all of the characters so young, as no one would grow to the age of 18 in Westeros or Essos and still have the naïveté of an 11, 12, or 13 year old. I'm not saying that Martin is a pedophile, or that he should be investigated, nor do I have an issue with the books. I do find it odd that there seems to be little to no mainstream controversy about his writing.

In my opinion, as long as someone's sexual proclivities don't harm anyone and are consensual, all the power to them. As a writer, and maybe it's because I was once a 13 year old girl, I don't believe I could write a fictional scene involving sex and minors.

What do other book readers think? Was it a different time in 1996 when the book was published? Is it a necessity of the plot line? (I don't think the story lines would be as believable if the characters were older, truthfully). Is George R.R. Martin reliving his teenage fantasy via these books?

There is a reason I stopped reading the book, and I never quit in the middle of a book. Even the crappy ones I finish. No interest in the show either.

I thought that was uncomfortable also. And while I understand that times/ cultures are ok with marrying off young (very young) women, I don't see why he hasn't gotten much grief about it. Same with his stance on some on the ugly we have recently seen in the show, that did create backlash- Cersie's rape by Jamie, Sansa's rape.... He says "that's what happens in the real world".

I think he has a twisted mind, as does Stephen King, so that isn't necessarily bad, just not my thing.

a reply to: chelsdh

My boyfriend said that too, "I guess it's like, medieval times?", but I disagree. It's two hundred and something "After Conquest", which is a timeframe that exists solely in George R.R. Martins mind.

Well, older men (thirty year olds and even older) marrying teenage girls isn't neccesarily historically innaccurate. For example, Father's in ancient Greece would often marry their daughters off to their uncles in order to keep the wealth in their family.

In Medieval times and even into the Edwardian Era and the Gilded Age this was common practice. (Virginia Poe being 13 and Poe being 26 when they married and so on)

And until recently (within a hundred years) in many European countries (and non-European no doubt) the age of consent was often under 18, being as young as 13 or 14 in some places.

So, to me, it seems historically accurate to have a lot of this in 'Game of Thrones.'

Tolkien idolized the Medieval era, so his Medieval influenced books were very wholesome and romantic, it seems that Martin, like Michael Moorcock, is just trying to swing the pendulum in the other direction, and maybe being overkill with it.

And even if he's just a hebephile, if he's a talented writer and keeps it to his books, I don't see why it would matter.