fractalnavel

this one got a good laugh out of me:

Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: The one book would be whatever book I was currently writing. I mean, I hate falling behind in the work. ...

why was that so funny ?  well, guess who that was.  ah, you'll never get it, so here: it's robert jordan, the infamous author of the wheel of time series of fantasy novels.  this is the same series that has been plodding on for nearly twenty years now, and is in its about-to-be-released eleventh volume.  after a good start, most of the last five or more books have been meandering almost pointlessly.  as if that wasn't bad enough, there have been large gaps between the publication dates of some books, which in combination with the wandering plot makes -former?- fans justifiably concerned about the possibility of any reasonable conclusion. 

and it's not as if jordan has been steadily working at this series either.  in some of the inter-novel periods he has published another series of novels - !  “falling behind in the work” indeed.  obviously he has a pretty idiosyncratic sense of just exactly what his work is.

the quote above comes from book 11's amazon.com page. other questions and answers are pretty funny as well.  i like the question that follows the above:

Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?

perhaps the answer to the previous question, eh ?  the answer is not very fun though.  actually, to me he comes off as quite a jerk, with pat, meaningless answers, even sucking up to his wife.  which might at least partially explain the way he portrays women in the books.

sigh.  ok, i opted out of reading book ten a few years back when the reviews stunk and it appeared to me to be just more wandering.  if you can believe the one review available on amazon's site, this latest installment should be much better.  so do i jump back in again, or wait until this thing comes to an end ?  which might never happen.  the pain in the ass part of it all is that the books and the premise was good enough to get hooked into in the first place, and i would really like to see this one through. 

unfortunately, it seems the author may have attempted something far beyond his own ability to satisfactorily complete.  i'd hate to see a rush job at finishing it, but i have my suspicions that such a path is unavoidable now.  in light of the plodding that came before, such a perception may be inescapable, even if the works are otherwise a good match to the originals.

makes me wonder about what would have happened to other fiction series of note: herbert's dune, asimov's universe.  oh wait - no need to wonder, the hacks have been at it already, with posthumous invasions into territory that should have been left alone.  i think unfinished works should be respected, not dishonored by a farce of continuation, even if the attempts are quality work - which almost never happens anyway.  not as if one could mistake the originals with the squatters.  except - people do.  and this is what bothers me.  well, maybe not so much their own misbegotten perceptions, but the fact that there seems to be an expectation that everyone should play along - and i won't do that. 

herbert and asimov and other great authors are dead.  should someone start to write in shakespeare's world as well ?  if the jordan novels go unfinished, so be it.  that would be the real travesty, transforming what was conceived as a set piece, a self-contained oeuvre, into a serial cash-beast. 

funny that jordan mentions the bible as the most influential book in his life.  funny how such an important piece of work, as an expression of a dynamic and mystical immortal power could be presented in finished form.