Fellow feminists and fantasy readers: how did you get past the beginning of Eye of the World?
Asked by
wildpotato (
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June 20th, 2013
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And does the rest of Wheel of Time lay off the sexism at all? I’ve tried to read Eye a few times now, years apart with each attempt, and every time it makes me feel like banging my head against a wall. I just hate it when authors write all women the same way, and this way is particularly awful: the heroines bond immediately, speak contemptuously of all men, and are portrayed as bitchy rather than powerful. The men uniformly regard women as incomprehensible. It makes all the characters difficult to identify with. And I haven’t even gotten to any of Jordan’s “pillow friends” passages, but buddies who have read the series tell me he is somewhat obsessed with the idea and brings it up a lot.
I have already been convinced by other readers that the story is well worth pushing through the sexist writing – it’s just that I’ve found myself unable to do it so far. I’m ready to give up and read the plot summary of the first book at least on Wiki. So this is my last-ditch effort – will you guys tell me about how you managed to make it past the first hundred pages? Maybe your stories would give me the heart to try again.
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9 Answers
Wish I could help you.
I got through the first six books of the series before I quit; so many characters and subplots, with so little main plot development, that I gave up. You have a lot of sniffing, braid-tugging, dress straightening, arms-folding-under-breasts-ing, men misunderstanding, and general stubbornness to look forward to.
I am a fan of Brandon Sanderson, however, so I plan to read his books later this summer just to see how the series ends.
I attempted a Robert Jordan story once. Can’t remember which one. It was enormous. I got a few chapters in before thinking “There’s twenty-six of these beastly, boring things?!?”
And then I turned it into a hollow-book to hide things from my little sister.
Jove. It’s sort of my opinion that if the writing style of the book doesn’t meet your standards how could the rest of it possibly make up for it. It’d be like trying to finish a bowl of paella when all you can think of is how much you hate shellfish.
I believed that all the main characters were the equivalent to modern day teenagers given a task that requires more maturity than available.
Haha I own The Great Hunt, but it’s the only one that I have. Don’t remember how I got my hands on it, but it was long ago. Seeing as I don’t have any of the others, I’ve never even tried to read it, so I don’t know what it’s like. But the cover looks cool. XD
I really liked Eye of the World; I liked the next one or two? Not sure, it’s been a long time… as @phaedryx says, the main plot turned into way too many subplots. I hate when I have to backtrack because I can’t remember what’s going on with this or that particular character.
The sexism just gets worse. It also gets ridiculous when romance officially comes into the picture. Women don’t have jealousy, it seems. They understand their man is so powerful and manly he needs 3 or 4 women (can’t remember now) so just be glad you’re one of them. Swoooon.. Retch..
I tried to read the first one, but I just couldn’t get into it. I still have the first couple of books, but I don’t know if I will ever warm up to them or not…
I figured out how to do it, finally: I burned the books on tape onto CDs and listen to them in the car with my fiance and when we cook together. This way I get to have someone to roll my eyes at, groan with, and occasionally go on a tirade at the sexist parts. Plus we get to make immature jokes about the Dark One’s slick oily taint on the male half of the source. Heh.
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