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One Way or the Other Their WoT Origin Must Be the Stories We Know (Slight Spoiler Alert.) The Name With No Man Send a noteboard - 08/12/2009 03:18:30 PM
RJ's use of the diverse character parallels isn't meant to make this story evoke those older tales, rather, it is using the circular time of the Wheel as an explanation for their origins.

They're all the same stories, only changed by the passing of time and turned into myth and legend, or the same core from a different turning of the Wheel.

Unless we take Jordan's conceit of a past/future tale literally. Perhaps that's plausible in a "million monkeys" version of branching timelines, but I don't think that's what you're suggesting. If you simply mean Jordan's saying the stories have no true origin because "there are neither beginnings nor endings" a strong argument could be made. I'm not convinced, however, how much Jordan actually means to support cyclic time in the real world and how much that's just a conceit framing the other things he wishes to say. The concept of breaking the Wheel is prominent throughout the series, and in TGS we finally see Rand explicitly say something similar in type if not goal to what Ishy has: He not only wishes to defeat the DO, but, if possible, to destroy him. One can't help but wonder if, without the Creator's antithesis, that would break the Wheel as effectively as anything Ishy or the DO could do.

It's certainly a rich area for discussion, and I think arguments can be made both ways that Jordan is endorsing the concept of cyclic time. It's very fortunate there are no deep themes in the mere story or we would run the dire risk of a serious discussion.
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Seems to me you've inverted it. - 08/12/2009 08:48:07 AM 328 Views
One Way or the Other Their WoT Origin Must Be the Stories We Know (Slight Spoiler Alert.) - 08/12/2009 03:18:30 PM 411 Views
I have no idea what you are trying to say, sorry. - 08/12/2009 08:12:35 PM 336 Views
I'll Try to Rephrase Then (Including the Spoiler. ) - 09/12/2009 12:49:55 PM 329 Views
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Re: I Think He Set Out to Write Epic Fantasy, Yes. - 08/12/2009 07:26:30 PM 330 Views
True, and That Can Be Very Hard to Separate. - 09/12/2009 01:14:57 PM 420 Views

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