Wheel of Time letter No. 4: A culture of hazing

Dear Robert,

I’m about 21 hours into Lord of Chaos (halfway!) and here’s what’s happening:

Elayne has created enough ter’angrials for a team of rebel Aes Sedai to enter Tel’aran’rhiod and speak with the Aiel Wise Ones. The Aes Sedai feel entitled to know the information the Wise Ones know, and because the Aes Sedai have had the power to advise royalty for centuries and be kingmakers for their own interests, they’re not used to being told no. 

This plot sequence was very much “bitchy women are bitches to each other.” I don’t know if this shows a misunderstanding of women on Robert Jordan’s part, or if it shows his insight into how people, no matter their gender, behave when they have power and feel entitled to more power. I think it further illustrates the Aes Sedai’s culture of hazing, and how Nynaeve and Elayne are now becoming predisposed to pass that unsupportive, antagonistic culture on to future generations of women. It probably says less about internalized misogyny (although that’s still part of it I think) than it does about a generic sorority atmosphere, indoctrination into a group, and the systemic issues that arise when a group clings to power for too long. The Aes Sedai get trapped in a nightmare because they think they know better than the people who have more experience in the world of dreams. The odd part about this, is that the Aes Sedai don’t seem to learn from this and instead remain static characters. While they were injured, they were healed quickly and therefore didn’t face any consequences from their actions.

I’m getting some sinister vibes from both Aes Sedai parties. My pre-guess is that the Aes Sedai will be completely dismantled by the end of the entire series, but maybe I’m meta-reading it because a lot of fantasy novel plots dismantle existing, broken structures. However, the optics of such a plot would be pretty bad: Let’s crush this group of women in favor of what the chosen-one man wants! Actually women are bad at being in charge of society after all!

Nynaeve continues to study how to heal stilling, but she’s forced to abandon her efforts temporarily in favor of breaking through her own block that prevents her from channeling. She’s avoided working with the Aes Sedai helping her because she doesn’t want anyone to find out she’s been keeping Moghedian as a source of power. 

The Children of the Light are scheming and decide to start various rumors to discredit Rand. This sequence shows how information is disseminated and how people operating in bad faith use that to their advantage.

Rand runs into some Aes Sedai who are taking novices from Emmond’s Field to Tar Volen. One of them bonds him as her warder, and in turn he shields her from the true source. He terrorizes some of the novices and then apologizes. 

A “bubble of evil” bursts near the rebel Aes Sedai settlement, sentient furniture attacks everyone, and it seems like Nynaeve has gotten over her block (but maybe not.) 

After the attack on the rebel Aes Sedai settlement happens, Nynaeve and Elayne try to tell the Aes Sedai about one of their dreams, where they found a bowl that can control the weather. 

Then, probably one of the most boring stretches of the book happens. Rand goes to a science fair where a bunch of people are doing experiments to advance technology in his realm. Some guy warns Rand about the bowl.  Rand has given Berelain, a woman who once tried to seduce him in Tear, leadership of Cairhien. The most annoying part of this stretch is hearing about all of the different minor nobles who show up to meet with Rand and how they all glance at each other. I think at least 3 hours of this part of the book has just been people looking at each other. 

Finally, Rand meets with some Ogier, all of whom know Loial. They go to Shadar Logoth through a gateway Rand makes, and that’s where I stopped! Besides things actually happening, an interesting part of this section is where Rand makes the Aiel bring him a bunch of maps, and he uses the annihilation of the steddings as a way to track the Dark One’s progress in the world. I would say that this, coupled with the constant depictions of weather, might make this seem like a metaphor for climate change, but this book was published in 1995, and I don’t think we (as a society, let alone Robert Jordan) were thinking much about that yet.