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<blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4064915" data-attributes="member: 32164">It's not nice to speak ill of the dead. I submit the former.Jordan was very upfront about cribbing large parts of the Wheel of Time from real-world cultures, myths and legends. And among the cultures on which he drew heavily were those of the East, like China and Japan. The ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai is nearly a Yin-Yang, deliberately unbalanced by eliminating the &quot;dots&quot; to represent the disharmony between male and female power in his world. The borderlands have strong eastern influences, from names to topknots, to their training methods, and yes, their sayings.Rand and Lan carry what are basically Samurai swords, for cryin' out loud! Jordan was blatantly alluding to real world culture because &quot;The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go.&quot; It's supposed to be &quot;our world.&quot; Someone asked Jordan what the folks in the Wheel of Time world call their planet and Jordan stared at them in disbelief before simply replying &quot;Earth.&quot;He even makes some vague references to things in our century. For instance, in The Eye of the World, Thom Merrilin is asked by Egwene to tell them &quot;about Lenn who flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle made of fire&quot; and &quot;his daughter Salya walking among the stars.&quot; Having trouble with the reference?Lenn = &quot;John Glenn&quot; (see note*) or &quot;Lunar Escape Module (LEM)&quot;Belly of an eagle = &quot;The Eagle has landed.&quot;Salya = &quot;Salyut Rocket.&quot;Of course, they're allusions, rather than being direct. Then there's Mat's floppy hat and his spear-staff which looks like Gungnir and is engraved with two ravens and the lines about &quot;Thought&quot; and &quot;Memory.&quot; Oh yeah, and all the prophecies indicating Mat will lose an eye...He's hardly subtle, but &quot;plagiarism&quot; is pretty harsh. It would be more accurate to say &quot;clothing old bones with new flesh.&quot;Besides, I've read Go Rin No Sho, and I can't find that quote anywhere in it. I know it's a traditional saying in Japan, but while Musashi talks about many things, I can't find any real discussion of &quot;duty&quot; in the book. Maybe I just missed it.* Before anyone corrects me, I'm fully aware that the astronauts on Apollo 11 were Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, but Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, and it would be very believable for the story to become garbled and joined into one.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JohnSnow, post: 4064915, member: 32164"] It's not nice to speak ill of the dead. I submit the former. Jordan was very upfront about cribbing large parts of the [i]Wheel of Time[/i] from real-world cultures, myths and legends. And among the cultures on which he drew heavily were those of the East, like China and Japan. The ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai is nearly a Yin-Yang, deliberately unbalanced by eliminating the "dots" to represent the disharmony between male and female power in his world. The borderlands have strong eastern influences, from names to topknots, to their training methods, and yes, their sayings. Rand and Lan carry what are basically Samurai swords, for cryin' out loud! Jordan was blatantly alluding to real world culture because "The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go." It's supposed to be "our world." Someone asked Jordan what the folks in the Wheel of Time world call their planet and Jordan stared at them in disbelief before simply replying "Earth." He even makes some vague references to things in our century. For instance, in [i]The Eye of the World[/i], Thom Merrilin is asked by Egwene to tell them "about Lenn who flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle made of fire" and "his daughter Salya walking among the stars." Having trouble with the reference? Lenn = "John Glenn" (see note*) or "Lunar Escape Module (LEM)" Belly of an eagle = "The Eagle has landed." Salya = "Salyut Rocket." Of course, they're allusions, rather than being direct. Then there's Mat's floppy hat and his spear-staff which looks like [i]Gungnir[/i] and is engraved with two ravens and the lines about "Thought" and "Memory." Oh yeah, and all the prophecies indicating Mat will lose an eye... He's hardly subtle, but "plagiarism" is pretty harsh. It would be more accurate to say "clothing old bones with new flesh." Besides, I've read [i]Go Rin No Sho[/i], and I can't find that quote anywhere in it. I know it's a traditional saying in Japan, but while Musashi talks about many things, I can't find any real discussion of "duty" in the book. Maybe I just missed it. * Before anyone corrects me, I'm fully aware that the astronauts on Apollo 11 were Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, but Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, and it would be very believable for the story to become garbled and joined into one. [/QUOTE]

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