Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Sansa VII, ACOK

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Sansa VII, ACOK

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“It was not the song of Florian and Jonquil, but it was a song.”
Synopsis: Sansa has to clean up Cersei’s mess, deal with Sandor Clegane, and gets some surprising news from Ser Dontos.
SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Caveat lector.
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Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Tyrion XIII, ACOK

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Tyrion XIII, ACOK

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“They say I’m half a man…what does that make the lot of you?” Synopsis: Tyrion observes his works and doesn’t quite despair before rushing off to the defense of the King’s Gate, where Sandor is refusing to lead another sortie against Stannis’ landing parties. Tyrion steps into the breach. SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire…

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Do you think it would be possible to reshape King’s Landing into a grid plan?

Well, you could something if the city burned to the ground…

I don’t know if a strict grid would be a good idea, though. You’ve got those three hills that make grids difficult, and the main diagonal avenues have important purposes, so I wouldn’t want to get rid of them:

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If I was redesigning the city, I’d focus more on a spoke-and-hub model. The unnamed square near the Great Sept should be moved and/or expanded a bit to the east where the exact center of the city is, so that it connects directly with the Muddy Way and is more in line with the rest of the gates. Moreover, the city at present lacks a main central plaza for public events and that location would do nicely.

Next, the King’s Gate, the Lion Gate, and the Old Gate lack a major avenue connecting them with the heart of the city, which is bad planning since each connects with a major road and you want traffic to move more smoothly. So I would extend the Muddy Way up to the Old Gate, connect the Rosby Road to the Gold Road, build a new road from the King’s Gate up to that central square past the Great Sept, and extend the Street of SIsters past the Dragonpit to the Dragon Gate. (Honestly, I’m shocked that the East Barracks of the City Watch isn’t directly connected to any major thoroughfares – how do they expect to respond to any crises over int he west of the city? And why isn’t there a Central Barracks?) 

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Sansa V, ACOK

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Sansa V, ACOK

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 “The Mother’s altar and the Warrior’s swam in light, but Smith and Crone and Maid and Father had their worshipers as well, and there were even a few flames dancing below the Stranger’s half-human face…for what was Stannis Baratheon, if not the Stranger come to judge them?” Synopsis: Sansa is trapped in Maegor’s Holdfast with Cersei, who’s not looking very stable. SPOILER WARNING: This chapter…

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Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Tyrion XII, ACOK

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Tyrion XII, ACOK

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“Cersei set a tasty table, that could not be denied…Tyrion was exceedingly courteous; he offered his sister the choice portions of every dish, and made certain he ate only what she did. Not that he truly thought she’d poison him, but it never hurt to be careful.” Synopsis: Tyrion has dinner with Cersei. It doesn’t go well. SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain…

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Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Sansa IV, ACOK

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Sansa IV, ACOK

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“Wordless, she fled. She was afraid of Sandor Clegane…and yet, some part of her wished that Ser Dontos had a little of the Hound’s ferocity. There are gods, she told herself, and there are true knights too. All the stories can’t be lies.” Synopsis: Sansa argues with Ser Dontos about travel, has a conversation with Sandor Clegane about the joys of murder, and then has to talk to Cersei about…

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Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Tyrion XI, ACOK

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Tyrion XI, ACOK

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“Them as own all this won’t like that much.” “I never imagined they would. So be it; they’ll have something else to curse the evil monkey demon for.” Synopsis: as Stannis‘ army nears King’s Landing, Tyrion organizes the defenses of the city. SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Caveat…

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Do you have a favorite historical document?

Yes. I carry it with me. It’s this:

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This is a model of the U.S economy as a complicated figure-8 inextricably linking the public sector and private sector into a whole. Designed in 1934 by Lewis Baxter of Economic Security Analysts for Harry Hopkins’ brain trust at the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, this was an early powerpoint – the black boxes are holes that allowed you to move a spreadsheet of numbers up and down simulating changes in Federal spending, showing you different values for various economic variables as you went.

Baxter’s conclusion was that the Federal government could essentially decide what unemployment rate the U.S would have, and could hit 0% if it committed to “universal useful employment based on assured jobs in public service to all potential producers otherwise unemployed,” because “government activities constitute, in effect, an auxiliary industry, might might always utilize advantageously the entire current labor surplus; and that such “industry” differs from the others only with reference to the nature of its “products” and the method of marketing them.”

As long as you did that, the only difference between the Federal government spending $4 billion ($70 billion in 2014) and spending $34 billion ($593 billion in 2014) was that “the average producer is buying less individually and more co-operatively.” 

This is the most sweepingly radical document the U.S government has ever produced, and it was written in 1934 at a time when the Federal government was tiny, ludicrously weak in its capacity to change the lives of the ordinary citizen. And yet this document is so ambitious, so confident and optimistic of the ability of a democracy to master economic forces, that it makes everything that’s come since seem conservative by comparison. 

This is how Americans used to dream.