September 17, 2007
-
A Great Loss
Just a little while ago I learned of the death of one of my favorite authors, Robert Jordan. Here is the story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070917/ap_on_en_ot/obit_jordan
He is the author of one of the longest running and greatest epic fantasy series in the history of the world: The Wheel of Time. I have been reading this series since I was very young, I think since I was eleven years old. And I loved them. For the longest time it was my favorite fantasy series and even to this day it will always hold a cherished place in my heart.
Sadly, The Wheel of Time series was not completed before Jordan’s death. Those of us who had been following it were well aware that he had been sick for quite some time and that there was a chance that he wouldn’t live to finish it. The series is eleven books long and there was to be one more massive book to finish it all up, beautifully to be titled A Memory of Light. Jordan was working incredibly hard to finish the series during his last days, wanting to get it done before he was gone, but alas it was not to be.
It was clear that Jordan is one of those writers that just loves to write, and I always admired that about him. In the back of each book in his author’s description it would say that he “intends to continue until they nail shut coffin.” He loved to write. He seemed to live for his writing and it all seemed to matter to him deeply. He wrote as if he really cared about his characters and the world that he crafted, as if it matters as much as this world in which we live now. He could weave a story with extraordinary skill putting we the reader right in the middle of the events, making us feel their importance and significance. Their weight. You felt like you were riding on the winds as it blew through the mountains of mist and you just know that the wind matters, that it is a sign of deepest significance. It was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time, but we the reader knew as we read those words that it was A beginning. The beginning of something extraordinary.
The scope of this story was truly astounding, and I’m not just talking about its length. Jordan was one of the first writers who I read who built everything from the ground up, an entire world unlike anything I had ever experienced. From a brand new magic system that broke new ground, and went far beyond just throwing fireballs and reading spellbooks, to entirely unique monsters that were as fascinating as they were terrifying: trollocks, graymen, fades. Insidious villains that had you shaking with fear, loathing, and excitement all at the same time, and brand new cultures soaked with complicated and fascinating histories and riddled with mysteries we the reader were desperate to unearth the secrets of.
But Jordan’s greatest skill, the thing that made his works so extraordinarily unforgettable was the simple elegance with which he described the inner voices of the amazing characters you just couldn’t help but come to love. You could hear them obsessing over the most trivial of details and you were there with them when the moment came when they found some deeper resolve within them that enabled them to rise to face the challenges before them. They were so very human. Wondering about how people think about them, trying to assess one another, to see them as who they truly are. Whether you liked them or hated them, whether you cared about what was happening to them or not, they were always real to you. You could always understand them. That was Jordan’s gift.
An anecdote to show how much I loved his writing. One day during my freshman year in college, one of his books came out. That day, first thing in the morning and walked all the way to Borders bookstore and purchased it. I then walked back, locked my door, ignored everything and started reading it. The next day I had classes, and back then I was actually a somewhat conscientious student, it wasn’t until sophmore year when I started blowing things off (damn pass/fail semester, screws up my gpa). So I had to decide whether to go to class but I was still in the middle of the book and didn’t want to stop reading. I ended up going to class, but then I sat there right in the middle of the class and read the book throughout the teachers lecture trying to split my attention and write a few notes. And it wasn’t one of those big lecture classes where you can kind of disappear, no there were maybe 12 students in the class and I was in the front row. I noticed a few times the Professor looked a little bewildered and not knowing how to take my obvious rudeness and would spare a second to glare at me from time to time. But I didn’t care. I just wanted to keep reading, and no silly math class was going to stop me. It was silly, I know, but this really happened, and you know I don’t regret it at all, even though the only question I got wrong on the final was a question about the subject matter lectured on on that very day. And you know what, this was one of the books I liked the least in the series. Who knows to what lengths I would have gone to keep reading one of my favorite volumes?
Robert Jordan was a legendary figure of this era and it wasn’t just his writing. His works fostered the creation of an extraordinary massive community of fans and fandom. I remember one of my earliest memories of using the internet was hanging out on these forums online devoted to the wheel of time where people of all walks of life were hanging out and role playing pretending to be various types of Aes Sedai and Warders and creating fan fiction and speculating about the series and the future and just chatting amicably and generally having sooo much fun. Just watching and occasionally contributing provided me with hours of entertainment. Too many hours in fact. Back then were the days where we had AOL and they charged by the hour and I remember racking up huge bills much to my parents’ chagrin.
I am so very sad to seem him gone. To think that he won’t ever see the end of his beloved series though someone else will surely complete his work, is heartbreaking. I hope that whatever worlds he travels too now that he can still tell his stories and still provide hours of joy and entertainment to all those who love his writing. I never knew him, never met him, but even so I will miss him greatly. And so will the world.
