“History repeats her tale unconsciously, and goes off into a mystic rhyme; ages are prototypes of other ages, and the winding course of time brings us round to the same spot again.”
—James Burns, The Christian Remembrancer Vol 10, 1845
“If what I get is what they did in Merlin, I’ll be perfectly satisfied.”
—Robert Jordan interview, 1999
Fans of The Wheel of Time are conditioned from its earliest moments to respect the power of prophecy and to analyze the tiniest minutiae of word choice. The story’s characters perceive their foretold Breaking of the World with a mix of fear and hope…and now we fans have mixed feelings about our own coming cataclysm. Long whispered in real-world prophesies, the Wheel of Time TV show will be upon us in a matter of days.
Rational viewers (which I admittedly am not) will anticipate an hour’s entertainment, one episode after the other. But for some of us, this is a moment of transition, a Breaking of what The Wheel of Time is, essentially, and a reforging of what it means to be a WoT fan. It is as though many of us are at a feast—we existing fans huddled around the table anxious to dig in, while curious but unfamiliar people peek through the windows, waiting for Amazon to let them in. A minority of fans already seated at the table are looking nervously at those people outside, and they are being noisy about them. Why? Their problem is not really the new guests. Their problem is with the feast itself.
Waygatekeeping
Worrying about new fans—and any talk of gatekeeping around the series—is historically out of character for the Wheel of Time fandom. I’ve participated in many sci-fi and fantasy franchise fandoms in the past 40 years, and I remain amazed at how open, inclusive, and downright familial the Wheel of Time fanbase is. I have been an active fan since cramming pages between junior high classes in 1992. After I finished my friend’s copy of The Shadow Rising, our friend group fell into a hole of geeking out over these books. I never made it out of that hole. Shortly thereafter, in the days before the World Wide Web, I discovered the Robert Jordan USENET newsgroup and its population of Darkfriends who modeled rational, good-natured, respectful debate online.
Buy the Book
The Eye of the World: Book One of The Wheel of Time
It took many years before I realized this was not how the rest of the Internet was going to turn out.
These fans talked forever about topics both firmly Jordan-based and tangential; they met in real life in Darkfriend Socials sometimes hosted at their own houses, and upon a foundation of love of The Wheel of Time they fostered a burgeoning sense of chosen family. The rules were simple: you were accepted into this family as long as you were not a jackass and showed some common courtesy. As the fandom grew and the Internet evolved, the center of gravity moved onto the web as Dragonmount.com, TarValon.net, Theoryland.com, and other websites reached critical mass. These subcommunities developed their own perspectives on what elements of the fandom excited them the most—general discussion, highly social real-life events, going deep on speculation and the metaphysics of the series, etc. A little over a decade ago, the first WoT-themed convention, JordanCon, was started by fans and it has prospered even amidst a global pandemic. Fan-made podcasts and YouTube videos have added new dimensions and levels of fan engagement, and now more fan conventions are coming. Over thirty years, there has been a consistent Pattern of chosen extended family eagerly embracing new members.
Some fandoms (and here I look directly at you, my beloved Star Wars) have a reputation for being a bit aggressive, even occasionally venomous. The opposite has been true, in my experience, of the WoT community. By nature of the worldview Jordan wrote into the fabric of his story, the WoT fanbase has been very inclusive since the beginning. It still is, but with the new TV series in the works, an impulse toward possessiveness, a temptation towards gatekeeping seems to have crept in here and there, if just for a minority of fans, as if “show people” would somehow be lesser versions of “book people,” less deserving of the experience and community WoT brings.
An Age Yet to Come, An Age Long Past
We are told that there are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time, but this moment is a beginning, and it is an ending. For much of the fandom this is the End of an Age, a Breaking of what defines our secondary world, and a threatening of our interpretations of this work by a new Definitive Way That Things Are.
In some ways I think the WoT fandom is facing a second passage through what folklorist Arnold van Gennep and anthropologist Victor Turner called “the liminal experience.” A liminal experience is one in which the participants, regardless of their backgrounds, give up some facet of their identity, go through an identical process, and then emerge from the experience as members of a shared new identity or status. Under some definitions, a true liminal experience requires a prescribed and uniform understanding of two things: what you have to do in the experience, and who will oversee it. The archetypal example of a liminal experience is a wedding ceremony. Before the ceremony you turn your back on your identity as two single individuals, and then you exchange vows, and now you are a married couple, and the officiant oversees all of it.
I submit that people who self-identify as part of the Wheel of Time fan community have also undergone a uniform ritual—reading the series as given to them by Robert Jordan—and by nature of that ritual are accepted members of the extended family of Darkfriends (or whatever we call ourselves these days). But some sections of the fandom are now bothered by two disruptions that the new show brings. The first is an invalidation of the idea that the original story is the exclusive definition of what The Wheel of Time is… The second is an alternative ritual, perceived by some as illegitimate, by which people can now enter the fandom: watching the show, which on some level must mean experiencing an inherently different story. Both schism and a new land of opportunity lay before us at this crossroads, and many in the fandom are feeling nervous, angry, or excited, or hurt, or rapturous, or cautiously optimistic. No matter what the emotion at facing this future, there is a shared understanding that what once was is ending.
On a practical level, no longer will every fan’s head-canon of appearances and sounds and accents and pronunciations be equally (in)correct. Why does that matter so much? Because our minds have created these mental constructs of these characters, and we have identified with their struggles and their conflicts and their bad choices and their heroic moments, and we have sentimental attachments to those associations built, for some of us, across as many as 30 years. And now those mental constructs are being disassembled and are dying out by replacement. With each clip of promotional material Amazon releases, our perceptions of Emond’s Field, of Nynaeve’s braid, of Lan’s taciturn face, of Thom’s moustaches, of Mat’s laugh, and countless other details that made this world and these characters captivating to us—those pillars that underlie the foundations of our fandom are being overwritten. This is, admittedly, not a grave loss in the scale of the human experience. But it is a loss.
This is the pre-liminal phase, as we are asked to surrender a particular part of our previous identity and join the new liminal experience—no longer reading a book, but watching a show, and a world no longer overseen by Robert Jordan’s sole vision, but by showrunner Rafe Judkins. Like a kid who thinks that because Mom has a new boyfriend they’re being told to reject Dad, some fans are pre-emptively rejecting Amazon’s new telling of the story as illegitimate, wrong-headed trespassing that is going to happen whether they like it or not—and because they are dedicated to the family they will not be able to escape the changes.
I have a lot of sympathy for this view. As a teenager in the ’90s I would play the casting game of who could be a good Moiraine and who would be a good Lan, until it was announced that NBC had the license to film The Eye of the World and I suddenly realized I never wanted these books on screen. These books are unfilmable, I said, and the depth of story that makes me love them so much will by necessity be lost. When we were blown away by the previews for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King swept the Oscars, I said that even though the Lord of the Rings adaptations were successful, The Wheel of Time could not and should not be made. When I finally closed A Memory of Light I still said it. If you cannot do the work justice, don’t do it an injustice.
But there is an old Vulcan proverb, “Only Nixon could go to China,” and now, I have come to Amazon. The reality of the show is an established fact, or it will be in a few days, and the new Age is upon us. And now that there is something real to look at, I have to say—I think it looks pretty good. I am cautiously optimistic. I have quibbles but no real quarrels with the deviations we know about as of this writing. I have known for 30 years that story changes would be necessary, and I am convinced this crew at least understand the spirit of the work they’ve chosen to adapt.
I am ready—excited, honestly—to see if they succeeded, and to watch the doors open for an entirely new group of fans. They won’t come in from the same starting point that we did, but I see this as an exciting opportunity for a new, second liminal experience that all of us old fans—and all the new ones—can experience together. That has me more excited even than seeing this story, which more than any other single story has affected my life, shaped my friendships, and redefined what a family could be. The Wheel of Time extended family is about to get a whole lot bigger—again—and I genuinely can’t wait to geek out with new people about new things in the new Age that’s about to begin.
Billy Todd is a Starfleet officer stranded in the 21st century who escapes notice by hiding in plain sight as a corporate attorney. He further advances his cover identity by serving as the track director for the Brandon Sanderson Track at JordanCon. He occasionally violates the Temporal Prime Directive by posting on social media at Facebook and on Twitter @Billy_Todd.
Very nice, Mr. Todd.
As I contemplate my viewing experience this coming Friday night, I am keeping a firm hold on what someone from the TORn discussion groups pointed out about Peter Jackson’s LOTR years upon years ago: Just think of it as two different people trying to tell the same story, but in their own way.
I’m sure that’s a poor paraphrase, but it gets the point across. Of course, Tolkien had used the conceit that his narrator(s) was simply an independent storyteller, so that in itself suggested the idea. But the principle is the same. The written “facts” are merely a framework that is understood according to your own background and experience, so now it’s time to be exposed to someone else’s experience.
Im glad Im not alone with my fears… these books have been part of me for so long that it is hard to imagine a version on the screen and Im not sure I really want it. I know it will be different, it has to be different. I look forward to seeing how my family and friends, who have never read the books, will react to the story. Describing it as the end of an age and the beginning of a new age is perfect. Mostly, I just hope it is a good show that is well received and fun. I want my streaming viewer friends to love the characters as much as i do.
Well said Billy. I know as soon as I start thinking that I am a true “fan” because I have read the series multiple times (with some specific favorites 5 to 6 times) I am falling for that trap. I am going in with an open mind and very much hope the series is amazing. Watch party with bourbon and some tabac already planned!
You said you never wanted an adaptartion to be made because it couldn’t possibly do the story justice. I was exactly the same. I always felt the same about The Dark Tower series, too, and we know how that went.
So yeah, despite the success of Game of Thrones, I had a lot of trepidation about The Wheel of Time adaptation. However, the trailers I’ve seen, the casting I’ve seen, all of that really gets me excited because we get to experience our beloved story in a new way.
And as you say, accept new fans into our wonderful family.
This is definitely not the beginning, but it is a beginning.
I hope the series is good & stays true to the spirit of Jordan’s series. Not a word for word, whole cloth translation of the text but the spirit of the series.
I don’t like slavish adaptations of any books I read, honestly. The first couple Harry Potter movies failed for me simply for the fact that it felt like it was read along summary – “And now dear viewer with are on page 135, Chapter 3…”
That is what Jackson got right with Lord of the Rings. Did he get everything right? No, of course not. But he brought to life the themes, ideas, & spirit of Tolkien’s work.
That said, as much as I love this series, I haven’t been on pins & needles waiting for this tv series to be made. Not sure why. Maybe I just never have wanted/needed the WoT series to leave the print/audiobook medium.
I do know, however, that I am in the minority in this and I am ok with that. As I said above, I hope it does well &, more importantly, does justice to Jordan’s world.
In the end, however, I do hope the series is fun & enjoyable & that its success will introduce new readers to Jordan. I always love having more people to talk about one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. That, for me, never gets old.
Kato
I have been a fan of WOT since the Dragonmount days myself, and it has always been my belief that this fandom is one of the most literate, most tolerant, and most inclusive fandoms in the world (and may I say what a pleasure it is to see the familiar old names in the comments!)
What Robert Jordan created and Brian Sanderson continued will last for generations to come, and each new generation will interpret it in its own way, and that’s alright.
TV is its own medium, and if the show simplifies the story (as it must if it isn’t to run for the next 20 years or so!), The books are still here, and the newbies drawn in by what so far seems to be a visual feast will hopefully be drawn to the source of the Source.
I experience something like an internal gatekeeping where I don’t feel like a proper fan if I read something because it’s being talked about a lot in the moment, whether it’s an adaptation coming out or even if it’s just that I saw a lot of good reviews. This is what happened with Game of Thrones, I read the series as the show was coming out and thought it was fine but it was just fine, I never really feel connected to either the show or the books enough to call myself a fan.
This won’t be an issue with Wheel of Time, since I began reading it some 18 or 19 years ago, but I wonder if I’m the only one who feels this kind of internalized gatekeeping.
As as Sci-Fi and fantasy person, I thought almost exactly the same about The Expanse.
Was the show the same as the books, No.
Was the show exactly to MY expectation of the books, No.
Have I read the books again to relive in my head how good they were because of the show, 100%.
Have I rewatched the show to see how good it really was put together, YES (more than once to be honest).
If they do somewhere between the The Expanse and TLOG’s, I will be so happy I may have to post myself do’n a happy dance (don’t worry, I’m get’n old so I don’t know how to ;) )
Cheers & happy watch’n
As a years-long fan of the series I know that I won’t be pleased by ALL of the inevitable changes, and still have to accept that I may not even like this interpretation at all from an adaptation point of view.
But I also know that the success of the series is going to live or die by the non-fans, and for that all I really want is a well-made Fantasy TV Show that can draw in a wide audience, as that would bode well for future properties.
And so it is that while the jury is still out on whether or not I, personally, will enjoy the show, that won’t stop me from hyping this series to whomever will take my recommendation.
So far – Two friends, my dad, my boss, my boss’s mom, and one co-worker with another on the fence.
Since, in the first minute of the Preview, they’ve made clear they fundamentally either don’t understand, or are willfully disregarding, the source material – I’ve simply accepted that this is a new (and less sensical) telling in some alternate universe where blind monkeys typed a somewhat similar story of familiar names and places.
Yes, Jordan’s magical system is inherently, definitionally sexist – not that men are better, or worse, than women – simply that magic is different for men and women, and that there are real consequences to tapping into the male half of the True Source which (spoilers) is a fundamental misunderstanding of magic in the WoT. But that misunderstanding has moved nations, driven the development of cultures and peoples since the time of the Breaking. Not even the Red Ajah are arrogant enough (mostly) to believe that a woman would arise as the Dragon Reborn and somehow cleanse the Source of the taint upon the male half and re-imprison the Dark One.
To set those things a aside is to deny the fundamental suspension of disbelief upon which fantasy is based, and substitute in its place an irrational response to events and developments within the world, driven solely by “modern” sensibilitities as likely to be relegated to the dustbin of history by future generations as Rafe Judkins et all is doing to Jordan’s imagined world now. The world of WoT TV is less real for it.
Jordan, deliberately, I think, turned a number of staple fantasy tropes on their head in crafting WoT, important to the world he brought to life in the reader’s minds – from casting on, R Judkins and Amazon have shown great willingness to toss those aside in an effort to provide a bland, predictable pablum to as many viewers as possible – little different from what Apple+ is doing to Foundation. or what MTV did to Shannara.
I think part of what keeps WoT’s community so friendly is the gatekeeping is inherent to the franchise. I love the books–their plot and worldbuilding is exceptional–but they are poorly-written (having your wife as an editor is never a good thing) and they grow incredibly tedious at times (let’s not forget several hundred pages of Perrin sitting about doing pretty much nothing as his wife ultimately saves herself).
There is a comradery in the WoT community–a collective sense of “we made it through this and realized it was all worth it”–that permeates every conversation on the franchise.
Personally, I am hoping the adaptation accurately portrays Jordan’s talents in storytelling, while lacking some of the drawbacks that make the book so inaccessible to so many would-be fans.
My girlfriend knew nothing about the books at all, then showed me the trailer and was excited, so naturally I started vomiting words at her about how amazing the story is, and about how terrified I am of the adaptation. Not because the pronunciations might be different than how they sound in my head, or the costuming or hairstyles or anything like that, but because of the pressure to change the gender basis if the world building and thus invalidate the entire prehistory of the story itself.
My emotions have ranged from excited, to impatient, to mistrustful, to disappointed, to mystified, to disdainful, to resentful… then back to excited, after the recent onslaught of tasty, tempting teasers.
The obtuse departures from the books made it easier to divorce my hopes of a proper adaptation of the source material, but after seeing the laughably inept display in the Winespring Inn Clip, I was at a loss to understand how quality professionals could produce such inauthentic zirconia. And I was starting to get angry at what appeared to me to be headed towards unmitigated disaster.
Thankfully, virtually everything that has been released since has gone a long way to reassure me that, while I will just be getting The Wheel of Time on screen, in name only… It will still be a quality TV SHOW in its own right.
Regrets, I still have a few. But my excitement overwhelms them.
Speaking as a long term fan from Australia where we had to wait an extra year for each book, I am really looking forward to the show.
I was driving down the highway yesterday and actually saw a billboard advertising the show. For a 40+ year old fanboy who never in his wildest dreams thought he would see it, it made my heart glad. Good, bad or indifferent-just the fact that the show is being made is in my mind – cool.
Dear WoT fans, I hope your expectations will not be crushed like it justhappened to us.
An Asimov fan
Since I picked up EotW in late 1990 I have never been without this incredible world.
My excitement at seeing this onscreen adaptation is … I have no words.
@@@@@ 15 – my deepest apologies, but I did laugh out loud. My sympathies.
In general, I’m going into this with the understanding it is a re-telling. It is not intended to be a faithful representation of the story of the books and I will watch it with that in mind. At this point, I’m just hoping that it is a “good show” and that glimmers of the characters I know and love do shine out occasionally!! I would like moments that make me smile.
But like with any show/movie that I am unsure of how it will turn out…I understand it may not tell the story I want to hear. But tell a good story! Be worthwhile in your own rights, and I’ll be grateful.
No adaptation is completely faithful. Some aren’t even close. But they can be liked on their own grounds. Or not.
Anyone else picture Thom as Sam Elliot?
I’m trying not to get hopes up for the show and just try to experience it for what it is.
I join the voices of others before me saying I am going into it with mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation. At the moment, at least, fortunately excitement is winning. I do feel a certain possessiveness, and, as the article so well put, like it is an end of an age. No longer will my headcanon be (the only) thing I see when I close my eyes, the names will change in my ears forever, and I doubt I can get behind every change they have made. And yet, and yet … I am thrilled we will get an onscreen version after so long a wait, and one that according to what I have seen so far, be it trailers or interviews, has been done with heart and care. I hope (and believe) I will manage to turn off the part of my brain that wants to compare what I see with what I have read or imagined while doing this, and that done, I believe it will be a great viewing experience. I have faith it will be a wonderful journey, following the series as I have followed the books. And as an added bonus, my best friend whom I have tried years to get into reading the series but who never got past the beginning of tEotW has said she has every intention to watch the show, and we even have arrangements to watch the first episodes together on Saturday! I will finally be able to geek out over WoT with her!
@15
Perhaps entitlement is to blame for fan disappointment (of any IP).
The Foundation TV series…deviation… does not bother me in the least. I appreciate the show’s general artistry and find the Emperor story line compelling enough. Its biggest problem is that its boring…and that’s a huge failing to be sure. Even so… I can choose to stop watching it at any time. I’m rather happy I’ve gotten to see anything from the Foundation universe. It already is…enough.
The WItcher TV series is far more enjoyable…even if I prefer the novels and video games over it thus far. Maybe Season 2 will be even better. Again, I’m just happy its happening.
Fans will be far happier if they focus on Opportunity over Execution. The latter will tend to bring only disappointment… lessor or greater (intended Witcher pun).
This isn’t about setting a lower bar…its about setting s different bar.
I choose to revel in choice. I’ve been ecstatic with the many SFF options that have flooded the TV scape these past few years. That it appears to be continuing is only more good news!
“Like a kid who thinks that because Mom has a new boyfriend they’re being told to reject Dad.” –Well, hm. Let me chew on that one a bit.
Certainly I do think there are some fans who will feel that way.
I’m going into this very open-minded, even more so than I think I would have been in college. This is not my first rodeo with adaptations. At this point in my life, I KNOW they are going to change things from the books. And I’m ok with that. Because the books are still there, and I can read them whenever I wish. In getting ready for this, I decided that I WASN’T going to start re-reading the first couple of books; instead I’ll finish the last re-read I was trying to get through that left off at Winter’s Heart. Because while I wanted to refresh some of my memory and get in a WoT mood, I really did not want to let myself get into a position where I could easily point out all the differences from the book in these first episodes. That’s not how I want to watch this show. I’m treating the show as something different from the books, because I know it is. So I to watch this show and see what it has to offer me as a show, without trying to contrast it to the books. Time will tell if I will go back to my original imaginings of the characters on rereads. So far I’ve been imagining the characters as I’ve always seen them despite seeing the actors in the trailers. Anyway, I’m excited.
And I’m also SUPER excited that we may get a bunch of new fans out of this! In fact, a lot of the reactors to the trailers haven’t read the books. I think maybe some people could have the tendency to feel a little off-put if it suddenly becomes super popular–like, “I liked them before they were famous.” But I feel like I want to hold the door wide-open for new fans.
Here’s hoping they don’t take Crown of Swords literally and film it like an episode of 24.
@23 omg, roflmao!
I mean, yes, I agree that wouldn’t be quite right but… now that you’ve said it, that sounds like a fantastic fan edit in the making. I hope someone does it, when the show gets there.
As a Fandom Old, I’m looking forward to it as an adaptation while yes, a little sad that now my imagination is going to have to fight with someone else imagination. I don’t think book fandom will be a problem, though I do think there’s going to be some friction in combined spaces over spoilers. I figure Show Only people are going to have to find Show Only spaces, because book fans aren’t going to stop commenting on how things on the show both changes things and how that will effect later events. Plus there’s a contingent of haters, who will hate both show and books and sneer at us all at every opportunity so that might be a unifying force, depending. Fandom dynamics are always interesting and we’ll see how this plays out.
I am cautiously excited for the show. The money and confidence Amazon has put into the show gives me hope though and I want it to succeed more the Game of Thrones has.
Like with Star Wars, Spider-man, Middle Earth … Im excited for my wife & daughter to get another glimpse of something that has become actual part of me.
I say “glimpse” because I do NOT agree that the show is a Breaking. I do NOT agree that after 30 years the images or pronunciations will change for me.
Im a thrilled for those who will visit the Wheel of Time through this show but it will never compare to our beloved books.
Just a jump through Portal Stone but it will never be Home.
Thank you Mr. Todd for saying so beautifully what so many of us are thinking and feeling. Looking forward to new family. :)
The TV-series is just simply a different turning of the wheel.
I’ve never viewed the pride of being someplace before someone else as gatekeeping. It just means that I’ve been able to enjoy this thing longer than you and now I get to show you all the cool things about it, even if it is slightly different.
I’m reminded of the weird, maybe even perverse, joy at watching A Song of Ice and Fire (ahem Game of Thrones) and knowing what was coming with the Red Wedding. Or really any of the many major shocking events. Getting to see that same shock on someone else’s face when it happened was incredible.
That being said, A Song of Ice and Fire has never been as special to me as The Wheel of Time. And I don’t think we really have many events, if any at all, that rise to the same shocking level as the Red Wedding. But there are many events (Who killed that thirsty guy, and the event at Dumai’s Wells come to mind) that are pivotal that I can’t wait to share and discuss with a whole new set of people. Along with that comes telling them why the show is “wrong” because here’s what really happened, but in a fun way. Because differences are interesting and something worth discussing.
I’m hoping for an adaptation like Outlander. Changes happen because the medium is different, but the story is there and enjoyable.
Love all the comments. I like the comparisons to Outlander and the Expanse. Both made changes, but maintained the heart of the material. Same of Discover of Witches, now that I think about it. All were excellent, in my view.
Things like Foundation just ripped everything apart, threw out the soul of the stories, and turned it into a completely different story which only referenced names and a few concepts from the books. It may be a decent story, but it should not be conflated with the original source material in any way. (for a simple example, just read the First Law of Robotics; nothing is more core to the stories/universe and it has been vaporized… not saying any more to avoid spoilers)
And I wish *so strongly* that people would stop referencing Game of Thrones in relation to WoT. I’m happy GoT brought a lot of people into the Fantasy genre, but I never liked the original books and don’t want WoT to be compared to those at all. It’s so very different and I’d rather it just be itself, not “the next GoT”.
I am excited and prepared for some alterations. The earlier explanation of different perspectives than the written one is how I learned to enjoy the Dune Expanded Universe (though good lord it is a SMALL universe).
There is modification for the sake of the medium and bending out of identifiable shape though. I have some qualms, but expect to be dazzled.
I’m in a weird fandom status with the series – I devoured the first half-dozen books or so, then ambled along through Crossroads of Twilight, and then… stopped. I just lost interest. (I’ve always suspected that this was partly due to the complexity of the universe, and the fact that Jordan wasn’t the best at re-introducing characters we hadn’t seen in a while. Certainly I referenced The World of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time constantly while reading the first several books – my slowdown coincided with where the guide ran out, and in 2003 the only internet fandom I participated in was Star Wars, so I’ve always wondered if a reread with wiki access would be more enjoyable.)
And now I’m seeing things like the actor playing Lan hailing the actress playing Nynaeve as “my wife!” and realizing I didn’t even remember there was a romance there, and wondering whether I remember any more than fragments.
But I loved the beginning, and I’ve been toying with the idea of a reread for years now. So now I’m stuck trying to decide whether I want to watch the show or not, and whether I ought to pick up Eye of the World again first or not.
Yes. Exactly.
I was such a Jordan nerd twenty-five years ago, I once posted to the USENET group an explanation of Nynaeve’s use of balefire in multi-verse limerick form.
My kids are at or almost at adulthood and surprisingly none of them have embraced WOT. Now, because of the show, there is a chance to share it with them in a new format that may lead back to one or more of them picking up my dust-free paperback version of Eye of the World.
There is some hesitation, however. This series is something that has literally helped define my personality. I think Robert Jordan’s portrayal of gender and race has helped me to be more open-minded than my eighties mountain west upbringing. I’m curious to see how race, in particular, is depicted throughout the Westlands given the diversity of the cast representing the tiny sliver of society from the Three Rivers.
My kids were raised on Harry Potter, which has the odd distinction of the later books inevitably being impacted by the films since the onscreen world existed before the series was completely written. The result is that although they may experience the story in both print and media, for those watching the show before reading the books – like every Harry Potter fan – much of the image formed while reading is dictated by the films they have already seen.
I gratefully welcome expansion of the fandom, but regret that many of those so expanded will share a liminal experience that I don’t have.
I think I would really enjoy this book series and show if it wasn’t for the gendered aspect of the story. The idea that only women can use magic and men can’t without going insane. The fact that there is a culture where women are given knives in marriage to stab their husbands with if he displeases them, but husbands aren’t given the same. The fact that women magic users can bond with male Warders, but the woman is the higher partner and can compel the man to some degree.
Those aspects of the story just don’t sound enjoyable for a male reader, especially given that the gender imbalance is so central to the story. I can only imagine the outrage if a story was published where only men were capable of doing magic. It’s strange how people react so differently with the genders reversed.
Well said. You’ve eloquently articulated the angst I have and likely will continue to experience everytime a beloved literary work gets adapted. The quality of the adaptation has little influence of the feeling of loss that comes when suddenly a private delight becomes commodified. The original work is not ruined, but sometimes it’s difficult to block out the external interpretations and opinions that come when a large group of strong-willed people with different outlooks but the common goal of profit exerts a significant effort to force the adaptation into the zeitgeist.
There are many older books where only men can use magic (or women’s magic is “lesser”). RJ deliberately switched the traditional gender roles to show men what it is like for women to read most older books. If men don’t like the experience he was successful. Removing that changes the basic idea of the series.
My wife and I are enjoying this.
I came into the books in high school and have read them all but the last at least twice if not more.
I introduced my wife to it after we met in collage and she has only ever read through book five.
Still she was Lorekeeper and an admin for The True Source, a WoT RPG server built with the Neverwinter Nights engine ( I think we still have a copy of the module knocking around somewhere). Her experience of the story was always different from mine and her image of the world was informed as much by the game she helped build as by the books.
Some of the choices they have made are puzzling but I’m content to wait and see where they are going with things.
And enjoy this turning of the Wheel.
@36 – that’s literally the point. Not to mention that there are ways women are disadvantaged (especially when there is no Taint)…Men are known to generally be stronger in the Power. There are some weird dynamics with circles/links as I recall too. At any rate, sometimes biology is unfair to our eyes. As for the cultures, I can’t speak to that, but those cultures sprung up in a specific context, similar to how very patriarchal cultures spring up here. Not to mention that Ebou Dar is kind of an extreme.
ANYWAY – I do have issues with what the show is doing, and it’s always going to be a bit of a paler imitation that doesn’t match up to what has lived in my head for 20 years. But I AM excited to see more activity in all those old forums and websites.
All: Please note that comments will be temporarily closed over the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend.