Live Blogs The Liveblog of Time: The Eye of the World

Eegah2012-04-04 11:29:11

So that's the Moria equivalent, the Ways.

It won't exactly spoil anything, but the Ajahs are basically divisions of Aes Sedai, they each have their separate "goals" (and a bunch of traditions in addition to that not related to their goals) add to this that individual Aes Sedai may go off and do their own thing, but you'll get MORE than enough of Aes Sedai politics in the series...

The whole thing about Ajahs gets expanded upon starting in the next book, to be exact.

RJ screws a few things up in the gender politics of the series, but at the very least, I appreciate that he at least is willing to examine the subject and that he tries. You'll see a lot of gender-flipped points throughout the series. For instance, one that I'm sure you've already come across, and that isn't spoilery if you haven't, is the fact that in Wo T, there's a constant assertion that men are the gossips, versus our society, which typically views the *women* as such. So, you see what I mean about a gender-flipped point there? The READERS know that such a thing is ridiculous, because we're inside the guys' heads enough to know that they don't really gossip (or talk to each other much at all (especially when it'd REALLY HELP IF THEY DID SO), frustratingly enough), but by flipping the genders on us, RJ makes us pause and think about the inherent absurdity of the assumption that all women are incurable gossipers.

Which, again, I commend him for being willing to examine the topic of gender disparity, because trying is a hell of a lot more than most people do. But...well. Let's just say that, in my opinion, it backfired on him a little bit, because sadly putting such a bright spotlight on the female characters only makes them easier targets, as the readership is outraged at their unfair treatment of the men, and then the HATE THOSE BITCHES is on. Which, really, misses the entire point.

I'm not saying that Jordan doesn't have some problems with sexism in his books, because he does (more on this in later books though). But I don't blame him, and I certainly don't think he had any malicious intent to purposefully be sexist. And I'm not saying that people don't have a right to hate Nynaeve, Moiraine, Egwene, or Elayne, or any other female who shows up, because whatever floats your boat. But I think a lot of hate that the female characters get hit with is simply Misaimed Fandumb. At least, that's the way I see it. *shrugs*

ANYWAY. Ah, the Ways. Both Moria and the Ways are High Octane Nightmare Fuel for me, but I'd totally pick Moria, hands down, over the Ways if I had to journey through one of them. The reason why will become clear once you get there. *shivers*

As Mark would say, you are not prepared. ;)

Anyway, have fun on vacation, and I'll definitely be looking forward to hearing your views on the next chapters! :)

^above comment is made by me, Kiryn, by the way. :)

Two things: Firstly, Kiryn, why don't you log in before posting? Secondly, it's not that the "men are gossips" thing is a genderflip, it's that Robert Jordan decided to make it obvious that both men and women gossip. If you don't notice the latter, it's because you're not paying attention and are so used to women being the gossips that it doesn't stand out when they do.

Sabbo, I'm not logging in because I don't have an account here.

As for the gossip thing, we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think he's making a gender-flipped point, but whatever works for you. And I pay attention just fine, thank you kindly.

You could always, y'know, make an account.

So you notice how often Mat calls women gossips, and yet ignore it? He does it about as often as women claim that men gossip.