‘You know nothing, Jon Snow.’
(Don’t panic if you still haven’t seen Game of Thrones: this is a spoiler-free zone.)
A dash of context from your favourite neighbourhood Bookish Rebel (…that’s me, btw):
I first wrote this post for Dora Reads back in 2017 (when the world was very different, and GoT was very much still on-going,) and when rummaging through my rambling blogging archives, I was quietly pleased with myself at how relevant and enduring this proved itself to be.
I hope you enjoy!
My favourite character in Game of Thrones is Jon Snow.
(Trust me, this is going somewhere.)
Why? Because he knows nothing.
And he knows that he knows nothing. (Cos let’s face it, it’s come up in conversation.)
Before I go further — I’m just going to point out that no-one should try to emulate ANYONE from Game of Thrones, including Jon.
As problematic behaviour goes… well. It’s Game of Thrones; pretty much sums it up. Everyone does sh**ty things. Constantly.
Now a lot of people might think that I shouldn’t need to point this out, but…
*gestures vaguely at the current state of the planet*
…clearly the time for subtlety is long gone.
Anyway…
What’s so admirable about knowing nothing?
Well, people who understand that they don’t know everything — who, in other words, have a nice healthy dose of both realism and humility — don’t usually try to pretend that they do know everything.
They ask for advice, they try to understand the situation, they don’t let their own over-inflated ego perpetuate ignorance.
