RJ and 'intertextuality' (Jane Eyre etc.)

[szilard]

There are many (2 ) similarities between WoT and Jane Eyre. The beggar's path vs Rand and Mat in TEOTW, or when Jane reunites with Rochester vs Rand and Min in LOC/ACOS (it starts with "I sought a seat for him in a hidden and lovely spot, a dry stump of a tree; nor did I refuse to let him, when seated, place me on his knee ...").

Just coincidence? Or general themes? Tropes?  

Do you have any similar experiences (aha, another 'source'!) with classic lit?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Tropes and more dickens and Austen IMO than anything else, but he obviously was influenced by classics.

[szilard]

Tropes and more dickens and Austen IMO than anything else, but he obviously was influenced by classics.

 

You know, I re-read Wuthering Heights/P&P/E every year, and I (re-)read JE every decade or so but the latest experience (JE) was so weird: "Haven't we met before in a slightly modified form?" The faq does not say anything ...

 

(I don't like Dickens - totally overrated )

 

---------

 

Interview: Jul, 2002 COT: 'Glimmers' Ebook Q&A (Verbatim)

 

What other authors have most influenced your work?

 

Robert Jordan: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Robert Heinlein, John D. MacDonald and Louis L'Amour.

 

Interview: Oct 19th, 1994 Compuserve Chat (Verbatim) 

 

My question is, who are YOUR favorite authors and why?

 

Robert Jordan: Mark Twain, followed by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, because they're good.

 

---------

 

Twain and RJ - I can't see any resemblance (especially having read Tom Sawyer a week ago)

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

He tried to do the colloquialism that twain did, but was hampered, I think, by less facility with spoken language and the fact that he was making the speech up rather than writing what he heard.

[szilard]

You should write a longer comment; I'd like to read more of your thoughts on this.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Sorry, that's about all I have to say about it atm. Only thing I'd add is I love dickens and you can tell from the meandering style and the way the stories disappear for whole books and pop back up like nothing happened that so did RJ. I've been doing a full dickens re-listen in the car for a couple years and he he often makes me think of wot.

[szilard]

Sorry, that's about all I have to say about it atm.

 

This is not my day, but thank you.

 

Only thing I'd add is I love dickens and you can tell from the meandering style and the way the stories disappear for whole books and pop back up like nothing happened that so did RJ. I've been doing a full dickens re-listen in the car for a couple years and he he often makes me think of wot.

 

To me ACC is his only good work (I have 4-5 different editions at least) Very interesting observation, maybe RJ did this subconsciously.

 

Thanks again.

[Orderofolde]

 

Tropes and more dickens and Austen IMO than anything else, but he obviously was influenced by classics.

 

You know, I re-read Wuthering Heights/P&P/E every year, and I (re-)read JE every decade or so but the latest experience (JE) was so weird: "Haven't we met before in a slightly modified form?" The faq does not say anything ...

 

(I don't like Dickens - totally overrated )

 

---------

 

Interview: Jul, 2002 COT: 'Glimmers' Ebook Q&A (Verbatim)

 

What other authors have most influenced your work?

 

Robert Jordan: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Robert Heinlein, John D. MacDonald and Louis L'Amour.

 

Interview: Oct 19th, 1994 Compuserve Chat (Verbatim) 

 

My question is, who are YOUR favorite authors and why?

 

Robert Jordan: Mark Twain, followed by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, because they're good.

 

---------

 

Twain and RJ - I can't see any resemblance (especially having read Tom Sawyer a week ago)

 

You couldn't see any Twain influence?  That poor Badger!  Matt was very much a trickster and very Tom Sawyerish in my opinion.

[szilard]

You couldn't see any Twain influence?  That poor Badger!  Matt was very much a trickster and very Tom Sawyerish in my opinion.

 

Mat is just a trope in EOTW but you could be right.

[wotfan4472]

Yes!! This is why Matt was cool for me: He was a cross between Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I own those novels, too

[szilard]

Yes!! This is why Matt was cool for me: He was a cross between Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I own those novels, too

 

He had changed the most out of the trio. Maybe too much. Sometimes I really miss the "good, old" Mat.

[jack of shadows]

out of the three...scratch that,the character who have changed the most throughout

the wheel of time journey is rand,the boy who walked side by side his father at the

very beginning doesn't even remotely resemble the man who rode off post last battle

two and a half years later.

just out of curiosity,when,in your opinion,did mat change too much and stopped being

the "good old mat"?is it just a gradual change in his character ? or was there (in the

story) a distinct turning point?

[szilard]

You are right, the whole series is about the changes in our heroes (and in their relationships to each other), but I see Rand and Perrin "on the right path/side" from the beginning. The changes (inside them) just respond to achieve directly like a body would when exercised, I mean, I see only stronger expressions of their original personalities. The merging in Rand is "negligible", and I think the same is true for Perrin.

 

Well, the real turning point: when Mat visits Rekal Incorporated. He becomes almost a half-lifer after that meeting. (Yes, this week is dedicated to Philip K. Dick: We can..., Ubik, A Scanner Darkly ) The change is gradually taking place, but, in the end, he is transforming more and more into his new character. He totally embraces these things, without zero protesting (a slight exaggeration). He's got a new past now, which becomes organic part of his new self.  

 

Or something like this. Sorry, I cannot express myself more clearly. As usual.

[jack of shadows]

mat visits rekal incorporated...lol,were you referring to mat's visit in finnland?

i completely forgot about we can remember it for you wholesale .

[szilard]

mat visits rekal incorporated...lol,were you referring to mat's visit in finnland?

 

Yep.

[szilard]

“I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol, and wild women. The other half I wasted.” W.C. Fields

 

Mat tossed the gold mark onto the man's tray. "From the biggest fool in the world. Mind you spend it well, on women and wine."

As a teetotal, a serious (not serial) monogamist, (and anti-gambler,) I just love Mat's advice.