Ulterior Motives

I'm seriously thinking about writing a research thesis on the Wheel of Time for my Masters. I'll be scanning your posts to see if you guys dig up anything juicy that could really warrant some thorough academic digging.

You have bamboozled me yet again good sir. I can't wait to read your paper on WOT should you choose to write one.

Writing a thesis paper on WOT? Now that has gotta be some fun. I didnt think that was allowed.

Wasn't allowed? Literature is defined as such by any given culture. Our culture has wholehartedly adopted Jordan's work as supremely crafted art that carries with it a certain social significance. Decades can be spent studying Jordan's work. As a master storyteller, Jordan has left us with a mountain of raw material to immerse ourselves in. As readers--and foremost as intellectuals--works of this magnitude must be studied, weighed, criticized, cross-referenced, and compared. The Wheel of Time has absolutely no meaning in and of itself--it's a collection of paper glued together into a rectangular shape. It is only when a reader turns into a critic--a critic here simply refering to a person who has something to say or write about a particular work--that the text divulges any meaning. Think of it this way, the very fact that the three of us are on this site posting for the last four days concerning this series is evidence enough that there's something important about these novels. What that importance is is for us to decide, and write down. These books mean something to us. They affected us in some strong way; just as Charles Dickens' novels affected Victorians, Shakespeare's playes affected Elizabethans, and Mark Antony's speeches affected the Romans.

Art, in a very real sense, is our expression of the world around us. Jordan, in creating The Wheel of Time, is conveying the world of his inner eye. What a fantastic world it is! It is crucial for people to analyze that world to derive meaning from it. Otherwise, Robert Jordan wasted a good number of years--decades even--developing something that mattered only to him. Art is what separates us from the animals.

So, of course a thesis can be written on The Wheel of Time. For some weird reason, fantasy and science fiction don't ever seem to be mainstream literature in this country. I'd love to be able to get to the bottom of that one. I would argue that Jordan's work ranks right up there with Shakespeare--of course the form is different but there is something extrinisically poetic about Jordan's ability to weave a tale of such depth and color. I'll leave it at this. I could go on for pages.

I was making a joke when i said i didn't think it would be allowed, but thanks for the 34 page reply anyway. Haha no i agree with what your saying. I think it would be awesome if fantasy and science fiction could be in mainstream literature, and i think we should read great fantasy authors in school like tolkien and jordan.

I teach the Hobbit and students hate it. Now, it could easily be the way I teach it, but the students I teach it to are iliterate asses anyways, so I don't value their opinion too highly.

Peter, next time it'll be 64 pages..

WHO COULD POSSIBLE HATE THE HOBBIT!!!!!!!!!!!! Your students do not deserve to be taught by you if they cannot enjoy the Hobbit. Im sure its not your teaching. Then again, you can drone on sometimes . Haha just kidding

I've been known to drone on on occassion....

I find that hard to believe

I teach an 80-minute class. Gotta fill it somehow.