Jump to content

Surgebinding and the LDS Priesthood


STAG

Recommended Posts

So, I hope people don’t hate me for this but there are obvious connections between the knights radiant and the LDS priesthood. Brandon is a member of the LDS church as well, so is that connection known? Thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Could you explain the connections you found? I am really tired and don’t have the ill power to think about it much.

Yes, I there are very likely connections. Many things have been found to have some kind of correlation between his books and the LDS church

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t want to over simplify, but the idea that you have a bond with a spirit, and you make oaths that you have to keep to receive its power is almost exactly the priesthood. I wouldn’t think anything of it if he wasn’t a member, but the connection is really cool. What are some other correlations in his writing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, there's parallels in Mistborn as well

Spoiler

1) The idea of Ascending to become the next god

2) metal plates containing gospel

I'm sure there's others, but I've forgotten what they were. There are many older topics on this though, just Google Search LDS or Mormon + Mistborn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the connection isn’t intentional. 

Quote

Caderade24

I was wondering in which ways has the LDS religion/theology influenced your writing? I mean, aside from trying to keep your books relatively clean and accessible. For example, it seems like the oaths of the Knights Radiant have some similarity to LDS covenants.

Brandon Sanderson

I don't think being LDS can help but influence my writing, though I personally follow Tolkien's philosophy: I stay away from specific allegory. I just try to write the best story I can, staying true to what the characters believe (or don't believe.)

So while I don't doubt that people can find parallels, I leave that for readers to theorize about. Most are not intentional, but that doesn't mean they aren't real.

/r/fantasy AMA 2017 (March 14, 2017)

and here’s another. 

Quote

LupusAstaris

Is there any specific instance where you hid something in one of your books that only other Mormons would recognize?

Brandon Sanderson

No, I don't really do this that much. Because my heritage and my faith are both LDS, there are certain things that other people have come to me and said, "Hey, was this influenced by your religion?" I'm like, "Ha, yeah, probably was." But I didn't sit down and hide things in there. Most of those are, people notice it and come to me and I'm like "Yeah, that probably did come from that." I'm sure there are some things.

YouTube Livestream 3 (Jan. 25, 2020)

aaaaaand another. 

Quote

Questioner

I was wondering in what books, particularly Mistborn, is the conscious decision when you put in little snippets of LDS lore in there, like plates, metal plates--

Brandon Sanderson

You know most of it is unconscious. Once in a while something intentional slips in that I’m like "Ooh that's a cool connection". A lot of it is unconscious.

Firefight release party (Jan. 5, 2015)

 

Aaaaaaaaaaand here’s one more. 

Quote

Questioner

How much does your theology, like your theological background, makes it into...?

Brandon Sanderson

It's rarely intentional. But you can find it all over the place kind of unintentional in there. More it's like what I find heroic influences it, right? I find faith and optimism heroic, so you'll find that sort of thing in my books, and things like that. Makes me very fascinated by religion, if you can't tell.

DragonCon 2019 (Aug. 29, 2019)

 


And honestly, in these quotes I think that Brandon is doing the “polite ultra-inclusive” thing that he always does, and there’s even less of a connection than these make it seem.  Has anyone else noticed this? I’ve noticed that Brandon will rarely correct a fan on a perspective that they have, even about little things like character pronounciation. He’ll always say that people are welcome to pronounce the names the way they want. Or whenever someone asks a question like “Is [x] character meant to be read as [LGBT+]” or just “is [x] character supposed to represent [y]” questions in general, he’ll never say “No”, instead saying something along the lines of “It wasn’t intentional”. 

Honestly a smart move on his part, avoids making any fan feel excluded or wrong or anything. In this case however, I think the answer is just actually “No, I did not write any references to LDS culture.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Dannex said:

In this case however, I think the answer is just actually “No, I did not write any references to LDS culture.”

After reading all those, I think the answer is actually “99% of correlations you find are not actual references, but there is 1% that I did put there and recognize as a reference to LDS culture”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Dannex said:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the connection isn’t intentional. 

and here’s another. 

aaaaaand another. 

 

Aaaaaaaaaaand here’s one more. 


And honestly, in these quotes I think that Brandon is doing the “polite ultra-inclusive” thing that he always does, and there’s even less of a connection than these make it seem.  Has anyone else noticed this? I’ve noticed that Brandon will rarely correct a fan on a perspective that they have, even about little things like character pronounciation. He’ll always say that people are welcome to pronounce the names the way they want. Or whenever someone asks a question like “Is [x] character meant to be read as [LGBT+]” or just “is [x] character supposed to represent [y]” questions in general, he’ll never say “No”, instead saying something along the lines of “It wasn’t intentional”. 

Honestly a smart move on his part, avoids making any fan feel excluded or wrong or anything. In this case however, I think the answer is just actually “No, I did not write any references to LDS culture.”

I don’t think anyone was saying his things are 100% intentional, and even if he isn’t hiding things only LDS will understand, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things in his books that are very similar. I think it’s wrong to say there are NO references to LDS culture, when obviously Brandon sees that there are, whether intentional or not. I do respect that he lets us interpret characters however we want. I think authors give up a little of the imaginative rights to their characters when they give it to the public, something J.K. Rowling should probably try to understand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...