The Wind Was Not the Beginning, but it Smoothed a Skirt

[RainHarlow]

Salutations, my friends! I hope the title gained a smile or chuckle (and if not, at least the tug of a braid), and lest you think otherwise, rest assured it's well in good humor, as I vehemently adore the works of the maestro of which so many of us were awed enough to brave this virtual isle of his testament. By the blessing and curse of verbosity he had no doubt in part imparted while alive do I impart part of an introduction! 

 

Alas, I must first confess no wind smoothed my skirt, for I lack one entirely. A betrayal, I know — a lie — but I pray you, forgive me and move on.

 

I've lurked here and viewed without an account plenty, sometimes with completely random wonderings punched into Google like 'who else hated Faile' or 'wheel of time and spankings', and then eventually along the lines of  'Sanderson vs. Jordan's writing' and 'what is with ____ on the tv show.' Dove into a lot of long threads. Came close to an account a few times, but not quite. Well, here we are!

 

I began the books due to a science fiction book club (of my Dads) sending which, in ye olden times, they'd send you the books (and the bill) unless you told them NOT to. So I get Lord of Chaos, or maybe it was A Crown of Swords, but either way, I'm amazed and perplexed at a young age... I set that crazy stuff aside. Besides, it's not the first book! Later, I gain an interest in fantasy through LoTR and TTRPGs, so I picked that thing back up and suddenly was vehemently intent on reading this new series. I asked around... lo and behold, a friend was an avid fan, and he immediately offered to let me borrow the whole shebang up to the then-current! The big, bad, beautiful doorstops that they were.

 

The effect of RJ's writing on me was immense. By some combination of exquisite detail, slow-building reveals, and tangled plots he engineered something unique, weird, fascinating, all in the guise — with the veneer — of classic fantasy. I don't believe anyone will ever do anything even 50% Wheel of Time. I've asked for recommendations to little avail, and perhaps sheer nostalgia is part of it, reading it in my teens as I did. But I hold 0.00% hope, only doubt, to find it's like again. And perhaps that's fine, eh?

 

I've certainly had my own writing influenced — I've certainly begun many things wanting even to emulate him. Learned it to be far better to mutate it into my own voice in some capacity. I guess for any influence there are some core elements that touch you the most, which you try and preserve. For me, that is the way he simulated and captured moments of detail, obsessed with emulating the moment like reality. Often with minutiae, but also with the feel and emotion of events. What a character obsessed over. Skipping over the simulation of a perspective's happening but rarely once the scene was set. Plenty of world-building, of course, and a very unique, complex metaphysical system.

 

Easy to say, harder to do, hehe... I'm giving it a shot, though. Feel a bit like a relic at times in this interest, or obscure, washed over by the waves of the New Hotnesses of the internet's literary currents. I've been trying out RoyalRoad while I write, for instance. It seems to just beg me to write something else. Maybe I'm stubborn, I dunno.

Regardless, happy to finally be here and plan to come more often as well as participate. Thanks for the read if you've made it this far — you're a real WoT type indeed, haha... thanks for having me, all, and May the Round Thing Turn and Pop Wheelies, or however that saying goes. ;-D Cheers!

Edited April 21, 2023 by RainHarlow