[ SECRET POST #7075 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #7075 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 13 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1010.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. https://i.postimg.cc/rFf9fQBm/b-Mc-FRO4.png

Transcript by OP

[fscom]

When I read "oh you sweet summer child" in A Song of Ice and Fire, I thought it was a great line. (The background here is that in that world, their seasons can last for years, and the line was said to a child who had been born during an extended summer, thus never experienced a winter season.) It was a really good turn of phrase in the context of the book.

The first time I saw it used online, I was like, oh, that's a good reference. I like this.

Years later, having now seen that line used at least 10 million times (an exaggeration, but only a slight one), I have grown to despise it. At this point, 99% of the time, it's being used in a condescending way to belittle someone. And it has gotten so overused it's not even funny.

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

>99% of the time it's used in a condescending way
I mean... yes? That's what the quote is about? Talking to a naive person ignorant of the world??? How else would you use it lmao

Personally I like it. It's one of the better pop culture additions to language. I'll take a dozen of these over something from a marvel movie

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, this really confused me about the secret. It's supposed to be condescending...

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I like it. It's a well-written line. The fact that it's now in common usage says a lot.

Re: Transcript by OP

[tabaqui]

Is it condescending in the book (which has overtones of dismissal, of someone being lesser because of their ignorance, a little mean-spirited), or is it a kind of sad or gentle chiding said to someone who is about to have their innocence or naivete destroyed?
I haven't read the book, so I don't know.

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

Like... you're bringing your own tonal reading to it in online conversations, but I rarely read it as out and out condescending-- usually I read it as an 'oh sorry about what's about to happen to your innocence' being couched in a familiar fandom-y way.

Which, you know, I'm sure there ARE people being condescending on the internet, being not entirely a sweet summer child myself, but I don't believe ALL of them are and I'd rather assume something is meant in a less dickish way. And as a bonus, if someone is ever trying to condescend to me to get a reaction, they will not get it?

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

Not OP or AYRT but it’s up to personal interpretation. If you read the thread, multiple people read it as condescending and multiple people do not. I can’t recall how it was portrayed in the show or if it even was.

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

It’s kind of like somebody from Mississippi saying, “bless your heart.” It can be outright condescending (and often is) but it can be sweeter too.

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for bringing this example to the conversation. Sweet summer child and bless your heart read very similarly to me. It can be condescending or it can be sweet. Interpretation depends upon circumstances.

[(Anonymous)]

AGREE 100%

[(Anonymous)]

+100

It is a good line and an imaginative bit of world building from GRRM. But I feel like people on the internet didn’t need a new catchphrase for being condescending. There’s enough of it in the air already. Make them work harder to express it.

[(Anonymous)]

Did you miss that it’s condescending in ASOIAF? I have an opportunity here that I’m not gonna take but your, ah, reading comprehension could use a little work.

[(Anonymous)]

“Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know of fear?
Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet
deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long
night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children
are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and
hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods”

Sounds less like someone was trying to be condescending and cut down someone else, and more like it was an elderly person explaining to a child that they don't understand what winter will be like.

In common usage online it has gotten twisted to be mean-spirited, but it really wasn't used that way in the book.

Maybe YOUR reading comprehension needs some work.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you also complain when people go "say hello to my little friend" and they're not referring to a gun

Nayrt

[(Anonymous)]

Come on, you still can take issue with OP’s gripe, but it seems like you were clearly mistaken about the original usage in ASOIAF. That’s okay, it happens to us all. But I think you come out of things looking a lot better if you acknowledge it.

Re: Nayrt

[(Anonymous)]

Whoever wrote that isn’t the one who said it was condescending in the books. I made the original comment and the one below but not the one about the little friend line.

[(Anonymous)]

That reads as condescending to me *shrug*

Nayrt

[(Anonymous)]

Hm… I think it lacks the required air of superiority, especially in the context of the character as the children’s (quite kind, IIRC) caretaker. But I admit it’s subjective and harder to read properly out of context.

[(Anonymous)]

Haven't read ASOIF/watched GoT but just from your excerpt, it reads as condescending to me too.

[(Anonymous)]

I think in both the book and the way people use it on the internet, it has both notes of admiration and condescension of innocence. "Aww I would like to live in the world you do but uh the world is worse and I have Seen Things, unfortunately" is the vibe. As the person said above, it's like "Oh, bless your heart" -- can be more condescending or more sweet/affectionate, but it exists in that middle space.

Like, if someone said, "Wait... are furries a sexual thing??" then "Oh you sweet summer child" is an appropriate response. There is unavoidably an element of condescension because the person who says "oh you sweet summer child" knows something that the person they're talking to doesn't know and is posting just to say that, but it doesn't have to necessarily be smug or mean-spirited. It could be affectionate the way Old Nan said it, which is like, "Oh you're so innocent. You won't be that way forever but awww you have not Seen The Things."

[(Anonymous)]

As do popular phrases/words tend to go. I sometimes struggle with this phrase for very similar reasons. Admittedly, I've likely used "Oh you sweet summer child" in a condescending way so I know I've contributed to the phrase losing its effect/meaning.

[(Anonymous)]

I had no idea this was from Game of Thrones. I just assumed it was another Southern expression like "Bless your heart." It's condescending but gently and a great addition to the language.

[(Anonymous)]

SA

What I mean is: long after Game of Thrones is a distant memory, the phrase will live on in the general population. Not everyone has seen or read GoT. In fact, it's probably only a small portion of English speakers.

[arcanetrivia]

TIL this was from ASOIAF in the first place.