> From: jeffrey miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of The Fool
> >> > I don't know.. the 5th book just starts to drag for me.. right > about > > the > > > time I realize that the characters haven't really grown or learned > > > anything from the previous 4 books. ;) > > > > Rand has certainly changed. He's starting to go insane, and > > he's become arrogant, and distrustful, and megalomaniac. > > Didn't he have an episode in DR where he thought he could > > raise the dead? > > > > Mat had his mind seriously screwed with by *finn people. > > > > Egwene has become manipulative. > > > > Perrin is controlled by love. > > > > Nynaeve has become what she despised in the first place. > > > > etc. > > > > Yup no change there. > > They're still the same people. RJ hasn't authored any deep changes into > them or their personality - they're still adolecent children (of course, > I bet you'll tell me that's part of the genius ;D) Short of severe trauma most people don't undergo deep personality changes, even confronted with adversity. And I would say otherwise. I'll go further and say that several of the villains later exhibit signs of personal growth. > What grates is that the same situation keeps... on... happening... > for... hundreds... of... pages... without end. Nynaeve love > wots-his-name, and can't tell him, and he can't tell her.... for 5 600+ > page books.. And you can't skim for hundreds of pages? I don't particularly slaver over certain passages either. > I guess that's just my speed - I like interesting, 3-d characters with > realistic motivation, and I tend to dislike romance novels. (of course, > why I went on that Mercedes Lackey & Pern reading stint is yet to be > explained) There is very little romance. > > I realize some people find the nynaeve/elayne boring and skim them. > > What, and miss something Important? ;) > > > > ..besides, I don't care if it IS an endless cycle - I > > dislike Jordan's > > > depiction of women as people who, ingrained with the > > potency of magic > > or > > > not, are nothing but giggling eyelash-batting beauties. > > > > Not quite. Yes some people may be that way (because of human > > nature), but not many, specifically in this series. One of > > the things that rj is trying to do, is have reverse > > discrimination, where the people who are in power (and not > > just the aes sedai / one power users) but the whole of > > society is biased against men (in a reverse of the way our > > society is). > > I find that to be only interesting in a sophmoric sort of way. Its easy > to turn things upside down - just find and replace on every pronoun does > a pretty good job. Where's the deeper exploration of the way human > societies would change? Where's the introspection and mutation of > politics, warfare, and culture as the events unfold? For all the faults The society is different than one just transposed as you say. But their are some things that don't change (like when women in Afghanistan in the underground (during the taliban) who would go and do something that could get them killed, put on makeup so they could look pretty, even though they could not show anybody). > of it, at least the Eddings had female characters with some dynamic > shifts in personality in the Belgariad/[follow up series], a comperable > story/set of books with a similar scope & audience. > > > He also takes all kinds of mythologies and reverse engineers > > them, so they are backwards. > > I found White Goddess and Golden Branch to be far more interesting and > well researched books on myth engineering :) I doubt you picked out a significant fraction of the mythological allusions / references / plot devices. > > If and when you finish FoH you can read the FoH version of > > the FAQ: ftp://linuxmafia.com/pub/jordan/wot-tfoh.FAQ > > I probably won't. > > Don't get me wrong - OBVIOUSLY by trying 4 times now to read this series > I've given it an honest go.. it jsut doesn't work for me, and I don't > see the "genius" most fans attatch to it. I like the setting, I like > the arc & story, I just don't think A) Jordan is all that great a > writer, no matter how prolific or And yet you say you read the pern books. Which are poorly written and repeat the same plot, over and over, and over, and over.....again. > B) that its ever going to end while > the man is alive. You haven't even read half of it, so how can you make that kind of statement?
