To say that <PERSON> applied game theory to the writings of <PERSON> is a little bit of an overstatement. In the essay Markiz w grafie (“The Marquis in the Network”) he first argues how game theory can be used in general to understand the world, ranging from industrialisation, philosophy, theology, and religion. He then moves on to literary analysis of works of fantasy, and divides them into four categories: utopias, fairy tales, dystopias, and “anti-fairy tales” . He initially thought that the final, most unusual category, of “anti-fairy tales” would not have any examples, but on reflection found that <PERSON> works fitted perfectly into this category and added the final two pages to the essay to make this point, almost as an afterthought. In the essay he certainly does not analyse <PERSON> works in detail - he actually discusses them more thoroughly in the interview quoted in <PERSON> answer. Indeed <PERSON> writes:
My argument would not have the value it proposes - to show a blank space on the table of fantasy types, coinciding with <PERSON> writings - if that was my intention in writing… Although I know <PERSON> work, I did not think about it when I started to classify the elements of fantasy under the aegis of game theory… and it was only at the very end of the analysis that I was surprised by the analogy of "anti-fairy-tale" and <PERSON> writings. However, I put aside the unfinished text and only now added the last two pages to close it. Of course, I could no longer return to the original ignorance of said similarity. Nevertheless, the thing seems worth publishing.
If we look in detail into the essay, it begins by introducing <PERSON>’s concept of game theory:
While living, man constantly makes decisions both in thought and in deed. These decisions are never supported by complete knowledge. The person has to decide on the basis of incomplete information whether to take risks. This is a typical game situation. Upon entering the world, a person is thrown into a game whose rules are unknown to him. 460
But also at the lowest levels of development, life is tangled in a conflict situation, and thus in a game where the victory is the deferment of death. Therefore, all the phenomena of life, from the simplest to human, can be investigated with decision theory, especially in its section on conflict situations, namely in game theory.
<PERSON> goes on to to consider various kinds of works of fantasy by considering them as games played between the protagonist and the rest of the world. The first step is to decide whether the world is favourably or unfavourably disposed towards the protagonist (“The overriding question of the ontology seen through the glasses of game theory is the attitude of the inhuman partner”). This bifurcation is the first step in the analysis shown in the graph below:
On the positive branch, the world can either be favourably disposed to all the inhabitants, making a utopia, or to just a few inhabitants, which produces a fairy tale. On the other side of the divide, where the world is negatively biased against the inhabitants we have the same argument:
the world acts negatively against individuals, or for entire communities. The second option is the world of dystopia. The first has not filled by collective works: in folklore there is no such thing as an "anti-fairy tale"
<PERSON> finds utopias boring, because everyone is equally blessed and there is no dynamic:
Utopia is that everything can be unsurpassedly good at the same time, that there are no values to be given up in favor of the values of others. Being such an ideal of collective life, utopias must be unchanging. Therefore, it is not as compelling as a fairy tale: an ideal is not a wonderful adventure.
In a fairy tale, though, only the hero is the recipient of good fortune. In his language of game theory:
Whatever such a hero does, he will kill the dragon, marry a princess, he will become king. This is because when you look at the whole thing, there is no losing strategy in the fairy tale. This is understandable as an attempt at the efficiency of this world… At the same time, according to the principle of symmetry in the game structures, there is no winning strategy for negative characters in a fairy tale.
…
In the light of game theory, a fairy tale is a zero-sum game, because the hero's win equals the antagonists' defeat. What the bad guys lose, the good win. It is probably not an arithmetic sum. 72