McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Jim's stand on fic?
Infamous as Elle!:
--- Quote from: DragonFire on January 19, 2009, 10:40:20 PM ---Umm..hopefully it has not, and will never be, made.
--- End quote ---
I am definitely with you on that one!
Shecky:
--- Quote from: DragonFire on January 19, 2009, 10:32:59 PM ---The problems with Elayne claiming the throne, I could see.
Some of Rand's problems, I could.
The crap with Perrin running around going 'Faile!!!!!".....no.
The sniffing, the crap with all the women with 'strong personalities' trying to push each other around....
It was just boring.
And it wasn't that it was there...that can be dealt with. It was more that the plot did not ADVANCE at all, and all this crap was around for 3 books. Nothing changed. Nothing got better. Nothing was resolved for good or ill.
I can see the real world lessons you're talking about but.....it's a fantast book series. It does contain an element of just hand waving away stuff that 'wouldn't happen in the real world'.
--- End quote ---
I understand your stance perfectly and even sympathize - it's a book and should cut to the chase, right? The thing is that people do obsess over their own little corner even in the face of Worldwide Doom, and jerks remain jerks. People don't just see the global problem and magically stand shoulder-to-shoulder, even the ones who have personally SEEN the path to destruction with their own eyes. The "me and mine" syndrome for some of the better-minded, while the more self-centered batten down the hatches on the S.S. Jerkwad. As much as Jordania gynocracy and its inevitable mulishness irritate me, it's very much in keeping with What People Really Are.
It bugs me as a reader-for-entertainment, too, yes, but I respect Jordan's world-building even more as a result.
DragonFire:
--- Quote from: Shecky on January 19, 2009, 10:51:50 PM ---I understand your stance perfectly and even sympathize - it's a book and should cut to the chase, right? The thing is that people do obsess over their own little corner even in the face of Worldwide Doom, and jerks remain jerks. People don't just see the global problem and magically stand shoulder-to-shoulder, even the ones who have personally SEEN the path to destruction with their own eyes. The "me and mine" syndrome for some of the better-minded, while the more self-centered batten down the hatches on the S.S. Jerkwad. As much as Jordania gynocracy and its inevitable mulishness irritate me, it's very much in keeping with What People Really Are.
It bugs me as a reader-for-entertainment, too, yes, but I respect Jordan's world-building even more as a result.
--- End quote ---
Nah, it's not so much cut to the chase...it's that' the earlier books also had this stuff in it, but the plot took it in stride....there was a plan, it was heading down a track , and while things like this happened...it didn't derail the book.
In teh later ones, it seemed like he wasn't sure what to do with a scene, or he got bored with his mains, so he spent a LOT of time on some of his minors....just unfocused writing, rather than focused.
Mickey Finn:
Ha ha! So it becomes kind of like what some said about the second Matrix movie? That it could have been easily integrated into the last movie, still been viable and not been such a waste of money or time with very little plot?
*****
You have that backwards...they could have taken the invasion of Zion out of the 3rd movie, tossed away the rest, and put it in the 2nd. As it is, they set up a whole bunch of SMART scifi in the 2nd, then tossed it out for the 3rd and replaced it with the Second Coming nonsense.
As for Jim, remember folks, he's not stomping on fan fic, he's not jackbooting about...he is asking not to know, so he doesn't HAVE to, by law, take action. IE, he doesn't give a damn, and would rather not be made to give a damn.
Shecky:
--- Quote from: DragonFire on January 19, 2009, 11:05:08 PM ---Nah, it's not so much cut to the chase...it's that' the earlier books also had this stuff in it, but the plot took it in stride....there was a plan, it was heading down a track , and while things like this happened...it didn't derail the book.
In teh later ones, it seemed like he wasn't sure what to do with a scene, or he got bored with his mains, so he spent a LOT of time on some of his minors....just unfocused writing, rather than focused.
--- End quote ---
This goes to my point; I feel it was intended to be this way, to show that the people in the plot are unfocused, as discussed above. The Rand-machine, the Dragon's situation, was smaller earlier in the story; as such, it was easier to maneuver. But once everything gets too big, people's minds simply can't wrap themselves around it and retreat to the safety of the familiar - i.e., personal power, wishes, etc. - and it all falls apart. It's not that Jordan's writing became unfocused in my thought; it's that the characters themselves became unfocused.
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