Sarah Thomas, Laurie Norris, and guest panelist Joe Cerniglia discuss Robert Jordon’s groundbreaking high fantasy series The Wheel of Time alongside season 1 of the Rafe Judkins television adaptation, currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
SPOILER ALERT/CONTENT WARNING:
- The books and the show are both high fantasy; so sex and violence do appear. We will be discussing some of these issues in this episode, so please keep this in mind as you’re choosing when/where to listen.
Knowing
First encounters with high fantasy as a genre/Wheel of Time specifically
Brief background of the book series/TV show adaptation
Reading
How the series navigates some of the standard tropes of the genre, particularly its world-building
- Understanding of time
- Eastern/Western influences on world-building, cosmology
- Manichean, Daoist influences on cosmology
How the series comments on/responds to a Christian understanding of differences between men and women, sexuality, time, good/evil, etc.
Adaptation considerations
Passing On
Joe – How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods
Laurie – “Siuan Sanche and Finding Transgender Experience in The Wheel of Time” by Sylas K Barrett
Sarah – Women of Hope: Doctors of the Church by Terry Polakovic
Love this series of books and was very interested to see the convergence of feminism, Christianity, and this book/show. By min 37 I realized the Christian part was merely a titular adjective. Saddened to hear how much effort was made to distance the discussion from biblical morality.
Also, Jordan was a Mormon, and I always viewed the Aiel marriage, which I found fascinating, as a fantasy of polygamist equality that does not play out in the reality, rather than a subversion of gender roles.
If this IS a Christian podcast, I hope the moderators are willing to stand on the bedrock of biblical truth. If they cherry pick what they want from the bible, and disregard what they do not, or what goes against their cultural biases, then just drop the adjective Christian please.