Letter to Favorite Author | Teen Ink

Letter to Favorite Author

December 11, 2013
By Edward Brandenburg SILVER, Hartland, Wisconsin
Edward Brandenburg SILVER, Hartland, Wisconsin
7 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Dear Robert Jordan,

“There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time” (Jordan). One

simple sentence, yet it created a beginning for me. Wheel of Time was simply is one of the greatest

series I have ever read. In the first few pages you had your claws dug so deep in my brain. In total, I read

all fourteen books in less than one month. Throughout the series, I felt a constant stream of contrasting

and flowing emotions, from happiness to depression.

When I was reading the book, I was coming to terms with some emotional drama with myself at

the time. I was struggling. But as I read the novel I began to understand more about myself and about

life. And as I turned the pages of the book and the pages of my life, I began to connect more and more

frequently with this book. I understood what Rand al’Thor was going through when he went to his grave

and wanted to die. I understood completely.

“I have lived because of literature”, a quote from my college essay. No one can really

understand the depth of this except the one who said it. Is it because literature has allowed you to find

your soul? Has it literally saved your life? Or, does it allow you to live other lives? For me, it was all of

those questions and a million more. Literature has allowed me to find myself, may it be in the pages of

the hundreds of books I read a year or in my day to day experiences. But yet, without literature I

wouldn’t have those experiences. Literature has saved me from my darkest moments, saved me from

taking the easy way out. While, it also has allowed me to live. I have lived thousands of lives. From the

wandering peasant to the mighty king. I have lived, because of literature.

Currently, I am reading this series again. And every book is a new beginning, a new chance to

notice minute details that I originally couldn’t have understood before. Hundreds of examples of

foreshadowing and foregrounding for the extreme plot twists that will occur in the future novels. Like

your dragons, you bombarded us with blast after blast after blast of emotional indecisiveness and

extreme plot twist. Yet, you weaved the bindings throughout the novel so finely and wonderfully that it

was a work of art. If you had a thread that connected every foreshadowing to what it will unveil, you

would have a web so elaborate and incomprehensible. Thus, your magic.

Even when I am old and grey, I will remember this series. I will remember the work of art that

you created. I will remember the beauty, the magic. I will recall the tears that bloomed in my eyes as I

read Lan Mandragorans declaration of love for Nynaeve al’Meara. I will feel the overwhelming sense of

relief that Rand al’Thor felt when he sat on the peaks of Dragonmouth. I will remember every word and

every sentence you wrote, till the day I die.

And maybe one day, when the Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, the memories I

leave will become legend. And that legend will fade to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the

age that gave it birth comes again. And in that age, a wind will rise from the Mountain of Mist. This wind

will not be the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time.

But it will be a beginning.

Sincerely,

Ed B



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