Re: The wheel of time and other fantasy books
Jordan cast a lot of shade on both men and women. I've criticized this before, and it's accurate, but it also isn't biased overmuch toward or against one gender over the other in this instance.
Motivations are complicated. A group of women who have had the uncontested run of things for a long time has probably lost the sense of what it's like to be opposed, and are unused to giving up any power (Moiraine is a great microcosm of this). Some of these women think that the main character must be controlled; others think that since there's no way to guarantee what prophecy means, or whether it's even accurate, they must only watch and act at greatest need.
I fully agree that a lot of problems would have been lessened if people would just have bloody well sat down and shared info, so those moments are great when they happen. But I actually enjoy all the various factions, even groups within those factions with differing ideals. Because that's exactly how the world works on the macro scale. Look at any congress or senate or house of commons, or any large governing body, or any large group with a leader, or hell, even a military body, and you'll see what I mean.
I'm one of those heathens who recognizes the importance of Lord of the rings, and liked the story well enough when I read it. But I think the series is far, far more awkwardly written in places than Wheel of Time ever pretended to be, even though WoT is much bigger. Lord of the Rings has crisp delineations of everything. There are very few gray characters (Boromir is probably the best here, Denethor is another). Most are either very good, or very...not good. Sauron and his ilk are evil just...because. There's not a lot of nuance to most of the characters. The magic in the universe is sort of nebulous and unruled, yet Tolkien wrote a whole freaking language that in some cases he takes pains to inflict upon us. There are parts of the books I genuinely enjoy. And then there are parts where I find myself thinking, "Right, okay. How long is this going to last, anyway?". I don't hate the series, not by any means, but I think after reading newer fantasy, I've lost my awe of Lord of the Rings, and have found myself much more able to pick out its flaws and its issues.
I'm now thinking of the GRRM vs. Tolkien battle rap:
"Your bad guys die, your good guys survive.
We can tell what's gonna happen by page and age five."
"You went too deep, professor Tweedpants.
We don't need the backstory on every fuckin' tree-branch!"
I still say GRRM's shots were very on point there, though Tolkien might have won overall. That is still one of my favourite rap battles of history. Heh.
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