I just cast down my copy of 'The Path of Daggers' and ran to the computer to see if anyone else felt as exasperated as I by the devolution of 'The Wheel of Time' into the 'Robert Didn't Have Many Girlfriends - Here's Why' series. I found this thread on Google. Hope you don't mind me joining in.
(I know...this should really be in the 'What's With All The Braid-Pulling' thread, but I feel Mr Jordan's acutely embarrassing views on human sexual interaction need as much criticism as possible. Sorry.)
Anyway. What IS with all the braid-pulling? We all know (how could we not?) that this is Nynaeve's signature feature; but as the books - ahem - progress, virtually all the female characters are gradually coalescing into one ur-female: catty, bad-tempered, prudish, domineering, childish and parochial.
I struggle to think of another series of books - outside of the supermarket romance section possibly - in which women are so maddeningly misrepresented. The amount of time spent brushing hair, arranging clothing (real and imagined), gossiping, glaring really hard, mooning over some future husband and blushing at the merest whiff of sexual impropriety would be tiresome in a book about boarding-school 'gals' having pillow-fights and getting up to high-jinks in the rec. In a series purportedly about the epic battle against unimaginable evil...Well, put it this way; if I were Shai'tan I'd have re-sealed my own prison by now and think myself well out if it.
And if I were Rand, Lan, Perrin or any of the other hopelessly gauche male characters* I'd have happily thrown myself into the Pit after Book Four.
And while we're on the subject of Rand et al, what is it about these absurd women they find so irresistible? Is it the blushing? The faint (and not so faint) air of contempt that accompanies their every interaction with males? Even stolid Perrin surely can't enjoy Faile's pathological jealousy, her spiteful delight in visiting torment and general inability to act as a grown up. [Faile is just an example - replace her with Faile's mother, Elayne, Elayne's mother, Nynaeve, Aviendha, Nynaeve and Aviendha's mothers (not that we've met them but I'm feeling confident) any number of Queens, Aes Sedai**, Maidens, Wise Ones etc. etc. and this sentence still works.]
Perhaps it's their looks - after all, virtually every single female in the series is either pretty (pre-pubescent), beautiful (twentysomething) or 'handsome' (hag). I wish someone at Tor would tell Mr Jordan that women can make interesting and/or powerful characters without being:
a) good-looking, or:
b) constantly folding their arms beneath their breasts.
Apologies to all die-hard fans of Mr Jordan's work, but in my view any semblance of plausible female characterisation - as opposed to caricature - died with the stilling of Siuan and the disappearance of Moiraine.
When 'The Wheel of Time' began I very much enjoyed Mr Jordan's imaginary world. It was filled with all sorts of interesting and original ideas and his efforts to create roles other than 'Princess Waiting to be Rescued' for his female characters were laudable. However, something...strange...happened, the different women all became essentially the same person and now the series feels as though it is being written by someone's maiden aunt.
I can't imagine why anyone would set aside a perfectly good fantasy epic in order to waste hundreds - no, thousands - of pages setting out a pitifully naive, adolescent and clearly erroneous view of what women are. Whatever the reasons, I fear they might be...kinda creepy.
* Yes I know he's married. It was a joke.
**This is a thread for another day.
***Speaking ofAes Sedai; don't you wish they'd remained ineffable and inscrutable rather than revealing themselves to be just as infantile and silly as every other woman - albeit with better skin?
(I know...this should really be in the 'What's With All The Braid-Pulling' thread, but I feel Mr Jordan's acutely embarrassing views on human sexual interaction need as much criticism as possible. Sorry.)
Anyway. What IS with all the braid-pulling? We all know (how could we not?) that this is Nynaeve's signature feature; but as the books - ahem - progress, virtually all the female characters are gradually coalescing into one ur-female: catty, bad-tempered, prudish, domineering, childish and parochial.
I struggle to think of another series of books - outside of the supermarket romance section possibly - in which women are so maddeningly misrepresented. The amount of time spent brushing hair, arranging clothing (real and imagined), gossiping, glaring really hard, mooning over some future husband and blushing at the merest whiff of sexual impropriety would be tiresome in a book about boarding-school 'gals' having pillow-fights and getting up to high-jinks in the rec. In a series purportedly about the epic battle against unimaginable evil...Well, put it this way; if I were Shai'tan I'd have re-sealed my own prison by now and think myself well out if it.
And if I were Rand, Lan, Perrin or any of the other hopelessly gauche male characters* I'd have happily thrown myself into the Pit after Book Four.
And while we're on the subject of Rand et al, what is it about these absurd women they find so irresistible? Is it the blushing? The faint (and not so faint) air of contempt that accompanies their every interaction with males? Even stolid Perrin surely can't enjoy Faile's pathological jealousy, her spiteful delight in visiting torment and general inability to act as a grown up. [Faile is just an example - replace her with Faile's mother, Elayne, Elayne's mother, Nynaeve, Aviendha, Nynaeve and Aviendha's mothers (not that we've met them but I'm feeling confident) any number of Queens, Aes Sedai**, Maidens, Wise Ones etc. etc. and this sentence still works.]
Perhaps it's their looks - after all, virtually every single female in the series is either pretty (pre-pubescent), beautiful (twentysomething) or 'handsome' (hag). I wish someone at Tor would tell Mr Jordan that women can make interesting and/or powerful characters without being:
a) good-looking, or:
b) constantly folding their arms beneath their breasts.
Apologies to all die-hard fans of Mr Jordan's work, but in my view any semblance of plausible female characterisation - as opposed to caricature - died with the stilling of Siuan and the disappearance of Moiraine.
When 'The Wheel of Time' began I very much enjoyed Mr Jordan's imaginary world. It was filled with all sorts of interesting and original ideas and his efforts to create roles other than 'Princess Waiting to be Rescued' for his female characters were laudable. However, something...strange...happened, the different women all became essentially the same person and now the series feels as though it is being written by someone's maiden aunt.
I can't imagine why anyone would set aside a perfectly good fantasy epic in order to waste hundreds - no, thousands - of pages setting out a pitifully naive, adolescent and clearly erroneous view of what women are. Whatever the reasons, I fear they might be...kinda creepy.
* Yes I know he's married. It was a joke.
**This is a thread for another day.
***Speaking ofAes Sedai; don't you wish they'd remained ineffable and inscrutable rather than revealing themselves to be just as infantile and silly as every other woman - albeit with better skin?
I particularly agree with your *** 
