It saddens me greatly to look back on the series as a 20 year old who is politically engaged, and realise what a load of libertarian tripe it all is. At how the entire latter of the series is essentially a gigantic straw man. It also saddens me to see what an egotistical, deluded prick Goodkind is himself.

I think I’ll give Wheel of Time a read.

Good blog post.

But the Objectivist-type Sword of Truth fans are the most absurd part of the entire series. They believe that the looks are literally beyond criticism. Goodkind himself is a good example of this, as are many of the commenters that contributed their, err, thoughts to this post. Goodkind actually once had the following quote up on his website, about his critics:

Values arouse hatred in these people. Their goal is not to enjoy life, but to destroy that which is good — much like a school child who does not wish to study for a test and instead beats up a classmate who does well. These people hate what is good because it is good. Their lives are limited to loathing and indifference. It isn’t that they want to read a good book, what they want is to make sure that you do not. Ignore them.

Phrases like “values arouse hatred in these people” just don’t work outside of the Bible, an Ayn Rand novel, or the Chronicles of Narnia. The man is egotistical to the point that it has debilitated his critical thinking skills — to him, his critics don’t criticize his work because they have different tastes when it comes to fantasy novels or they have a different perspective on libertarian ideology, they criticize it “because their goal in life is to destroy that which is good.” Anyone that absurd is just asking for mockery — which I did my best to provide in this post.

(And if you need more proof that Goodkind isn’t entirely in his right mind, just check out his ‘About the Author’ photo. Dear god, that ponytail. The man has to be delusional, someone completely in control of their faculties could not have possibly thought that a rattail + Chuck Norris pose was a good idea.)

Yes, I do realize that this topic is concerning a particular author’s fictional writings and his personal ideology (or perhaps confusion), yet I am drawn into “thinking out loud” here about some of my own self-reflection, and I apologize in advance for this topic deviation. I seem to have at least some leanings resembling yours and Eric’s, thus my appreciation for your article and my half-hour spent writing this. On the U.S. political front I’ve started to sway from the Republican view towards the Libertarian view, although since all parties seem to regularly get hijacked choosing sides is rarely black and white. (Although the “if you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain” quote seems an attractive mantra, albeit barbed and simplistic.) On the theological front I’ve sought to establish an attachment with some sort of a “single higher power” belief system that I can most closely relate to, albeit not precisely, given my atheistic/logical personality and upbringing. I realize that this “Libertarian while seeking a higher power” position could seem to be somewhat contradictory by many accounts–yes, I know, messy.

Being a husband and a father, and being right-leaning in many aspects, the resultant of this muddled life equation seems to steer me towards Judeo-Christian communities. I’d like to think that I’m making the right decisions, but it’s not easy nor clear-cut: trying to be true to my instincts and ability to reason, while also being left with the sense that I’m somehow “selling out” by seeking to participate in a traditional religious community, and yet this seems necessary in my case so as to be a “more compatible” and better husband, father and contributor to the community. Of course all of this rambling about which way to lean or believe is influenced by one’s environment (i.e., having family or no family, progressive coast or conservative bible belt, etc.).

Perhaps if you’re ever passing through the Midwest then I could trade a few mugs of espresso for some more of your thoughts. Well, I’d better get back to the holodeck.

Although “disagreed” with is not the right term. It’s not that I thought they were ‘wrong,’ it’s just that they are ridiculous, in quite a few places. Also, they are so completely a fantasy series. There are a lot of absurd things about the Sword of Truth, but the fact Goodkind doesn’t think they’re a fantasy series is the most absurd of all.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy them. I wouldn’t have read 9,000 pages of something I couldn’t stand. But damn, if I wanted to satirize SoT, I could probably go on for a thousand and one blog posts. There’s just so much ridiculousness there to choose from.

Ignoring the possible critiques from the perspective of a fantasy fan, there is plenty to critique from a libertarian angle as well. Goodkind also doesn’t actually present the ideology of “libertarianism” in his books, at least as the term is understood by most the world. Objectivist, maybe, libertarian, no. And Jagang is a caricature of evilness, not an accurate representation of the sorts of antagonists that libertarians might face in the real world. Not to mention, what kind of libertarian ubermensch has his subjects kneel down and pray to him five times a day — and if they fail to pray to Richard on schedule, they lose their minds? Creepy.

Also, “his” bias? I’m a chick. How closely did you read this post, anyway?

As a side note, I took breaks from BarBri and read Sanderson’s Mistborn novels (waiting for more Jordan as well, which helps since he’s now writing them). They were very good. No objectionable ideologies detected.
In fact the only writer I could not read was Turtledove. I read one book and chalked up the rampant sexism to the mythology of the story. I got a quarter of the way through another before I just had to put it down. I’m no expert as I did not finish reading even a second book, but what I did see was bad. I like my female characters to be fully developed parts of the story, not just necessary and objectified pieces. Like I said though; I could be wrong about him.

But I think the whole series opens itself to criticism, either due to Goodkind’s refusal to acknowledge that it is a work of fantasy, or the blatant ripping off of the Wheel of Time, or the creepy rape fetish. (Oh hey, look, another thing it has in common with Atlas Shrugs!)

But no, the libertarian theme was not that objectionable, I don’t think, until way later. But I haven’t read the earlier books since middle school, so it’s the later ones that stick out the clearest in my memory.

It always felt to me, though, like Goodkind had exactly one Wizard’s Rule to start off the series, and once he used that one up, he wasn’t really sure where to go with it.

(I might be off by one book on where the switch occurred, as I’m doing this from memory.)