it's 3:30 AM and ...

[zwol]

... the big news of this oh-my-god-what-am-I-doing-up-this-late-'ning is the untimely death of Robert Jordan. I got about to page five of The Eye of the World before deciding I didn't care what happened to those people, so I bring it up only because the various online obituaries (e.g. at Making Light) are causing me severe cognitive dissonance. See, everyone is saying that the man was, in person, a gentleman and a swell guy and great to know and they'll miss him terribly. But the one and only time I saw him in person, he was an invited panelist at a conference of the American Library Association (my mother is a librarian) and he was a twit. He condescended at the audience, he refused to speak to the topic, he blathered about how great he was and how many fans he had.

What gives? Was that his evil twin or something?

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The only time I met the man was at the funeral of his best friend, the brother he adopted for himself, John M. Ford. In grief, at least, he was gracious; I can't speak to whether his better moments might have actually been worse.

Whenever I want to sneer at Robert Jordan books, I repeat to myself, "Friend of Mike's, friend of Mike's, friend of Mike's...." It doesn't make the books better. But it reminds me that people are rarely simple.

[queenpam.livejournal.com]

*poke*

[ladyrunica.livejournal.com]

This is ironic. I picked up all the books in the series so far at bookswap. For this reason, I actually bothered to read them this summer. (Free books, right? Figured it was the only way to get me to actually read the series.) Granted, I read them SLOWLY. There is only so much bottom-pinching, braid-tugging and sniffing one can take in a sitting. Still, I had basically just finished them as of last week. Why, oh why, did I waste that time for a mediocre series that now can't even be finished? Oh, right. Subtle peer pressure. "All the other sf/f people read it. Might as well know what they know." *Tugs shoulder-length hair Nynaeve-fashion in frustration.*