Posts tagged Brandon Sanderson
Fiction Friday 9: Convincing Madness
Jan 15th
photo by onkel
Elodin proved a difficult man to find. He had an office in Hollows, but never seemed to use it. When I visited Ledgers and Lists, I discovered he only taught one class: Unlikely Maths. However, this was less than helpful in tracking him down, as according to the ledger, the time of the class was ‘now’ and the location was ‘everywhere.’
-Kvothe from The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
For those fantasy lovers that haven’t read The Name of the Wind, do yourself a favor and start reading it. Though admittedly, it seems at first like your typical, slow starting epic fantasy, you will find quickly that it is far from it.
In any case, one thing that Rothfuss does extremely well (in my opinion) is write characters who are absolutely mad. Elodin (mentioned above) is a professor at a somewhat archetypal “‘Roke Island” or “Potter” -style magic school. Tales have been told of how incredibly talented he was in his youth. He was once chancellor of the whole university. Now he does not teach a single class, he wanders around aimlessly with one sock on. He is harsh when he speaks, and makes little sense.
And yet, there are glimmers of pure genius that shine through his actions. Glimmers so hidden that perhaps they are not realized as genius until hours later.
As much as I love Brandon Sanderson’s work, I will be the first to admit that the character Zane in the Mistborn Trilogy is unconvincingly “insane”. Zane is fully functional. Zane is a deadly fighter. Zane is not even really quirky, he is merely a bad-ass with a soft spot for a lady and a desire to kill his father (who is a terrible person well worth killing). But because Zane has a voice in his head that tells him to kill people (which he can choose to ignore), he is constantly described as “mad”. I was totally unconvinced that even he would consider his own self crazy in any way.
So what makes insanity work on the page? In my observations, it seems like crazy characters work the best when they are still partially in touch with reality, albeit a distorted one. Recall any moment in your life when you talked to someone with Alzheimer’s. They have such a tenuous hold on the world around them. And yet, occasionally a moment of crystal clarity slips through. Where they seem to be totally there, totally with it, and can answer questions and recall moments in time when they spanked you for almost swallowing a quarter when you were four. But then this moment of clarity passes and everything seems lost.
I believe it is these glimmers that we must strive for in the madness on the page and table. Yes, it is quite a chuckle to write the character who randomly recites stanzas and times tables. To roleplay the crazed alchemist with his constantly singed beard. But when that character lets slip a glimmer of understanding that hints that perhaps they are better informed even than our sane characters, even than the reader or writer him/herself…
That is just plain chilling.
Now get back to your stanzas and times tables, your alchemical agents. But you better start paying better attention to them. Meaning is hidden everywhere.
Fiction Friday 7: Compelling Evil
Nov 13th
photo by geir
Men who believe themselves to be good, who do not search their own souls, most often commit the worst atrocities. A man who sees himself as evil will restrain himself. It is only when we do evil in the belief that we do good that we pursue it wholeheartedly.
-Gaborn’s Days from David Farland’s The Runelords
Reading this quote brought many things to place in my mind, both in writing and role-playing. What makes the most compelling, dynamic evil?
In reading Brandon Sanderson’s The Hero of Ages I have been considering this as well. The most compelling of all “villains” have appeared in this trilogy capper, even more compelling (I think) than the all-powerful tyrannical Lord Ruler. Lord Yomen is a great and powerful foe who stands in the way of one of our protagonists (Elend). Though his motivations for opposing the protagonist, once brought up, make perfect sense to both the reader and Elend. Yomen sees Elend as a tyrant, a liar, a cheat, and a thief. And his reasoning is completely flawless. Yomen is not evil, but then again neither is Elend. They even have many of the same ideals. Under different circumstances, they certainly would be friends.
On the other edge of the final empire the other “villain” (the Citizen) rules. His leadership began as an inspired, faithful call to a newly formed religion’s “teachings”. But as time passed, his interpretation and implementation of those teachings began to change in ways that any outsider would see as cruel and unfair. But because he believes wholeheartedly that what he is doing is for the greater good, then he is driven to worse and worse atrocities. It has been very interesting to see these two very different, but very dynamic, effective evils unfold. Perhaps it was a new maturity that Sanderson found in coming from book one to book three in this series; moving onto these more compelling villains.
I know I’m not one to talk about a proven author’s maturity, but anyone can see the difference between Nabokov’s first book King, Queen, Knave and a later one like Lolita. We learn and grow every damn minute of our lives.
When we think of a character in gaming or writing as evil (or lawful evil, or chaotic evil) do we ever consider whether, on the inside that character thinks and feels what he does is truly the work of evil? Yes, there are mechanical labels in roleplaying (you are evil, and thus affected by good spells) but in a more realistic world spells like protection from evil would probably have a harder time functioning. I mean, he maliciously beat that man to death when he was in his twenties, but since then has been a pretty decent guy, is he really warded by that protection from evil spell? Evil is a fine line, and I think something that could be difficult to admit to. A mechanically lawful evil character who is a tyrant for the sake of stability in his kingdom may not see what he does as truly evil, but more of a necessary evil, or just a necessity. Perhaps his subjects are, in his mind, sub-human. Thus making his atrocities, well, not so atrocious in his mind. What is there holding him back? Verses the man who knows he willing commits evil, but for a set goal or purpose. Much is holding him back.
So lets think about this delicious speck of wisdom from Mr. Farland. I know I could definitely use the advice; the thought put into my evil has certainly been neglected at times. It is too easy to have that man with a long black mustache and greased back hair foil all our plans…
Let’s all strive with zealotry to build some dynamic evil characters this coming week, shall we?
The Great Hunt E-Book Cover
Nov 11th
Tor.com’s blog just recently posted these very impressive images that will be used for the E-Book release of Robert Jordan’s second Wheel of Time book: The Great Hunt.
The artist, Kekai Kotaki has a proven track record doing concept artwork for the various releases of the MMMORPG Guild Wars. He’s a real artist, with a truly amazing collection of artwork on his website.
Unlike, for instance, the artwork for the same book from 1990: almost twenty years ago:
And then it’s re-release in 2004 as two books:
I know the Wheel of Time is huge now. Just last week, the most recent installment, the Gathering Storm, hit #1 on the NYT Bestseller list. Brandon Sanderson, my idol right now (that I can’t stop talking about) was chosen to take over the series after the death of Robert Jordan, thus combining both Sanderson and Jordan fans together in a whirlwind of nerddom.
But beyond all this, I’m hoping that Tor is starting to say something with these new, amazing, elegant covers. Perhaps that fantasy fans are sick of looking at the same exact, poorly drawn cover in the same tired “fantasy” style? I sure hope so.