Dragaera

POTD question...

Wed Jan 22 15:30:41 PST 2003

On Wed, 22 Jan 2003 15:55:28 -0600, you wrote:

>On Wed, Jan 22, 2003 at 03:48:06PM -0500, Chris Turkel <zizban at adelphia.net> wrote:
>> On Wednesday, January 22, 2003, at 03:40 PM, lazarus wrote:
>> >On Wed, 22 Jan 2003 12:22:29 -0800 (PST), you wrote:
>> >>Ruhlen, Rachel Louise (UMC-Student) writes:
>> >> This falls in the same category as the "Orlaan/Loraan" controversy. 
>> >>_I_
>> >> still don't believe there's no connection!
>> >>Note that, in _Taltos_, Vlad talks about a Jhereg named Rolaan.  I
>> >>think Steve just likes the sound of those phonemes.
>> >>rone
>> >Also, names repeat in the real world, in every culture, but for some
>> >reason readers want every character ever mentioned in a fantasy world
>> >to have a unique name.
>> >How many guys named Bob or Steve or Jeff have you had working for you?
>> >At one point, my entire sales staff was made up of Chris's and
>> >Randy's.  Drove the central office crazy, of course.
>> You are correct and a lot of writers miss this point. A good example is 
>> Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" books. Ten volumes, I don't think a 
>> name is repeated once. Its like everyone on the planet has a unique 
>> name.
>
>The question with Jordan isn't so much whether names repeat, or 
>whether the bit character mentioned in one paragraph in book 6 as 
>coming from Tear and having blond hair is the same bit character 
>mentioned in passing in book 10 without any screen time as being 
>brown haired and coming from Murandy, only in disguise, or 
>whether Jordan has simply made another mistake, or if they are 
>perhaps two different people.
>
>There have certainly been instances where the same character has 
>appeared under other names, in disguise; where two different 
>characters have had the same name but different characteristics; 
>and where Jordan mistakes one character for another.

Note to self:  Stay away from the Wheel of Time.......



-- 

lazarus

 "Therefore, my Harry, Be it thy course to busy giddy minds with
 foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out, may waste the memory
 of the former days." -- King Henry IV, Part ii Act 4, Scene 5