The Eye of the World: Chapter Seven

Once again, I placed this blog entry days before I actually wrote it. I'm going to do multiple entries of Wheel of Time a day in order to make up for slacking off over the weekend. On to our story.

CHAPTER SEVEN: OUT OF THE WOODS

I'm going to separate my experience with this chapter into bullet points in order to represent the trains of thought I had during this chapter. This is honestly what went through my mind when I first read it.

1: Did I call it or what? Just like I expected, the Trollocs hit Emond's Field as well. How many times have fantasy stories been kicked off with a rural protagonist who doesn't leave on a journey until his village is burned to the ground? We've seen it in Conan the Barbarian, we've seen it in Beastmaster, we've seen it in Tales of Symphonia, and that's just to name a few examples. Hell, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy kicked off with the entire planet Earth getting blown up!

I know why writers do this; it's to show that the hero is a humble man (or woman, though I can't think of any female examples at the moment) who wouldn't dream of abandoning his humble country roots until destiny finds him and shows him the way to a grander life. But I have three problems with this reasoning.

-First, it implies that the rural life is simpler and purer and more wholesome than urban, cosmopolitan living, which is not always the case. In the interest of full disclosure, I've never dealt with the hardship endemic to either lifestyle, since I grew up in picket-fence suburbia, but I know that there's ups and downs to both of them.

-Second, it makes the hero start out passive and reactive, responding only when the forces of evil rear their ugly heads. This can work in some stories, but there are also interesting stories that can be told if the protagonist makes the first move. True, that would be putting him in a moral gray area, but if the author plays their cards right that'll make the story a lot more interesting!

-Third, and most importantly, this storytelling device has been done to death. I'm going to cut Jordan some slack here, because this book was published in 1990, and I presume that the trope still retained some degree of freshness. But it's 2011 now, twenty-one years later, and this particular part of the story hasn't aged well.

To all aspiring writers out there, I have this to say: If you must use this particular trope, put a new spin on it that hasn't been done all that much (if at all). The Fellowship of the Ring did this before the cliche became, well, cliche. It was only the threat of Sauron's legions overrunning the Shire that convinced Frodo to take the One Ring on a journey to destroy it, which makes him look braver and more proactive, not to mention adding tension to the start of the story.

And to be fair to Jordan, he does add a variation on the trope by having Emond's Field not be entirely destroyed. In fact, none of the characters we established in earlier chapters appear to have died (except maybe the peddler, I'm not sure about him), which is good. Killing them would have made the effort in establishing them to the reader almost entirely pointless. How is the village still standing, you ask? That leads me to my next point.

2: Moiraine is an Aes Sedai, and Lan is a Warder. There was a scene in an earlier chapter where the village children speculated that he was, and I apologize for not bringing it up then, mostly because I didn't know what a Warden is. I'm still not entirely sure, but I assume they're an elite warrior organization, based on how the Mayor describes Lan's skill with weapons. According to him, it was Moiraine's magic and Lan's martial prowess that saved the day.

Notice how I said that the Mayor tells Rand about this. Rand doesn't see it himself, and since he doesn't see it, the reader doesn't either. If aspiring writers are told anything at all when they start to learn the tricks of the trade, they are told never to tell when they can show. Which would you rather see: a firsthand account of a spectacular battle, or a character recounting a spectacular battle? This goes for action events, character traits, moral messages, basically everything that can possibly occur in a story.

Now, there are ways you can do "telling" and still make it interesting to read. Homestuck's done that plenty of times. But I'm not seeing that here. The only reason Jordan is telling the reader about what Moiraine and Lan did is because Rand wasn't there. And I would actually accept this if Jordan couldn't have easily had Rand stay in Emond's Field to see the Trolloc attack, or had the attack occur before he and Tam left for home. Jordan wouldn't have had to sacrifice the plot point of Tam getting fatally wounded, or babbling about Rand being adopted. Sure, we wouldn't have seen Rand hiding from the black rider in the woods and dragging Tam to the village, but I honestly think it would be a worthwhile trade-off.

Speaking of Tam's wound...

3: Nynaeve sadly can't do shit about healing him, dashing the hope that carried Rand forward for the last chapter and a half:

• "You have to do something. You have to. You're the Wisdom."
  
  Pain twisted her face, but only for an instant, then she was all hollow-eyed resolve again, her voice emotionless and firm. "Yes, I am. I know what I can do with my medicine, and I know when it's too late. Don't you think I would do something if I could? But I can't. I can't, Rand. And there are others who need me. People I can help."

That right there is my favorite part of the chapter, because it gives us more insight into Nynaeve's character. We can tell that she's trying her best to live up to her duty as Wisdom, and it hurts her to experience the limits of her power firsthand. Also, she's not coming across as a bitch here, for once overcoming the temptation to snap at people, which I totally understand. If Tam dies, and that's likely, she'll be supplanting him as my favorite character. I honestly do want to see where Jordan's going with this, more than I want to follow Rand. Why isn't the story about her?

All hope is not lost, however. Rand has heard stories about the powers of the Aes Sedai (the only confirmed one so far being the ability to generate ball lightning), and he decides to take the chance that they can heal his father. He knows this is a risky venture, as the Aes Sedai are apparently always villains in the murky stories that Rand's heard, and there's always a price to pay for their services. Moiraine, however, has not proven herself suspicious or untrustworthy in any way, so I do hope this bargain he strikes with her works out.

4: Something called the Dragon's Fang was inscribed on the innkeeper's door, and the Coplins are immediately blamed. What the fuck did the Coplins do to earn the undying scorn of everyone in Emond's Field? Are they just a family of dickheads? Is it like the Hatfield-McCoy feud, with the entire rest of the town taking the other side? I expect an explanation for this at some point.

I also expect backstory for Nynaeve, now that I think about it. Did she seek the position of the town's Wisdom or was it forced upon her?

That's about it for this chapter and my nitpicks regarding it. At least things are happening, and I can't really complain that, even if I've already seen a lot of those things before.

NEXT TIME: Moiraine explains things!