There are some really catchy quotes, those that are memorable and stick with you. What ones come to mind to you?

 

One that I really like (I can't remember who says it) from Winter's Heart:

 

"She's channeling saidin." - In response to Aran'gar seizing saidin during the Cleansing of Saidin

 

Of course there's also

 

"Kneal, or be knealt." - Taim (Lord of Chaos - post Dumai's Well battle)

 

 

What other great ones come to mind?

I'm not sure if you nailed the Taim quote spot on, but yeah best quote in the series BY FAR. You saved me looking through the posts to see if anyone else had posted it before I did.

I stared at one of my buddies for about an hour while he was reading LoC until he got to that part. He just looked up at me when he got there and quoted it, because he KNEW that's what I was waiting for once he saw it. Damn, what a good quote.

Oh, if we are talking about responsibility, it would be most responsible to conscript every person in the world, abolish currency and force everyone to either make swords, use them or grow food for the armies. You are talking about the end of the world here, enslave everyone to make sure it doesn't happen.

 

But the world doesn't work that way, you have the whole 'what is the point of saving the world if you have already destroyed it' mentality. So let him build schools founded on unguided research, it is the only way to make truely groundbreaking discoveries.

I wholeheartedly agree with your 1st paragraph approach to Tarmon Gai'don with regard to the Seanchan. This is a strategy they should utilize.

Oh, if we are talking about responsibility, it would be most responsible to conscript every person in the world, abolish currency and force everyone to either make swords, use them or grow food for the armies. You are talking about the end of the world here, enslave everyone to make sure it doesn't happen.

 

But the world doesn't work that way, you have the whole 'what is the point of saving the world if you have already destroyed it' mentality. So let him build schools founded on unguided research, it is the only way to make truely groundbreaking discoveries.

*sigh* Given that Rand isn't the dictator of the entire world,I'm going to ignore your first paragraph. As to your second, the schools will not contribute any groundbreaking discoveries until after the last battle. So don't waste resources creating some system that is really only symbolic.

My food spoilage quip was sarcasm. Though it is fair to point out that a grant system would be much more economically feasible than Rand's schools. Most of the research done at Rand's schools is pointless given that the world is poised on the edge of the final battle. It is clearly just a last, desperate effort for Rand to immortalize his short reign. I thing it would be much more fiscally responsible for him to just have a statue built and put the rest of the money towards the war effort.

Also, with respect to food spoilage, there are instances in the book where the one power and even more mundane efforts such as cold storage (cellars and iceboxes) can slow the food degradation. This is very important given the very finite food resources that must tide the world over up until the final battle and afterwards in the event of victory. I do however think the books focused far too much on this spoilage. At the rate it was supposedly happening half the people in the world should be dead by now anyway.

Rand should make the people at his schools focus on the problem of food spoilage. But like all autocrats, he has little concern for the every day needs of tme people. He sees grand visions of a return to the way things used to be. With greater centralization, we see greater innovation, but this innovation is forced on people. Very few people care about recapturing old technologies when the demands for living day to day are so pressing. The more you remove the individual's desires government, the more government can focus on steam engines and the like.

Mr. Ares: yeah, I'm not really concerned with the perception of randlands population, they have less schooling and no scientific method, little mathematical modeling, that we saw growing up, exponential growth graphs etc... they may not have understood how broken their population growth was, we do and it is not subtle.

Their population should have been growing, but it fell dramatically.

It fell dramatically over the course of 1,000 years. That's precisely why I term it subtle. Yes, it has a very noticeable effect over a prolonged period, but it needs a long period to become apparent. Over a short period, it is not noticeable. A definition of subtle: "fine or delicate in meaning or intent; difficult to perceive or understand". The population decline is difficult to perceive. It requires centuries of information.

 

I apologize for not reading every post, but this technological stagnation (and really economic balance in my opinion) is the premise of a lot of fantasy. I tend to believe that social and technological stagnation is a necessary evil of magic. If you think about it, what reason is there to develop complicated medical science when when our best medical efforts in the real world pale in comparison to those of Nynaeve and the Yellow Ajah.

The Yellow Ajah are not always available. Only 1% of the population can channel at all, not all of them will become channelers, not all of them have great strength, not all of them will have any noteable degree of skill with Healing (some strong AS lack enough Talent in Healing to Heal a bruise). Unless useful magic is readily available, there is an incentive to find non-magical solutions to problems.

While I appreciate these points, I don't believe they would matter to the population of the world at large. Almost every single disease has already been conquered. What is the point of more medical advancement. Medicine akin to our in such a world would really only be seen as the advil of the curative world. It would only be useful for a quick fix. Almost every kind of terminal disease is curable with a pilgrimage to the White Tower in the North and Central of the continent. Those in the South can simply go visit a Ring member near them. I believe this would be similar to the doctor shortage we currently have. Because we suffer from a dearth of doctors, to cure most serious recurring disease takes months. But most people don't see too much with it because we know that if we had a truly large problem, we could get it fixed with enough perseverance. This kind of mindset is endemic.

I really think that it would affect a magic using world in a serious way causing lethargy and general malaise with regard to technology. The best and easiest way to advance technology is to identify magic users and utilize them to their fullest the way the Seanchan empire does. Why create a bulldozer when you can leash a woman who can do much the same thing and more. Further, this tool won't break down for 300+ years. In the world of the Wheel of Time, I believe that the Seanchan solution is the most likely progression.

I apologize for not reading every post, but this technological stagnation (and really economic balance in my opinion) is the premise of a lot of fantasy. I tend to believe that social and technological stagnation is a necessary evil of magic. If you think about it, what reason is there to develop complicated medical science when when our best medical efforts in the real world pale in comparison to those of Nynaeve and the Yellow Ajah.