Paul Mason’s interesting analysis of Westeros economics (A Marxist Game of Thrones, G2, 7 April) had a couple of important lacunae. The first came with his throwaway appeal to social psychologists to explain fantasy’s continuing appeal. I don’t doubt that my colleagues in that field have much to contribute, but a lot of this work has already been done – in the much maligned field of media studies. In 2004 an international team of researchers gathered 25,000 responses to the films of The Lord of the Rings and learned (among many other things) that for those who most valued them, these films did the exact opposite of what Mason supposes. Their appeal lay precisely in the courage that people saw in the small characters who made a difference despite their size.
The second lacuna is in missing all the ways in which, recently, works of fantasy have provided motifs for emergent political movements: for Thai democracy demonstrators (The Hunger Games); for environmental protesters, and for occupied Palestinians (Avatar); and for the Occupy movement in the US (V For Vendetta). These are signs of a different kind of importance. We are currently researching reactions to The Hobbit (33,000 responses to date) – not so successful perhaps, but maybe for that very reason a researcher’s dream, since we may be able to see people’s disappointed ideals through their responses. Fantasy is, indeed, very important.
Emeritus professor Martin Barker
Aberystwyth University
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