Once upon a time - for example, Wed, 9 Apr 2008 20:11:42 -0700 (PDT) -
there was this guy, or something, called Matthew Kuhl
<patton1945@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, and they made us all feel better by saying the
following stuff:
>Uh, I am in fact new here, but I have read the FAQ front to back,
Wow, that was good work! I haven't done that yet, myself.
>and
>I just thought of something about Taim. One of the points debated was
>the fact that Taim built up such a tremendous organization for Rand at
>the Black Tower, and why didn't he do that before then, if he was
>capable of such a thing. I don't know if this possibility has been
>discussed, but it could boil down to one word: ta'veren. So far as I
>know, there are no indications that Taim is, was, or ever has been
>ta'veren, which Rand, of course, is. He needs a lot of manpower
>backing him (the Asha'man were quite crucial in rescuing him at
>Dumai's Wells), and maybe the Pattern undertook itself to provide him
>with a lot of raw material. Additionally, there is this: Yes, Taim
>probably channeled for 15 years prior to his appearance in the books.
>But for only a small ****tion of that would he have been widely known
>as a claimant to the title of the Dragon Reborn. Imagine, if you
>will, that you are an average Randlander male who happens to be able
>to channel. This random guy who you do not know has come up to you
>and said, "Follow me and I will teach you to channel." You're going
>to be thinking, "Well, I could follow this charismatic chap I just met
>down a path that will eventually lead to madness and rotting alive,
>that is to say, if the Aes Sedai don't gentle me first. Or I could
>just stab myself to death, which would be both faster and easier."
Hee hee, right.
>Presumably after 3000 years of people saying "Male channelers are
>bad," there will be some sort of psychological inhibition against
>willingly becoming a channeler. Follow a channeler claiming to be the
>Dragon Reborn, yes. Learn to channel from your own free will,
>probably not. My guess would be that the few men who Taim was able to
>teach were among his more fanatical sup****ters, the ones for whom
>devotion to Taim overpowered the societal prohibition against
>channeling. It's possible, however, that for Rand, the fact that he
>is the true Dragon Reborn would push them over the limit. Make of
>that what you will.
>
>(I thought it might make a pleasant change from the spam that appears
>to be clogging this group. :) )
Good call. There's another factor to consider, namely that Taim seems
to be some sort of Darkfriend, and the best way for him to a) protect
himself from the Taint and b) convince others to become male
channelers would be to swear to the Dark One and get the run-off
effect of His protection.
Now that the Taint is cleansed, maybe sooner or later there will be a
point where male channelers don't seem so bad. In the meantime, of
course, Rand seems well on the way to going nuts.
You have a point, though, about the psychological effect of a 3000
year taboo. It's given the unworthy treatment a lot of things in the
Jordan universe are - like the terribleness of the Forsaken, who are
apparently used to scare children into being good ... anyway, the
thing is, a lot of these things seem to have been gotten over very
quickly and very easily. I can't imagine so many men would want to
become channelers, if it had millennia of bad press.
Look at the stigma that is still attached to being gay.
*puts can of worms on the bar, strolls off to the poker tables*
C&J
--
Beware of Trojans, they're complete smegheads.
- 13 & 13b of 12, the CMM Collective.
- www.afrj-monkeyhouse.org
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