Teaching a class on The Wheel of Time

[amajek]

Hey everyone! I was talking to a dean at my college, and she told me I should teach a class on the Wheel of Time my senior year. I've decided that I'm going to do, but I have no idea what to do for it. If you were taking a class about the Wheel of Time, what would want to get out it? What would you want to discuss or talk about?

[Vam]

depends what kind of class/degree the students are expecting.

 

is this a literature class or an english language class? or a sociology class? etc

 

 

 

how about:

 

WoT & Radical feminism?

[amajek]

depends what kind of class/degree the students are expecting.

 

is this a literature class or an english language class? or a sociology class? etc

 

 

 

how about:

 

WoT & Radical feminism?

[/quote

 

I'm not sure yet. The dean who is sponsoring me is actually a math teacher. I originally thought it was going to be an interdisciplinary class. For instance, we would discuss mythological parallels, discuss the inspirations for the Forsaken, and maybe discuss the government styles such as the role of the White Tower in society. I also thought we would make predictions for A Memory In Light.

[Rufae]

depends what kind of class/degree the students are expecting.

 

is this a literature class or an english language class? or a sociology class? etc

 

 

 

how about:

 

WoT & Radical feminism?

 

I'm not sure yet. The dean who is sponsoring me is actually a math teacher. I originally thought it was going to be an interdisciplinary class. For instance, we would discuss mythological parallels, discuss the inspirations for the Forsaken, and maybe discuss the government styles such as the role of the White Tower in society. I also thought we would make predictions for A Memory In Light.

 

That sounds good to me.

 

You could also teach about the role of technology in warfare and use how the shape of battles changed in WOT as technology changed.

 

Maybe for a class period, have everyone spend the hour trying to reach for the Source.

 

You could study the different kinds of cultures in WOT and the pros/cons of each.

[Suttree]

Mirror Worlds, potential realitites and physics...

 

Question Part 2: I was interested in how the physics like with the Mirror Worlds, the world of If?

Jordan: The Mirror Worlds of course come right out of physics, and the possibility of (mumble) universes and all of the rest of it. But frankly while I don't follow the literature, I haven't for a number of years, I occasionally get stuck on panels with physicists and I am supposed to discuss physics for which I am twenty five years out of date. But I find that I can hold my own, although I do not have a doctorate or did I ever intend to get one (I went to work instead). I can hold my own with the PhDs in physics when they are talking theoretical physics if I stop talking physics, at least from my point of view, and start talking theology and this troubles me.

[Red2111]

you could also discuss the concept of religion thats potrayed in the WoT, as far as reincarnation and fate (how peoples lives are strings).

 

 

another woudl be comparing and contrasting the era in Randland to that of our own historical Medieval era. you could even brouch on Slavery and the Damane.

[Thorum]

Just don't forget most people won't have read the book, nor will they read about 10,000 pages (and spend at least 130 $/€) just for 1 class

This makes things like predictions quite hard.

 

Other things are of course possible: learning about the cultures (Aiel - Tinker development f.e.) ; lessons in zen (with a touch of magic) ; feminism (case study: Far Madding) ; defense systems (Borderlands <-> Illian/Tear) ; teleportation (Saidin/Saidar/True Power/real world) ; ...

[redarm]

$130 for materials is cheap man. I had text books that cost twice that much! Plus I would assume those signing up for this class would already be familiar with the books. It is sort of a specific topic, though the topics within are many as others have pointd out.

[Ashaman Kovan]

Maybe for a class period, have everyone spend the hour trying to reach for the Source.

 

This is win.

[Thorum]

$130 for materials is cheap man. I had text books that cost twice that much! Plus I would assume those signing up for this class would already be familiar with the books. It is sort of a specific topic, though the topics within are many as others have pointd out.

 

It's mainly the reading time I implied (and $130 worth of books can be called a lot of things, but not "cheap")

Also, if it's an optional class, this argument fails of course

[NetSlider]

I was thinking at one point pursuing masters in English pretty seriously (instead just took my LSAT) but I was going to actually work on thesis on WOT. The series is so rich and deep and the mythology and symbolism, along with the whole good vs. evil, human folly, and of course religious parallels, could make a very good research topic. Anyways, what school are you at? If it is not too far I might actually take the class just to have an opportunity to spend time working on the WOT (though to call it work would be a complete lie).

 

As far as books cost comment, I just got some textbooks and the cheapest was $170 (just for a simple book!) so $130 is not that bad in contrast to the monopolized college textbook industry.

[Spirit1025]

Just don't forget most people won't have read the book, nor will they read about 10,000 pages (and spend at least 130 $/€) just for 1 class

This makes things like predictions quite hard.

 

Umm....I don't know where you went to college, but that sounds pretty reasonable to me. I spent $500+ on materials for some of my classes. I've got textbooks that cost more than $130 each. Ten thousand pages of reading...well maybe not, but sometimes it sure seemed like it.

 

A big challenge is definitely going to be how big the story is. Are you going to expect the students to read the entire thing in the course of a semester? Not too many people would be willing/able to do that. Though I imagine most of the students who sign up for it would be people who already know about the books.

 

There's so MUCH you could get into, you could pretty much pick any subject and make it work.