A Seeming Inconsistency

[Caval]

At the end of Words of Radiance the following interaction occurs:

Quote

“How did you find me?” she asked.

“You’ve been making quite a disturbance on the other side,” Wit said. “It’s been a long time since the spren had to deal with someone alive, particularly someone so demanding as yourself.”

In the following books it is shown that spren did deal with living people, if not in their own major cities. These people are almost all various worldhoppers and they are not all that numerous, but they are not non-existent. I'd imagine that Jasnah would make a disturbance regardless. There are not that many people and Jasnah is specifically a radiant. 

 

It just seems there is a contradiction, perhaps a subtle retcon. Perhaps I am misremembering and there were absolutely no interactions between worldhoppers and spren, but I recall otherwise and I have been rereading the stormlight archives over and over again recently. Still doesn't mean I cannot be wrong of course.

[Treamayne]

5 hours ago, Caval said:

At the end of Words of Radiance the following interaction occurs:

In the following books it is shown that spren did deal with living people, if not in their own major cities. These people are almost all various worldhoppers and they are not all that numerous, but they are not non-existent. I'd imagine that Jasnah would make a disturbance regardless. There are not that many people and Jasnah is specifically a radiant.

Well, it is Wit, so you have to take anything he says with a grain of salt - but I always took this passage as to mean the area where Jasnah travelled - or the spren she interacted with - were not used to travellers. Of course, at this point of the story Jasnah has no idea about his true nature (unlike RoW where he has started to confide in her), and he is trying to conceal that he has access to Fortune, so of course he would use a "technically true" quip to dodge the question. . .

[alder24]

8 hours ago, Caval said:

At the end of Words of Radiance the following interaction occurs:

In the following books it is shown that spren did deal with living people, if not in their own major cities. These people are almost all various worldhoppers and they are not all that numerous, but they are not non-existent. I'd imagine that Jasnah would make a disturbance regardless. There are not that many people and Jasnah is specifically a radiant. 

 

It just seems there is a contradiction, perhaps a subtle retcon. Perhaps I am misremembering and there were absolutely no interactions between worldhoppers and spren, but I recall otherwise and I have been rereading the stormlight archives over and over again recently. Still doesn't mean I cannot be wrong of course.

Jasnah later said she was "running away", possibly from Highspren (she was talking with them), so that's likely was the "disturbance" Wit mentioned, and that's why he said what he said. But he located her using Fortune, just like with everything.

Also keep in mind that not every spren is interacting regularly with humans. Cryptics, while they travel through Shadesmar, stay closely to other Cryptics (they have a reputation), Honorspren don't allow any humans on their ship and limit the amount of people that can enter their cities (since RoW, but likely they aren't that welcoming). I don't even remember if we've ever seen a Highspren in CS, except for a page from Shallan's Sketchbook I don't remember them being present in CR (I've checked OB and RoW, only 2 of them were mentioned as possibly merchants in RoW not much). They might be isolated and that's why Wit said "It’s been a long time since the spren had to deal with someone alive".

[Caval]

4 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Well, it is Wit, so you have to take anything he says with a grain of salt - but I always took this passage as to mean the area where Jasnah travelled - or the spren she interacted with - were not used to travellers. Of course, at this point of the story Jasnah has no idea about his true nature (unlike RoW where he has started to confide in her), and he is trying to conceal that he has access to Fortune, so of course he would use a "technically true" quip to dodge the question. . .

It does seem likely that until Jasnah appeared he did not know why he had to be there and he was making an excuse that would slide. Though in the end it does not turn out to be technically true, though Jasnah could have been interacting only with spren who had not seen someone alive in a long time and Wit could have known somehow.

[Caval]

Perhaps, though the most natural way of interpreting "the spren" is as referring to all spren living in Shadesmar. Of course, the very fact that the radiants are returning and the Stormfather is handing out the visions makes that in a way false all on its own. Perhaps then "the spren" was always intended to have a more specific reference or even a vague one like 'most of the spren'.

[Returned]

My read on it was more social and political. "[t]he spren" is not a description of individuals and their interactions. When Jasnah was in Shadesmar it was an event that was relevant for all spren and the world itself because she was stirring up (or at least representing) Radiant-like business-- not something spren could ignore or remain unaffected by. Other worldhoppers seem both rare and mostly interested in pursuing their own business, so not really something the spren have to "deal with".

[Caval]

3 hours ago, Returned said:

My read on it was more social and political. "[t]he spren" is not a description of individuals and their interactions. When Jasnah was in Shadesmar it was an event that was relevant for all spren and the world itself because she was stirring up (or at least representing) Radiant-like business-- not something spren could ignore or remain unaffected by. Other worldhoppers seem both rare and mostly interested in pursuing their own business, so not really something the spren have to "deal with".

A reasonable interpretation.

Now I am kind of wondering why there were no random references to Jasnah's trip through Shadesmar in the latter trips shown in the story, if only the fact that it happened. Surely if "the spren" as a social and political group have to "deal with" someone in the sense you imply and it created "quite a disturbance" then a reference to the fact that another troublesome human or a radiant has come through Shadesmar would not be unexpected as at least an off hand comment.

[Treamayne]

3 hours ago, Caval said:

A reasonable interpretation.

Now I am kind of wondering why there were no random references to Jasnah's trip through Shadesmar in the latter trips shown in the story, if only the fact that it happened. Surely if "the spren" as a social and political group have to "deal with" someone in the sense you imply and it created "quite a disturbance" then a reference to the fact that another troublesome human or a radiant has come through Shadesmar would not be unexpected as at least an off hand comment.

There's a deleted scene for Jasnah in Shadesmar (last I knew it was on Tor's Website and discussed here). Also, I'm pretty sure there was a reference to Jasnah's travels, but I can;t remember where off-hand (Iall add it my edit when I find it).