Jordan article
~Brian~
Robert Jordan scores big with his tenth Wheel Of Time novel - but is he
really Tolkein's heir?
By ML Van -Valkenburgh
Photography by Nancy Santos
Robert Jordan has lived his whole life in Charleston, as did his
forefathers. It is his home, and he is very attached to it. He and his wife
(and editor) Harriet have considered a host of other cities, many with
brighter lights than our own, but they always come back to Jordan's roots.
"We've just liked it better than anywhere else. Other cities we've
considered have been Paris, London, San Francisco, Melbourne - Australia,
that is, I'm sure Melbourne, Florida is very nice, but I've never been
there - but what's stopped us from moving is, Charleston is home," said
Jordan in a recent phone interview granted prior to his whirlwind tour
promoting his tenth book in the much acclaimed Wheel of Time series.
Named Crossroads of Twilight, the new book shot straight up the charts to
number one the instant it was released Jan. 7 and has stayed on the
bestseller lists ever since. And no surprise. Jordan's fans are rabidly
loyal. They have stuck with him through what is so far a 7,000 page epic and
it's not over yet. The book was supposed to be released in November, but
fans waited patiently when Jordan chose to push the date back to January.
"Of course there's some pressure," he says. "But I just couldn't finish it
in time and it was a question of whether I was going to have it done right,
or have it done quickly."
This attention to detail is one reason his books have garnered so much
attention. Jordan himself is
surprised by how long the series has taken him to write. "I never thought it
would be this many books. It's gained complexity. I thought it would be five
or six books," he says. "The world (in the books) has gotten to be quite
interesting. The people have gotten to be so important."
It's here that Jordan's passion for history comes through. His love for
Charleston and his frustration that Charleston continues to be overlooked as
a major player in the American Revolution are evident in the way he crafts
the history of every city in the world in which his characters live - and
the way that history gets twisted by the leaders of his cultures.
"There are bits and pieces (of Charleston) here and there, though I continue
to stress that the Two Rivers (home of the series' three main protagonists)
has no relation between the Ashley and the Cooper, but of course things
filter through. It's impossible to write without keeping who you are and
where you're from out of it," says Jordan.
"History is mutable. It's so dependent on who you remember and what you
remember. For instance, with the American Revolution, Charleston was written
out of the history books because of the secession. You know, during the
Boston Tea Party, we sent more food and aid to Boston than any of its
neighboring colonies. But that's not something that children read about in
school. The solid tones of the past are not that solid. They are a thin
facade placed by partisan observers," he says.
Jordan's background is not, however, in history. After a year at Clemson, he
left school and did two tours of duty in Vietnam. He then enrolled at the
Citadel where he got his degree in nuclear engineering and went to work for
the government. But a badly injured knee that suffered complications nearly
cost him his life and he turned to his real passion - writing.
"Writing is not something you make a living at unless you're very lucky. Go
into something solid or safe like acting," he advises.
Jordan has written 22 books altogether under a couple of pseudonyms (Robert
Jordan is a pseudonym as well).
"The Wheel of Time had been banging around in my head before I began
writing. I was thinking about the source of legends. Where do they come
from? They're twisted by time. We don't know what actually happened. It made
me think of the children's game 'Whispers.' You know the one - the first kid
thinks of something and whispers it
to the next kid, and it goes around in the circle, and the last kid has to
say out loud what has been told to him, and it's never what it started out
to be. Myths and legends are what the last kid stood up and told."
Somewhat inevitably, perhaps, Jordan ended up being compared to fantasy's
other master - J.R.R. Tolkein, of Lord of the Rings fame. And from a
powerful source, too.
"Jordan has come to dominate the world that Tolkein began to reveal..."
crowed the New York Times. Perhaps it was his battle scenes, which portray a
realism that only one who has experienced battle - Tolkein in the World Wars
and Jordan in Vietnam - can truly contemplate, although Jordan says he
reached further back for his sources. "I was reading about 16th and 17th
century battle scenes. You can't see it unless you're there, but basically,
it's just mass chaos and confusion," he says.
But it was more likely something deeper. Tolkein had a great mastery over
the world in which his characters lived. Indeed, that was why he wrote his
stories at all. As a master linguist who was utterly fascinated by ancient
British and Norse mythology, his goal was to create a separate world. He
even created a language to go along with it - Elvish - which anyone with a
great deal of time and inclination can learn.
Jordan, too, has created a new world, but his world is a byproduct of his
story. "The beginnings of the story came first, then the world began to
grow." he says.
"I was rather shocked by the write-up in the New York Times comparing me to
Tolkein. We have totally different backgrounds. He has an English voice and
drew strongly from English and Norse traditions. I have a Southern voice. He
had two women of note - Arwen and Eowyn. In my world's mythology, women tell
half the story. I grew up around strong women. Women killed and ate the meek
men in my world," he says.
Unlike Tolkein, it is difficult if not impossible to pin down particular
mythic traditions in Jordan's work. Tolkein made no secret of his interest
in ancient British and Norse mythology - indeed, Frodo is named for a Norse
hero. But although there are some typical hero features to Rand al' Thor,
Jordan's main character, who, interestingly, makes only brief appearances in
this latest book, the other leading characters don't have perceivable
mythological analogs. When this is brought to his attention, Jordan
chuckles. "Then I've done it correctly. I was terrified various bits of
mythology would be too obvious. I wanted it to be bits and pieces. I
certainly didn't want to do any simply lifting of myths or legends. There
are hundreds of books on King Arthur. There doesn't need to be another one."
Another thing that sets Jordan apart from Tolkein is an ever-present sense
of hope - something that has kept readers reading for 7,000 pages and will
keep them reading 'til the end of the series, which Jordan says will take a
minimum of two more books. No matter how bad the odds are against his
characters, no matter that the world draws ever closer to its final battle
with the Dark One, Jordan slips in enough events to stop readers from
becoming fatalistic.
Tolkein, on the other hand, was a profound fatalist himself. And, indeed,
while his characters did, for the most part, achieve their ends, there is a
sense of bittersweetness that pervades his works. His attitude is evident
even in his relationships with the young children he left at home while off
fighting World War II (and dreaming up his master work). Speaking
metaphorically of the war with the Germans, he wrote his youngest son
Christopher, saying, "We are attempting to conquer Sauron with the Ring. ...
The War is not over (and the one that is or the part of it, has largely been
lost.) But it is of course wrong to fall into such a mood, for Wars are
always lost, and The War always goes on; and it is no good growing faint."
It would be hard to picture Jordan announcing that wars are always lost to a
young child; instead, he has a childlike sense of wonder and enjoyment of
the world around him that his predecessor lacked.
"I like the Battery. The High Battery, particularly. (As a child) I liked
its rickety nature. Now that they're fixing it up I'm not sure how I'll feel
about it. But I loved the sense that at any moment the slates might drop you
into the High Battery. My friends and I used to run through the streets and
alleys, and things weren't as spruced up as they are now. Everything was
overgrown with bamboo. It was wonderful," he recalls.
And though Jordan claims to identify with whichever character he's writing
at any given moment, he took time out to mention rapscallion Mat Cauthon -
the gambling, troublemaking part of his trio of young men (also including
Rand al' Thor and Perrin Aybara), who has a way with ladies, and whose
motto, "It's time to roll the dice," is echoed often in the books.
"Mat always surprised me. I'm always surprised at how many women fans like
him," Jordan admits.
For new readers, Jordan entreats them to start with the first book in the
series, The Eye of the World. "You must start with that book. If you just
pick up the new one you will be utterly confused within ten pages," he said.
"Even if you only read Book One, and don't go on with the series, that's
fine."
As for an ending to his series, Jordan's had it in his head for nearly two
decades.
"I've known the last scene of the last book since 1984. I just can't put as
much in to one book as I want. And various events have to happen before it
can end," he says.
"I never envisioned this success," he adds. But he also wants to make one
point very clear. "Many writers deny writing fantasy. They don't want to be
locked in the ghetto. But I don't care. I say, I write fantasy."
With the growing success of the genre, thanks in part to the Lord of the
Rings movies and the Harry Potter craze, perhaps the ghetto of fantasy is
becoming gentrified and other writers will eventually be proud to say they
write it as well.
Finally, Jordan has some advice for aspiring writers.
"Write, submit, talk. Nothing counts unless you do it. Do your research."
A day in his life is no carefree walk in the park. Anyone who thinks writing
a book is easy is misled.
Angus McSmashie
<bbra...@carolina.nospam> decided to prove Mark Twain's theory with:
>http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/cover_story.html
>
>Robert Jordan scores big with his tenth Wheel Of Time novel - but is he
>really Tolkein's heir?
<snip boring stuff>
Scores big? RJ may be the one person on earth more off topic than
alt.fan....
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I hate the Sci-Fi channel.
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