He relied much too heavily on his thumbnail characterizations to fill out nearly every scene. The idea that Siuan came from a fisher family, and used sayings and wisdom from that background, is a good character piece. Jordan used it to death though.
A little confused here. Yes, Siuan's language is filled with fisherman's slang. But that is not the sum total of her language, nor is the wisdom of fishermen the sum total of her own wisdom.
I'm not implying that he used the same few sayings, or actions, or idiosyncrasies, for every single exchange and appearance that some of his characters make. However, over the course of most any scene you get several occurrences those "personality traits" as the means of character specific depth. (Fisher sayings, braid tugging, chewing on lips, stroking beards, owlish blinking eyes, etc. etc.) Most of the secondary characters and nearly all the female characters are constructed and written in this way.
Lamentation by Ken Scholes the Discussion Thread
06/11/2009 04:57:27 PM
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The setting/created world of the Psalms of Isaak.
06/11/2009 06:43:57 PM
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Reminded me of WoT...
06/11/2009 09:41:44 PM
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Same here, at least as far as the world creation goes.
12/11/2009 05:18:27 PM
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Can't believe I never noticed that...
13/11/2009 05:04:27 AM
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Complete with salty sayings, even!
13/11/2009 04:05:45 PM
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At least it wasn't as heavy-handed in LAMENTATION.
13/11/2009 08:42:36 PM
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But Siuan's fish talk is fun!
13/11/2009 10:22:23 PM
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As in most cases with Jordan...
16/11/2009 05:02:21 PM
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He did not...
16/11/2009 10:21:15 PM
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Yes, he most certainly did.
17/11/2009 02:20:28 PM
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/Setting: codes and ciphers
10/11/2009 12:19:27 AM
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My thoughts. (i.e. <insert generic subject here>)
06/11/2009 07:38:26 PM
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Themes...
06/11/2009 09:00:23 PM
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I feel like I should have posted a reveiw but I really such at reveiws. Anyway...
07/11/2009 04:53:15 AM
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If you don't mind me asking, what series/books in particular have characters you don't care for?
10/11/2009 08:12:52 PM
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Characters...
08/11/2009 02:30:30 AM
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Isaak, or "he who laughs".
08/11/2009 02:54:44 AM
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Indeed.
10/11/2009 05:31:55 PM
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Personally I can't wait to see how Neb developes... *NM*
10/11/2009 12:05:05 AM
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Winters & Neb
11/11/2009 04:56:35 PM
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Should you ever conduct an interview with Scholes, would you ask him...
12/11/2009 05:51:52 PM
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That's a great question.
12/11/2009 07:38:13 PM
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Thanks in advance. And please let me know his answer one way or the other.
13/11/2009 03:40:19 AM
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