There are stories where, for example, the ideal situation never comes about even though all readers wish they were to happen, because they don't make sense. Thus, there is no destiny or fate, but physical, emotional and intellectual distances which have force and power (this is partially why so much fanfiction is occupied with achieving fanservice by making the events as perfect as possible - many authors choose to leave things incomplete because that is the nature of life).
Those authors who do so, though, do so to make a point. Or maybe the point is that there is no point. MY point is that authors generally create events for a reason.
Even if the ending was, "And then he got bored of looking for his birth son, and went back home to be a notary public until the end of his days," that was still something the author intended. And if the story shows that maybe life doesn't always end with a thrilling climax, then, that's something the author created as well.
Let me put it another way. Many, many, many stories start with something happening to someone. Peter Parker gets bit by a spider. What's-his-name from Rear Window breaks his leg. A new girl comes to school. An orphan sees two criminals in a graveyard.
Why did the event happen? Why now? Why to this character? The answer is, of course, because that's how the story went. If Peter didn't get bitten by a spider, if that new girl went to some other school, then the story wouldn't happen, or at least it would be a different story.
So, there's nothing special about Peter Parker, or the orphan from Great Expectations, except that they're the ones the story is about. And that's essentially all ta'veren is.
This is what puts WoT firmly into the realm of an entertaining and well-told fairy story versus something more meaningful.
IE: "Why do I love Rand? Because I was meant to love him. Why must I share him with three other women? Well, Min's visions said I would share him with three other women."
I see what you mean there. That's not ta'veren, though. That's just Destiny, which can be annoying.
I amuse myself.
I love how ta'veren = main character
- 30/10/2009 07:51:19 PM
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I've always thought that was one of RJ's best ideas
- 30/10/2009 07:55:19 PM
541 Views
Re: I've always thought that was one of RJ's best ideas
- 30/10/2009 07:57:59 PM
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I don't like this. It reeks of 'deus ex machina' and makes things too convenient. *NM*
- 30/10/2009 09:38:39 PM
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Eh. Technically, EVERY fictional story has this.
- 30/10/2009 09:56:50 PM
446 Views
I disagree.
- 30/10/2009 11:16:23 PM
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Even that is part of this, though
- 30/10/2009 11:43:55 PM
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