The Eye of the Word: Ch1 Part 3
Hey everyone! While I wasn't able to get ahead the way I wanted, I'm at least getting back in the groove. Hopefully I'll be able to start making some real progress in this project :)
This section covers pages 25-30 in my book, or Rand dismissing the shadowy figure to them arriving at the Inn with the drinks. Events:
Not a lot happened in this section. Rand and Tam made it from where they paused (due to the shadowy figure) to their village, Emond's Field, and eventually the Inn that was expecting their delivery of drinks.
Mostly it felt like a lot of set up and world building was going on.
Setting:
The village- we learned a lot more about Emond's Field this section. It's a small enough village that everyone seems to know everyone else.
It's interesting to me that Tam and Rand live on a farm a little ways outside the village. It's almost as if they live in between the village and the outside world.
When Tam reminds Rand about the flame and the void, it's further evidence that they aren't like others in the village. It also seems like something that is going to come up again, I'm just not sure when or how.
The people in the village (and possibly the surrounding villages) are stubborn, since it's not the most hospitable area for a village, and anyone who wasn't stubborn left the area long before. Between the stubborn nature of the villagers, discussion of a stone foundation from long before, and unquestioning adherence to tradition, there is a sense that very little changes in this village. Seems like the perfect set up for absolutely everything to later be upended.
This village (and likely world) seems to have pretty strict gender roles. Women do this, men do that. There was mention of a "Women's Circle", which seemed to be in opposition to the "Town Council".
There was also mention of a Wisdom, but no real explanation of who or what that is. It seems like a Wisdom is supposed to be psychic in some way, since she was expected to give an accurate prediction of the coming year's weather. Interestingly, this information supposedly came from "listening to the wind", which again gives nature a sentience.
Characters:
Rand-there wasn't a lot going on with rand in this section; mostly he seemed to be taking in everything going on around him. Since we seemed to fairly tuned to what he's thinking about, this suggests that he's not very self-centered, since he's not really thinking about himself, but it's not very helpful in getting to know a person.
The most interesting thing we learned about him in this section is that he really doesn't like being pushed into doing things. Quite the characteristic for someone who is likely to be the protagonist of an epic series, with a great destiny to fulfill. He's really going to need to grow, or learn to adjust.
We also got further evidence that he's in the grey area between adolescence and adulthood: he was confused by the fact that the mayor's daughter, Egwene, has been making him increasingly jittery.
Tam- He's showing himself to be a fairly even keeled kind of guy, someone seemingly not prone to being carried away by emotion. He was approached in a rather rude way by someone he didn't seem to want to talk to, but didn't show any annoyance, anger or frustration. He remained patient, but still spoke his mind, not trying to spare the other man's feelings/pride/whatever.
He's apparently also the most eligible bachelor in the village, which for some reason I find funny. It's just something about the image of all those women trying to play matchmaker.
The discussion does suggest that there is STRONG social pressure toward matrimony. And yet Tam doesn't seemed bothered or swayed by the attempts. He's loyal to his late wife, and doesn't seem to want to get married, just for the sake of getting married. He's going to do his own thing, regardless of what anyone says.
Other- We met Wit Conger, and heard several other people mentioned, but we haven't met them yet. Wit is apparently important enough to warrant a name and general description, but still feels like he is going to be a more minor character.
I debated whether to end here or not, but it seems like a natural transition point, so I'm going to save what happens next for the next section. There's a lot of set up going on, and I look forward to seeing set up for WHAT?!