Subject: Path of Daggers Signing Report, November 15th

From: [email-masked] (Matthew Hunter)
Date: 16 Nov 1998 10:22:41 GMT

My Path of Daggers signing report is available in HTML from:
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/mhunter/Fantasy/Authors/Jordan/podsigning.html

The text version is below:

              November 14th, Path of Dagger Signing, Louisville

There was an early rush of signees (an hour and a half or so), followed by
about half an hour of questions and answers with little plot-related info,
but a lot of other interesting tidbits. Someone asked about the cover art
and got a surprisingly informative answer. There are some pretty substantial
sections for Flavio and the rest of the military buffs, too.

Plot information

I was able to ask a few questions, and listen in to a few others. We got
three of the "it should be inuitively obvious to the intelligent reader"
answers, and one other that told us a bit more... but not much. The Creator
was pretty tight with his plot information this time around, according to
him, because "certain readers have built up these huge logic trees," and
"can figure out way too much if I say anything at all."

The first "intuitively obvious" question was from someone else: The old
standby, "Who killed Asmodean?" He added that there have been clues in (at
least some, maybe all of) the books published since then. I take this
statement to mean that Graendal is the killer; she's the only one for whom
the case could be called "intuitively obvious", as it is mostly built up
through a process of elimination and a few supporting comments.

The second was mine: "Do you consider the identities of Moridin and Cyndane
to be intuitively obvious?" He said yes, they should be fairly obvious by
now, in many more words. To me, this means Ishy and Lanfear respectively.

The third was someone else again, and I didn't hear the question clearly,
but I think it was about the weird Power effects. Assuming I heard
correctly, this should support the Bowl theory, due to the lack of effects
in Andor despite the gateway detonation and the timing of the effect first
showing up. Of course, he didn't say so explicitly, but that is what would
seem to be the intuitively obvious explanation.

I chimed in later on to ask if "there was a physical resemblence between
Cyndane and a certain height-challenged Aes Sedai". He said "We don't know
yet." I think that means yes, which is interesting. If there hadn't been
one, he could have said no, and he has written the descriptions of Cyndane
ambiguously enough to prevent any proof either way.

My last question concerned the glossary -- the bit about "speculation is
futile." I asked, "Do you really expect that to stop us?" He said of course
not.

Background and Personal Information

After the early rush of signees was over with (there were 162 people with
tickets, and quite a few without), about 20 people settled in for a bit of
discussion without the pressure of signers. Plot-related information was
sparse, and there were relatively few questions, because the answers were
long. There were a few tidbits thrown to the slavering hounds, and a lot of
exposition.

Tidbits

   * The Aiel were based on bits of the apache, zulu, bedouin, and arab(?)
     cultures. Nothing starting here, but I don't think we've had this one
     answered as a complete list before. It was fired off really fast, so I
     may have missed some...
   * Path of Daggers was finished August 25th, and published in less than 60
     days.
   * The usual "at least 3 more books" was mentioned several times in an
     increasingly loud voice.
   * Who killed Asmo?
        o It should be "intuitively obvious".
        o There ARE clues in later books. They may not be necessary, but
          they are there. I am not sure if he said "later" or "latest",
          though.
        o He does indeed mean "intuitively obvious" in the sense that his
          math teachers would use when describing a proof, as speculated on
          rasfwr-j. "I always hated that."
   * There were some jokes about the sheer mass of the books -- "There will
     be a boxed set when the series is complete... on wheels."
   * The Museum Replicas weapons are good. The design work (some of it at
     least) was done by the same person who did the maps, for a somewhat
     unusual price. I don't quite recall their name, and can't decipher my
     handwriting now.
   * "I grew up around strong women; weak men were pickled and salted. The
     women wouldn't waste time raising a weak boy."
   * Evidentally, Jordan didn't like being taught cursive, but showed
     otherwise by a teacher at a young age. "A gentleman's handwriting is
     always round and legible, always clear, no matter how drunk, how tired,
     or how busy he may be. This I require of you." Being "required" to do
     something by that particular teacher was evidentally a big deal.
   * Someone asked about multiple books. Jordan said that the rule was that
     you had to go through the line for every two books, and that he would
     "enforce the rules with my bullwhip if necessaary"; a bookstore
     employee(?) commented that it was more of a guideline really. General
     laughter and bullwhip comments ensued, culminating with "Just so no one
     asks, 'Can I fondle your bullwhip?'" from Jordan. (I didn't catch all
     of this. I regretted it. Oh well.)
   * Book timings:
        o 4 years to write Eye of the World; the next 5 took 14-16 months
          each
        o aCoS took 22-23 months to write.
        o The Guide to the Wheel of Time took 5-6 months; there was a lot of
          work he had to do on it that he didn't expect to need to do. I
          think he expected a few weeks of work from him directly, with it
          mostly being done by others.
        o New Spring took 2-3 months
        o Strike At Shayul Ghul was written from the perspective of a
          scholar trying to attract funding for a more complete version (ie,
          grant money) and was his first piece of short fiction.
   * Where did ideas come from?
        o "What if you were tapped on the shoulder and told you had to save
          the world?"
        o What are the sources of myths? "reverse-engineered" legends.
        o The game of "telephone" (he calls it "whisper").
   * Proud of the little things that slip up on you, like Callandor being
     "The Sword in the Stone."
   * Path of Daggers could have been longer, but he had to take out events
     he had intended to include because including them would have required
     another month of Randland time, and that would have made the book
     "twice as fat."
   * Jordan likes his fans, because:
        o We don't ask for autographs in blood (his, or theirs)
        o We have never given him a gift of a dead cat's head on a stake. At
          least not in public.
   * On Pronunciation:
        o Aes Sedai: "I said eye."
        o Nynaeve: "Nine eve"
        o Faile: "FAI-eel"
        o Tear: not "tire".
   * Lots of minor comments thinly veiled towards the net-jordanites. I got
     the impression he thinks we're a bit obsessive but appreciates it. Some
     of the more interesting ones:
        o "I like the idea of Bela as a Darkfriend."
        o "There is an alphanumeric code in the copyright page." He expects
          us to decode it shortly. Let's get cracking!
        o "How do you know Mat isn't back as Cyndane?"
        o "Any crazy rumors I can start on the Web are good."
   * Started off thinking there were at least 3-4 books. By the time he got
     to the third, he knew it would be at least 6.

Learning to read

It seems Jordan learned to read by having his father read to him constantly
(when he was being read to, he wasn't messing around with expensive "toys"
that broke easily). They started out with children's books, until Dad found
out that it didn't matter whether Jordan really understood or not, and
started reading books that Dad wanted to read instead. This went on for a
while, until the night Dad put a book away before it was finished, so Jordan
grabbed it and struggled through it on his own, figuring out what he didn't
understand through context. (The Maltese Falcon was mentioned, but I don't
recall how, other than as one of the books that he liked.)

When Jordan was 6, he got a library card -- like "the keys to the city". The
librarians didn't want to let him out of the kids section, so he learned
tricks. If you shelved books in the reading room, they would stay there, so
you could pick them up again later, whether they belonged there or not. And
kids could go to the reference section. "I discovered the encyclopedia."

The library at the time was in a mansion -- the "Miskelle house", I think.
He spelled it for me (without being asked; by that time there had been more
than one comment about the lunatic scribbling notes on everything), but my
notes were rather cramped by that time.

"Reading is like breathing. If you take it away, first I become antsy, then
violent."

Other Favored Authors

I missed quite a few of these while I tried to scribble it all down.

   * CS Friedman
   * Hu Hart ?
   * Guy Gavariel Kay
   * Turtledove
   * Most Rcommended: Guns, Germs, and Steel

Historical Tidbits and Background Information

When China Ruled the Seas

Evidentally, China was a real behemoth in the middle ages, right on the
track to world domination, until they decided they didn't really want to
rule the world. The following is a summary from hastily scribbled notes on a
subject about which I am relatively ignorant; if I fuck up, it means I can't
read my notes.

1484

In the time before Columbus...

China has a huge fleet of ships (3000 of them, half-million crew), printing
presses, generally huge technological advantage over everywhere else. The
fleet is commanded by a name that translates as "Three-Jeweled Eunuch"
(although he was evidentally not a eunuch??). The fleet had superior
logistics (well, something about logistics right about here) and had reached
Madasgascar. They were planning to round the Cape of Good Hope and see what
they found.

1490

The year they would have reached Europe... and overwhelmed it.

Unfortunately, bad things happened. The current Emperor died and was
succeded by his son, who was young and had self-confidence problems. The
palace eunuchs (evidentally a powerful political force) grew concerned over
the changes caused by outside influences, believing them to be corrupting
Chinese culture. They convinced the Emperor to shut China off from the rest
of the world by burning seafaring boats (including that huge fleet!),
restricting foreigners to certain cities and killing them if they were
caught outside, and killing Chinese who left to see the world and then
returned.

It seems the Japanese also did this -- twice, in fact.

This was a very long spiel coming from the nonfiction military history books
he recommended. There was a lot more detail than I managed to capture, but
one thing that stood out in my mind was that he had just told us the origins
of Shara and the Seanchan. Or some of them, at least.

Cover Art

Someone asked how he chose the cover artist, and we got a nice long spiel
with some previously unknown information. Jordan and his wife went through
bookstores picking out books based on their (if they liked it) cover art and
finding out who did the cover. It came down to two artists, Darrel K Sweet
and Michael Whelan. The deciding factor was that Whelan wants the manuscript
to read for a year before he will deliver a cover, and they just couldn't
wait that long.

They are apparently considering a later reissue of the entire series with
different covers, perhaps by Whelan, once it is complete.

Some stores simply won't carry fantasy, so all the books have been issued
without cover art to expand the market. This came up in response to aCoS
paperback being artless. Why we haven't seen any of these others without
art, I don't know.

Sweet Criticism and General Commentary

   * Rand is NOT tall enough.
   * The Path of Daggers details are mostly right, at least.
   * Rand has a different face on each cover.
   * DKS has never done the trollocs right: "They are NOT hairy men with
     animal-like helmets."
   * Detail problems with Sweet are due to communication difficulties; there
     is not much time or oppurtunity for input.
   * Path of Daggers: "The Elvis cover."
   * A Crown of Swords: "The pugilist cover."
   * Lord of Chaos: "Take my room key, please!"

Meta-Information

The signing was held at Hawley-Cooke booksellers (a locally-owned store,
very nice), and lasted about 2 hours. The official plan was to head on to
Cincinatti immediately afterward in preperation for the next day's signing.
As noted before, Jordan's wife was not present (she had to leave earlier on
the tour for unspecified reasons). There was at least one person from Tor (a
publicist IIRC) and perhaps two, both women. Jordan travels in a stretch
limo, with what looked like a chase car, but that could be coincidence.

-- 
Matthew Hunter ([email-masked])