What's this series REALLY about?

[GrandpaG]

This has been eating at me for some reason lately.

 

When RJ decided to write the series, he must have had some inner reason for wanting to write it.  He might have been doing it just for the money and notoriety, but I seriously doubt it; he put too much of his soul into it for that.  Besides stating that he knew what the final scene of the final book would be before he ever started writing, did he ever say "why" he wrote the series?

 

It is obviously entertaining.  But, he also uses a lot of historical fact.  And some humor.  And he exploits the male/female differences...ALOT!!!  He semi-avoids religion but heavily hammers politics and it's various intrigues.  The use of characters if phenomenal, so it's not just a story about Rand Al'Thor and company.  It could be, maybe, a good-vs-evil thing...but it's so much more.

 

I'd like to say that this series is a story about a young man who finds out that his destiny is to save the world and in doing so he must sacrifice himself physically, mentally, and literally.  But, it's more than that.  There is just so much involved in this series.  Is it a tale about the Light and the Shadow?  Is it a snap shot of one section of one turning of the Wheel of Time?  Is it a description of the complexities of feudal age civilization?  Does it explain why we should believe in prophecy?

 

If you've got the answer, let me know, please, because I don't know.

 

====================================================================

It's only a story...it's not real...it's only a story...it's not real...

 

[Mr Ares]

Is it a description of the complexities of feudal age civilization?

Does it even involve feudal age civilisation?

[RAND AL THOR]

I presume that RJ, like most writers, wrote a story from his imagination for

1) the joy of writing

2) the satisfaction of seeing yourself in print

 

(the above are my assumptions and so may be incorrect)

 

Writers don't always include hidden morals etc.. in their stories, though some do. I really think it's just a well written Epic Fantasy with Good vs Evil.

[Alderthal]

I think he had multiple reasons for wanting to write it.

 

One of them is obviously the fame/fortune that comes with writing a good book. After all, RJ made a career of writing, and like any other career driven person, would want to excel in his chosen career.

 

Another reason I think, is hmm, call it 'writer's itch'. I myself have never been a professional writer of course, nor do I think I could make a career out of it, but I do write for a hobby, if only for myself, and sometimes, you get an idea that will nag and nag at you until you decide to write about it. I seriously doubt that RJ would've written 11 books with a 12th on the way without feeling some of that itch.

 

As for what it is about... Well, I don't think it has to have a very detailed philosophical backing for it to be a good story to read.

[Nardaru]

I agree with the above posts. Writing was obviously a passion he held dear to his heart. HE made a career out of it and need to support his lifestyle and put food on his plate so the money and fame could be part of it. He was someone with enough skill at his passion to be able to make a living from it.

[Leopoled Boothe]

As you know each book begins with the phrase "The Wheel of Time Turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave it birth comes again"

 

So the series is about myth and legend.  WOT takes place in our world (ie Earth, third plant from the sun etc) but in a different age.  The stories told in WOT are meant to be the origins of many of the myths we tell in our own time.  The idea is that this is how it all really happened but the details have become quite distorted over the ages and the stories have evolved into the mythologies that we know today. The most heavy influences seem to be Norse Mythology and Arthuran Legend but there are others in there as well, some very subtle while others a relatively blatant.  There is a whole section on this over at "Theoryland."

[Werthead]

Robert Jordan was asked in an interview with SFX Magazine in 1996 what the series was actually about. His answers were:

 

1) To examine the male/female relationship and the different ways they interact, and to create a convincing rationale (through tainted saidin) for allowing women to be considered equal to men in a pre-modern society and how they would act or cope in such a situation.

 

2) To create fantasy's answer to War and Peace, a story of cultures and civilisations clashing across a continent, exemplified by characters representative of that culture.

 

3) To create a fantasy series which addressed the notion of good and evil at a time when a lot of fiction seemed to delight in playing up the idea of everyone being 'grey', with no good guys or bad guys, just different people with different agendas which sometimes conflict. Note that WoT has a lot of this as well (the Seanchan, Aiel, Sea Folk, Children of the Light, Aes Sedai, Asha'man and Dragon Reborn, for all their differences are nominally on the same side and opposed to the Shadow), but he strongly believed that there is real evil in the world which must be confronted and destroyed.

 

4) I think this is possibly the key theme: the mutability of knowledge. There is no way, even with current technology, to know the 'truth' of an event unless you were actually there, and even if you were there your interpretation of events may be skewed by your own biases (the Georgia-Russia conflict is an excellent recent example of, even with the Internet, photographers and news crew on the site, it's possible for different people to spin events to conform to their own beliefs). I get the impression he really hated the idea in fiction that characters would get separated and then meet up again, and it would just be magically assumed they had some kind of mind meld and now knew the full details of what other people had been up to for the last six months. I think he may have gotten this from being a DM for his son's D&D games. "You don't know your unconscious friend has got some gemstones hidden in his boot." "Of course I know! I've been travelling with him!" "For a week and you met randomly in a pub. Why would he tell you?"

 

5) Not from the interview, but I get the distinct impression that RJ really, really wanted to tell the definitive epic fantasy story, that of the shepherd boy of uncertain parentage who saves the world. It's a powerful mythological idea, if somewhat over-used, and I think RJ wanted to do it so well no-one would do it again.

[Sabio]

IMO it was never about the money till he started breaking the first book into smaller parts and selling them.  Not sure why but that always annoyed me.

[Auld Manriva]

Here is an interview with RJ by Laura Wilson of Audio Renaissance. It's at the end of several of the audiobooks.... It directly addresses your question Grampy, straight from the horses mouth.

 

http://hbpub.vo.llnwd.net/o16/torpodcast/media/tor_podcast_jordan.mp3

[Asnos]

at the end of the audio versions of the first book (CD version by Audio Renaissance) there is an interview with RJ he says:

I began writing the wheel of time because a great many notions had been bouncing around inside my head and they started to coalesce. I wondered what it was really like to be tapped on the shoulder and told you're born to be the savor of mankind. I didn't think it would be very much like the way it is in so many books where someone pops up and says "hi, i was born to be the savor of mankind and Here's the prophecy." And everybody says "oh well let's go then." I thought self interest would play a big part and i was wondering about the source of legends and myths. They can't all be **anthromorphacations** of natural events some of them have to be distortions of things that actual happened, distortions by being passed down over generations and that led to the distortion of information over distance, whither that's temporal distance or spacial distance, the further you are in time or space from the actual event the less likely you are to know what really happened. Then finally there was thought about something that happens in Tolkien and a lot of other places when the wise old wizard shows up in a country village and says "you must follow me to save the world" and the villages say "right then Gov' off we go." Well i did a lot of growing up in the country and i always thought that the what those country folk would be "oh is that so well look have another beer, have two, on me ill be right back, i will really" and then slip out the back door. There were a lot of things that came together and even once they started, of course, all lot of things built in and added in and changed.

the word in ** ** i couldn't figure out how to spell

EDIT: yeah, that recording

[Ashaman Kovan]

Is it a description of the complexities of feudal age civilization?

Does it even involve feudal age civilisation?

 

Wow...Instead of contributing something constructive on the topic lets just pick out one trivial sentence and try and start an argument about it.

 

I think I know you from somewhere Mr Ares. ::)

[Mr Ares]

Is ita description of the complexities of feudal age civilization?

Does it even involve feudal age civilisation?

Wow...Instead of contributing something constructive on the topic lets just pick out one trivial sentence and try and start an argument about it.

 

I think I know you from somewhere Mr Ares. ::)

The mirror? Lack of contribution of something constructive? Yes. One trivial sentence? Yes. Trying to start an argument? Good chance. Looks like the pot just called the kettle black. Maybe next time you should let he who is without sin cast the first stone? And so on, and so forth.

[GrandpaG]

* attempts to quell an unnecessary argument *

 

The "feudal" thing was about the approximate technologies of the series.

They use animals to aid their work and travel.

Weaponry closely resembles our feudal age.

Bosses live in castles.

They have to have a fresh supply of food (no frig).

Communication in Randland...uuuhhhh...STINKS!!! (no cell phones...soon to be a new topic).

Etc.

 

I get the impression that RJ was fascinated with the feudal period of our own history and that influenced his writing...I'm glad he did...it's neat to read about people taking weeks to travel a few hundred miles while begging for food and sleeping in hay stacks...not that I'd ever want to do it myself, but it's neat to read about.

 

Anyway, please, guys, save the arguements for the REAL world, OK?  This is the land of fantasy that is meant for pleasure and getting away from all of the crap of that "other" world.  ;D

 

Love,

Gramps

[Ashaman Kovan]

Is ita description of the complexities of feudal age civilization?

Does it even involve feudal age civilisation?

Wow...Instead of contributing something constructive on the topic lets just pick out one trivial sentence and try and start an argument about it.

 

I think I know you from somewhere Mr Ares. ::)

The mirror? Lack of contribution of something constructive? Yes. One trivial sentence? Yes. Trying to start an argument? Good chance. Looks like the pot just called the kettle black. Maybe next time you should let he who is without sin cast the first stone? And so on, and so forth.

 

I figure if you can't beat them join them. Besides when did arguing about something so trivial and stupid become a sin? I thought it was just immaturity kicking in :) When someone calls you out on being immature that automatically makes them immature? Thats news to me :) I always seek to learn.

[GrandpaG]

* shrugs *

* remembers why he likes reyler over in Fiddlesticks *

* moves on to next reply *

[benr]

 

Communication in Randland...uuuhhhh...STINKS!!! (no cell phones...soon to be a new topic).

Etc.

 

 

 

And the total lack of any "newspapers" has always intrigued me; they do have printing presses.

 

Anyways, this has been hinted at but not flat out stated:  I think RJ wrote because he HAD to.  There was always something inside him burning to come out.  As he stated, the ideas swirling in his mind coalesced into this.  All of his previous experiences, writings, etc. led to this series.  His opus, if you will.  There are, of course, poets, musicians, painters, etc., like this.  The old looking at a block of granite and seeing the sculpture within description.  He saw much more than most of us.  It's a joy to be allowed to view the end results.

[GrandpaG]

And the magic is just that.

 

The Wheel wills...

 

His thread in the Pattern included this series.

 

I'm glad that it did...I can't imagine never having read the series...or never stumbling into DM (still don't remember how I learned about this place).

 

What if there really IS a Pattern and Wheel?  :o

That means that there really might be hope that someday I'll learn to channel so I can take over the world!!!  >:D

[benr]

Grandpa, Grandpa - have you learned nothing from the Forsaken?

[Mr Ares]

so I can take over the world!!!  >:D

You'd fail. I'd stop you. *Evil grin*

 

I figure if you can't beat them join them.

So you're going to join me?

When someone calls you out on being immature that automatically makes them immature?

Not automatically. But when you've just done exactly what you criticised someone else for doing....can't beat a good bit of hypocrisy, can you?

 

* attempts to quell an unnecessary argument *

Whether or not it's necessary is less important than if it's fun.

 

The "feudal" thing was about the approximate technologies of the series.

They use animals to aid their work and travel.

Weaponry closely resembles our feudal age.

Bosses live in castles.

They have to have a fresh supply of food (no frig).

Communication in Randland...uuuhhhh...STINKS!!! (no cell phones...soon to be a new topic).

Etc.

Using animals to help with work/travel was done up until the industrial revolution. Since then, even - it still exists, even if it's less widespread.

Some of the weapons do, but Heron mark swords are katanas - Japanese. During the middle ages, how common were Japanese weapons in Western Europe?

Bosses living in castles or palaces? Well, that's where our Queen lives, so the UK, and all the Commonwealth countries that have Elizabeth II as Head of State are feudal, are they?

Fresh supply of food? Well, this is still needed today isn't it?

Poor communications were not a hallmark of feudalism. Are the systems of Government seen throughout the series feudal? Certainly not in the same way as A Song of Ice and Fire, based on a Mediaeval English conflict. Were steam trains invented in the Middle Ages? Because someone has invented something awfully similar in Randland. The series seems more renaissance/early modern/start of industrial revolution than feudal.

 

I get the impression that RJ was fascinated with the feudal period of our own history and that influenced his writing...I'm glad he did...it's neat to read about people taking weeks to travel a few hundred miles while begging for food and sleeping in hay stacks...not that I'd ever want to do it myself, but it's neat to read about.

I get the impression he was interested in a variety of cultures and time periods - we can't narrow it down to a specific time period in our own history. It's more of a mish mash of times and places. ASoIaF is based on a series of conflicts from 1455-1487. Prince of Nothing is based on the First Crusade, so 1095-1099. Wheel of Time? Not so much. Weapons technology lags behind - Randland should have cannons. But we also see the printing press, steam technology, and so on.

[RAND AL THOR]

Re: What's this series REALLY about?

 

Rand 'Al Thor

[Sabio]

Its about how many things you can lose/have happen to you and still win.  So far we are up to a losing a hand, poor eyesight eyesight, hole in side, begining of insanity, stuffed in a box, beaten, stabbed few times, and fireballed.  At the rate he is going soon he will have to be carried about in a sack like C3P0 was by Chewbacca in Empire Strikes Back.

[Hybrid]

At the rate he is going soon he will have to be carried about in a sack like C3P0 was by Chewbacca in Empire Strikes Back.

 

:D :D :D

[Mr Ares]

At the rate he is going soon he will have to be carried about in a sack like C3P0 was by Chewbacca in Empire Strikes Back.

Who gets to be Chewie?

[Hybrid]

At the rate he is going soon he will have to be carried about in a sack like C3P0 was by Chewbacca in Empire Strikes Back.

Who gets to be Chewie?

 

Perrin.  Surely you can see the obvious resemblance. ;D

[Mr Ares]

At the rate he is going soon he will have to be carried about in a sack like C3P0 was by Chewbacca in Empire Strikes Back.

Who gets to be Chewie?

Perrin.  Surely you can see the obvious resemblance. ;D

Big. Hairy. Speech composed of growls rather than words. Co-pilot of Millenium Faile. They're practically identical. Who does that make Han Solo then? Gaul? So all this series is lacking is Ishamael explaining to Rand that he didn't kill Rand's father - he is Rand's father.