He got Nynaeve able to tell stalagmite from stalactite yet he would have us believe the Queen of Andor has never heard what an eclipse is.
One might say all sort of things about Jordan's style, but he was manically consistent with his language usage rules through the series. His blunders in the vein of arabesque, spartan etc. are very few and far between. That often meant heavy prose and the long way around: a big stone teeth coming out of the ground etc., but it didn't throw you out of the world.
Brandon is surprisingly careless with this, for a world builder. He constantly used modern and often fairly technical terms. It's a bit Harriet's fault too, or rather her decision. She said in Q&A she was very light handed with language not to denaturate Brandon's style. But I'm not quite sure it was the right decision. There's a difference between trying to mimic Jordan's prose and following simple constraints like not using words, expressions, turns of phrase and metaphor too out of place in an pre-industrial setting. If it's too much an hinderance while writing, this can easily have been fixed in editing/rewrites.
The funniest thing is that recently Brandon invoked his "many advanced courses" in linguistics to justify some of his decisions, for instance to suddenly shorten established WOT expressions. He decided for e.g. Mat shortened "Blood and Ashes" to "Bloody Ashes" and this trend spread. Over but a few months, through a whole continent, before mass media. Pathetic. "advanced courses in linguistics" indeed!
One might say all sort of things about Jordan's style, but he was manically consistent with his language usage rules through the series. His blunders in the vein of arabesque, spartan etc. are very few and far between. That often meant heavy prose and the long way around: a big stone teeth coming out of the ground etc., but it didn't throw you out of the world.
Brandon is surprisingly careless with this, for a world builder. He constantly used modern and often fairly technical terms. It's a bit Harriet's fault too, or rather her decision. She said in Q&A she was very light handed with language not to denaturate Brandon's style. But I'm not quite sure it was the right decision. There's a difference between trying to mimic Jordan's prose and following simple constraints like not using words, expressions, turns of phrase and metaphor too out of place in an pre-industrial setting. If it's too much an hinderance while writing, this can easily have been fixed in editing/rewrites.
The funniest thing is that recently Brandon invoked his "many advanced courses" in linguistics to justify some of his decisions, for instance to suddenly shorten established WOT expressions. He decided for e.g. Mat shortened "Blood and Ashes" to "Bloody Ashes" and this trend spread. Over but a few months, through a whole continent, before mass media. Pathetic. "advanced courses in linguistics" indeed!
This message last edited by DomA on 25/01/2013 at 03:16:02 AM
Where to begin....
23/01/2013 05:22:12 AM
- 5189 Views
Re: Where to begin....
23/01/2013 01:18:31 PM
- 1477 Views
I think Rand and Moridin sword fought because channeling at SG is v dangerous so they minimised it
24/01/2013 12:40:45 AM
- 1624 Views
Re: Where to begin....
23/01/2013 04:11:13 PM
- 2777 Views
There was a HUGE goldmine of complexity that RJ planted in the story that BS just completely ignored *NM*
23/01/2013 06:35:17 PM
- 1070 Views
Seriously, the entire book I was scratching my head wondering why the hell the Channelers
25/01/2013 06:32:26 AM
- 1432 Views
Hey John
24/01/2013 04:04:39 PM
- 1912 Views
Re: Hey John
24/01/2013 05:45:30 PM
- 1940 Views
Yeah, his writing annoys me greatly at times
24/01/2013 06:57:50 PM
- 2071 Views
Re: Yeah, his writing annoys me greatly at times
25/01/2013 04:55:54 AM
- 1341 Views
I'm as much of a "mainstream" reviewer as a fantasy one these days, so...
25/01/2013 05:16:16 AM
- 1708 Views
Re: I'm as much of a "mainstream" reviewer as a fantasy one these days, so...
25/01/2013 08:37:48 PM
- 2126 Views
All but remains, for me at least, is a story that isn't as memorable as it could have been
27/01/2013 03:03:59 AM
- 3152 Views
Re: All but remains, for me at least, is a story that isn't as memorable as it could have been
28/01/2013 09:26:24 PM
- 1442 Views
Perrin growled. Slayer was too quick! Perrin was fast, too. Sooner or later, one of them would..." *NM*
24/01/2013 08:23:12 PM
- 763 Views
At one point he used the word "arabesque" - how can something be that without Arabic culture? *NM*
24/01/2013 09:25:54 PM
- 1005 Views
Indeed...
25/01/2013 03:14:22 AM
- 1482 Views
He actually said he took "many advanced courses in linguistics"? That makes it even worse.
25/01/2013 02:19:31 PM
- 1184 Views
Re: He actually said he took "many advanced courses in linguistics"? That makes it even worse.
25/01/2013 08:53:38 PM
- 1542 Views
Well, Brigham Young is the *best* Mormon university out there.
26/01/2013 01:37:16 AM
- 1272 Views
Re: Well, Brigham Young is the *best* Mormon university out there.
26/01/2013 03:20:09 PM
- 1288 Views
You still Trolling the WoTBoards Larry?
24/01/2013 11:06:14 PM
- 1327 Views
Ha! I've mellowed a bit, though!
25/01/2013 04:56:47 AM
- 1891 Views
Been there
26/01/2013 09:27:10 PM
- 1236 Views
I went to the World's Fair in 1982 with my family - again, small world!
27/01/2013 03:08:27 AM
- 1984 Views
Were you the one who came up with "Selene was Mesaana"?
25/01/2013 07:44:01 AM
- 1585 Views