Tempus Fugit

[HeronMarkedSoul]

I felt the need to make this post because for whatever reason I think it will be cathartic for me. Not because I think anyone would particularly care what I feel, but maybe someone can relate. Also this is a WoT site so if not here, where?

 

I just finished the series and I feel like there is kind of an empty spot that had been filled of late by the world of WoT. My wife told me to stop it and just pick up another book like I always do. But for some reason I either can't or don't want to, or a combination of the two. This time through I enjoyed the immersion completely and miss the goings-on in the world I had been visiting nightly for the past month or so. Watching the lives and stories of characters I liked unfold before me.

 

Twenty years or so ago I saw TEOTW on a shelf in the store and bought it. I was an avid fantasy/sci-fi reader and I wondered how I'd never heard of the book, but was happy I found it. The characters were all about the same age as me at the time and I absolutely devoured this book. I really loved everything about it. Through the years I bought all of the books as they came out, named pets after characters, turned others on to the series, played the video game, named characters in the MMOs that I played with names from WoT, etc.

 

Then for some reason I started drifting away a bit starting at around book 6 or 7. Each time a new book was released I would reread from the beginning and would fly through the first 5 and inevitably slow down. I would sometimes skip around if I was really interested in a situation with a certain character, or skim through areas I wasn't as interested in. I think I got up to KoD (don't recall exactly) before I stopped for a long period of time. I know now, believe me, I was an idiot.

 

As I age I am slowing down and appreciating things more. I used to think things would get too slow in a WoT book and I'd rush to the next battle or point of excitement. Alas, I have changed my tune profoundly.

 

Recently after a few years or so I felt the call again to read TEOTW. I picked it up and after about 50 pages I knew that I would read the whole series this time. I have no idea why I felt this way but I was certain. After all I had every book as I always bought them as soon as they came out, it was bizarre but I just never got around to them.

 

Sure enough I was completely engrossed in each novel, reading every word with equal voracity. The other night was when the feeling hit me in the pit of my stomach. I looked over at the table and saw I was halfway through TGS....Oh no, I only have one book left. I need to slow down.

 

But no, I couldn't slow down until I put down Towers.

 

In a weird way I'm glad that the final book is so far off because you don't want to think that it's really over. That there won't be any further interaction with a group of characters you have grown to (yes) love. No more journeying in this world of different traditions, cultures, and dangers. The subterfuge, the camaraderie, the great battles that are fought with spells going off everywhere, steel clashing, arrows whooshing.

 

In any story the most important thing is the characters. If you can relate to the characters you enjoy following them and the story being told around them. I have a feeling I may get emotional after finishing the final novel. My life has flown by these past twenty years and I guess my wife would say I've always had a hard time with goodbyes. Even if everything somehow ends with all of the main characters surviving, the finality of it may hit me hard. It's just another thing in life, that like everything else, must eventually end.

 

Many things have happened these past 20 or so years, and for some reason I can recall there always being a WoT novel lying around somewhere in the scenery of those moments.

 

In closing, I watched an interview with Mr Jordan where he said something along the lines of evil will win battles, but good will always win the war.

This is also my view of life. I know there are those who think me naive for feeling that way, but really with so many books being #1 bestsellers I guess there are plenty of people out there who still believe in being honorable and doing the right thing even though it may be so hard in the moment.

 

Friendship and love. Loyalty, courage, and honor. I'm gonna miss these kids when they're gone, and I for one am not ashamed to say it.

[Mik]

QFT!

Ok ok,....so I didn't actually quote your whole post, but it felt like reading my own thoughts so I think it deserved the term nonetheless!

I feel the exact same way at times! (even though it's not the past 20 years for me, but the last 16 -still long!-)

 

I take comfort in the fact that Time (and thought :P) may flee, but that the Memory never fades.

 

Or to put it in latin;

"Tempus fugit, non autem memoria; memoria manet"

(Time escapes, but not memory; memory remains)

 

 

*shakes hand*

Mik

 

 

P.S: Time flies would be Tempus Volat

[nojnomad]

Your blatant disreguard for the privacy of my personal thoughts is atrocious.

 

Er, um, I mean yeah, what you said.

 

This series has been with me for so long and the characters so well developed that they feel like shades of my own memories.

As the Aiel would say it... The dream will end and we will wake.

[Vambram]

Extremely well said, HeronMarkedSoul. In many ways, you were describing my experiences, also. Except that I read each book almost immediately after it was published.

For 20 years, the WOT has been, and it shall always be a very important part of my life. Eagerly, I am looking forward to reading AMOL. However, I know that won't be THE ending of the WOT for me and most of the rest of us WOT fanatics. After we read AMOL, I am sure that I will be here with most of y'all for years to come as we continue to debate & discuss everything there is to talk about in the WOT.