Anyone else ever get tired of the action occurring offstage and being forced to learn about it through character monologues after the fact?
No. Not if the really important thing is happening in the part that is shown. You're the kind of reader who would be pissing and moaning about the waste of time/space/pages spent on nothing happening if we got treated to Nynaeve & Cadsuane interrogating Semirhage futilely. The IMPORTANT thing is that Rand is not letting them use useful methods, and what this means for him and his character! What is the point of useless dialogue between Semirhage & Cadsuane with no relevance to the plot or exposition value?
It's been happening over the last several books more and more often. The most egregious example was Rand's meeting with Logain. It's the lazy way to tell a story. Rather than write the action as it happens, just let a character remember it.
Rand's meeting with Logain WAS the action, and it WAS the important parts, NOT the by-the-book meeting with Logain. Are you SERIOUSLY complaining that RJ did not show all the logistical details of moving around armies and Asha'man? The only detail of significance that Logain reported on, which might have been an actual scene, is Taim's reaction, and Logain told us all we need to know. The friction between Rand and Logain is much more important. We know all we need to about the relationship between Logain and Taim and Rand's & Taim's has not changed. RJ was not going to write a Logain-Taim confrontation with hints as to Taim's Shadow connections, so you would have been just as frustrated had that scene been in there.
I was disappointed in the chapter, not because of the writing, nor do I think it is Sanderson's fault, but it was another 6500 words with nothing happening.
1. Does each chapter REQUIRE "something" to happen? MUST there be a fight, One Power revelation or sex scene for every chapter?
2. What chapter are you talking about? I read, and was under the impression we were discussing, The Gathering Storm, Chapter 1 (Tears From Steel), where we see Rand is further along the path of psycho-hood, losing control regarding LTT, and still unable in spite of his estrangment from his humanity to order or even permit interrogation of one of the most obviously evil Forsaken merely because she happens to be a woman. We see more clearly than ever how he is looking at the worst in every situation, expecting the worst reactions or results to everything, deliberately eradicating his own humanity and even further increasingly obsessive. As an example of the last, he contemplates opposing Ituralde to further his truce with the Seanchan, and possibly throwing Murandy to the wolves as well, overlooking that the proposed truce was merely a means to an end.
Why not tell the story of the escape, or Rand's healing, or present some of the questioning scenes?
Because...and I am going to go out on a long limb here and make a vary tenuous leap of logic...they DON'T HAPPEN IN THE FIRST CHAPTER. Just a guess.
Cannoli
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
Your thoughts on TGS - Chapter 1
- 05/09/2009 05:23:47 PM
6148 Views
For all of those whining about it not sounding like RJ:
- 05/09/2009 05:47:07 PM
2015 Views
You're forgetting one thing.
- 06/09/2009 12:13:03 AM
2031 Views
And if he were to off Egwene? What would your opinion be? *NM*
- 07/09/2009 05:38:36 AM
1052 Views
He dislikes Sanderson's prose. Plot content is irrelevant here. *NM*
- 08/09/2009 06:44:42 PM
1085 Views
Pretty good.
- 05/09/2009 07:35:41 PM
45403 Views
Re: Pretty good.
- 05/09/2009 09:13:44 PM
1988 Views
I found it well-written, but rather uninteresting story-wise *NM*
- 05/09/2009 08:04:15 PM
1121 Views
because there should totaly be massive plot development in the first chapter
- 05/09/2009 08:29:18 PM
1753 Views
- 05/09/2009 08:29:18 PM
1753 Views
I'm tired of passive story telling.
- 05/09/2009 08:57:13 PM
1728 Views
I'm tired of mindless readers
- 06/09/2009 01:54:14 AM
1803 Views
Re: I'm tired of mindless readers
- 06/09/2009 04:01:56 AM
1954 Views
I was over critical.
- 06/09/2009 04:56:48 AM
1599 Views
A real analyst or literary critic would laugh his ass off to see this...
- 06/09/2009 06:51:57 AM
1792 Views
Re: because there should totaly be massive plot development in the first chapter
- 06/09/2009 01:22:09 AM
1708 Views
- 06/09/2009 01:22:09 AM
1708 Views
A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 05/09/2009 09:34:44 PM
1916 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 05/09/2009 10:03:59 PM
1852 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 06/09/2009 03:18:41 AM
1673 Views
I think Lews Therin's comments to Rand were the most hugely significant part of the chapter.
- 06/09/2009 01:15:05 AM
1637 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 06/09/2009 02:52:47 AM
2304 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 06/09/2009 07:08:08 AM
1596 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 06/09/2009 10:31:20 AM
2165 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 07/09/2009 05:09:38 AM
1652 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 08/09/2009 10:19:13 PM
1642 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 10/09/2009 06:20:56 AM
1906 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 08/09/2009 11:46:44 PM
1735 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 07/09/2009 04:41:47 AM
1723 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
- 09/09/2009 03:48:53 PM
1673 Views
Good post, but I have an alternative explanation for the saidin barrier
- 28/09/2009 12:53:41 AM
1435 Views
Robert Jordon vs Brandon Sanderson
- 06/09/2009 12:02:13 AM
1676 Views
Re: Robert Jordon vs Brandon Sanderson
- 06/09/2009 05:12:25 PM
1499 Views
Re: Robert Jordon vs Brandon Sanderson
- 06/09/2009 07:20:45 PM
1509 Views
I found it...interesting --spoilers--
- 06/09/2009 01:33:11 AM
1830 Views
I liked it
- 06/09/2009 07:58:09 AM
1619 Views
Some questions...
- 06/09/2009 08:04:30 AM
1631 Views
Theory: Rand and Egwene. What is up?
- 06/09/2009 07:59:58 AM
2535 Views
A simpler answer
- 06/09/2009 03:04:04 PM
1709 Views
Really?
- 06/09/2009 03:38:59 PM
1554 Views
Look at what he has seen...
- 06/09/2009 11:45:44 PM
1519 Views
And all this happeened in the few days between the end of KoD and the beginning of tGS?
- 07/09/2009 12:35:29 AM
1604 Views
Why not? How often did he think of Egwene in A Plain Wooden Box? It might have been there already
- 07/09/2009 05:29:27 AM
1730 Views
She treated him like a pawn when she "passed" him over to Elayne way back. NM *NM*
- 07/09/2009 02:49:18 PM
980 Views
are we already at the location of the book cover?
- 06/09/2009 11:49:06 AM
1601 Views
Two Things
- 07/09/2009 12:25:31 AM
1647 Views
My thoughts are that the main page is being crowded by too many duplicate threads
- 07/09/2009 10:23:41 PM
1626 Views
I know why Rand is mad at Egwene...read inside to find out
- 11/09/2009 03:15:00 AM
1678 Views
Ummm... the embassy's proposal was accepted, and (presumably) communicated to Egwene at the earliest *NM*
- 11/09/2009 04:16:31 AM
1045 Views
Semirhage isn't scaring anyone
- 28/09/2009 02:32:34 PM
1886 Views
Indeed...
- 28/09/2009 03:36:55 PM
1507 Views
Will the Chosen pass that edict down or just not act themselves?
- 28/09/2009 10:29:53 PM
1484 Views

