The Eye of the World - Preface

The preface of the first book of the wheel of time starts with rich descriptions. It paints a vivid picture of stone house or mansion gone made and then describes a mad man in the center of it, the dragon. Shortly after that the nemesis shows his face, but also reveals that while he's quite evil, he is not the one responsible for all of this. Some exposition follows and while almost nothing is very clear you get an understand of the events that have been going on recently and the fact that these two men were powerful players for opposing sides, and that while the good won its victory was at a terrible cost. After that our doomed hero commits suicide (though arguably unintentionally) and our villain foreshadows that the world itself isn't quite as doomed as it looks, it is after all still the preface.

The overall feeling I got was one of frustration and sorrow. Part of those feelings comes from having read the series and knowing that Ishmael simply wants to end it all and the victory of the shadow is only valuable as it would, theoretically anyways, remove him from the cycle of rebirth. Lews Therin on the other hand produced a lot of heartbreak in this passage. First you see him mad and think that, perhaps, it is all for the best. From there you see his painful return to sanity and him rising in righteous anger against the one who, in his initial thoughts, caused his utter devastation. And finally you see him realize that he caused this, the reasoning behind it (the taint and what caused the taint) is almost ignored by his feelings, all he can think about was that it was his hands that destroyed all he loved.

Honestly there wasn't much to learn in this passage, and not much that really applied to my life either. If anything the main lesson was, perhaps, one of restraint. In his sorrow Lews Therin committed suicide after he was healed from the madness, but perhaps the world might have turned out differently if he hadn't. Maybe if he'd restrained himself he could have helped right some of the wrongs that he had caused. Of course it's a fiction book so conjuncture over what might have been is even more pointless than it usually is (and it's usually pretty pointless).

Well folks, there you have it; my first chapter review. Not much to look at, but honestly there wasn't a lot to write about, barely 17 minutes on an audio tape. I may try and look at the literary trappings for chapters and how they're written in the future, might give me more to write about when I don't see much in the way of plot or life lessons.

~joe

Movies? Books?

     Okay, so I was updating my myspace profile today and it got me to thinking... What do I look for in movies and books? Out of all the possible things to read about and watch, what draws me?

     The short answer? Epic ones. Movies where a few stand against endless to save many, or just one. I also adore stories of redemption. Where someone who did great wrong comes back and saves the day. 

     The best example I can give would come from the second book of a long series that would take to long to explain, so I'll give the second best one from Lord of the Rings. It's where Boromir tries to steal the Ring from Frodo, Frodo gets away, and then Boromir goes to save Merry and Pip. Here's a quick excerpt:

     "Then Boromir had come leaping through the trees. He had made them fight. He slew many of them and the rest fled. But they had not gone far on the way back when they were attacked again, by a hundred Orcs at least, some of them very large, and they shot a rain of arrows: always at Boromir. Boromir had blown his great horn till the woods rang, and at first the Orcs had been dismayed and had drawn back; but when no answer but the echoes came, they had attacked more fiercely than ever. Pippin did not remember much more. His last memory was of Boromir leaning against a tree, plucking out an arrow; then darkness fell suddenly."

    The other major aspect I really enjoy is love.  Now love is a tricky aspect, I don't just mean sappy girl falls for loser boy and everyone ends up happy after a series of completely avoidable misunderstandings. I can enjoy (or at least sit through) those easily enough, but the ones I adore are stories of when two people are forced to marry, either via someone actually forcing them or in order to save something (someone's life or prevent a war), and then end up loving each other. 

     For example a princess marrying the general who kidnapped her in order to prevent a war that would have decimated her country, and then the general loving her enough to go through great lengths to protect that country even when he didn't have to.

     The point of this post? Not much, except maybe to get some titles of good books for me to look at next.

~joe(ishvi)

p.s. Also, I really, really hate love stories that go into explicit details of sex and junk like that.

p.p.s. I also enjoy funny movies that aren't retarded. Almost everything involving Will Ferrill is retarded.

p.p.p.s. Also tell me what ya'll enjoy reading/watching.