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Can Kaladin read?


forgedpig

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So as I was rereading Wor I noticed that Kaladin couldn't read the note between Jasnah and Navani. He apparently couldn't even tell that it was upside down. However we know via flashback that Kaladin had studdied  how to be a surgeon from books as well as being taught by his father. So whats with the change? 

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So as I was rereading Wor I noticed that Kaladin couldn't read the note between Jasnah and Navani. He apparently couldn't even tell that it was upside down. However we know via flashback that Kaladin had studdied  how to be a surgeon from books as well as being taught by his father. So whats with the change? 

 

He knows, and studied, glyphs which are more pictorial/logographic in nature.  The note between Jasnah and Navani was written in the women's script, which is a phonetic alphabet.

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He can read glyphs, but not the alphabet (or whatever it's called). His books were mainly illustrations with descriptions written in glyphs.
That's just like Shallan translated mathematical equations for forecasting highstorms for her brother from the normal writing to glyphs co he could understand.

Edit: Ninja'd by the admin!

Edited by Oversleep
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Guest keeper of the light

I know, it can be kind of strange to have a character that is so capable in so many ways . . . And then you remember that he can't read. :/

Welcome to the forums!

 

Exactly. This is the most dissatisfying part in the SA I guess. But it is good in a way actually. In Roshar, almost everything is different from our world. Not like other Brandon series, it is different in another way. I hope you understand what am I talking about.

 

And, by the way. Do we have any information about this reading thing in past? I mean in the Knights Radiant times (maybe I should say "old Knights Radiant"), men could read? How is this all difference between men and women started? From their foods to their lifestyles. I wonder.

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Kaladin should totally find a Stormwarden to teach him their script.

 

 

And, by the way. Do we have any information about this reading thing in past? I mean in the Knights Radiant times (maybe I should say "old Knights Radiant"), men could read? How is this all difference between men and women started? From their foods to their lifestyles. I wonder.

 

It happened because someone in the past wrote a very influential book called Arts and Majesty that promoted these strange gender roles. I'm pretty sure pre-Aharietiam Rosharans weren't like this, since we know from WoK that Nohadon had male scribes.

Edited by skaa
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It happened because someone in the past wrote a very influential book called Arts and Majesty that promoted these strange gender roles. I'm pretty sure pre-Aharietiam Rosharans weren't like this, since we know from WoK that Nohadon had male scribes.

 

Yeah, it's also important to note that Arts and Majesty was written in-part at least to cement control of Shardblades in male hands by creating the division of masculine/feminine arts.  As a result script-based writing was restricted to females.  And keep in mind that this is, as far as we know, a mostly Vorin thing, so Western Rosharans don't practice it.  (Szeth for example does know how to read/write)

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Yeah, it's also important to note that Arts and Majesty was written in-part at least to cement control of Shardblades in male hands by creating the division of masculine/feminine arts.  As a result script-based writing was restricted to females.  And keep in mind that this is, as far as we know, a mostly Vorin thing, so Western Rosharans don't practice it.  (Szeth for example does know how to read/write)

 

And we have seen men read and write in Azir.

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it has always struck me as odd that learned alethi men can read gliphs, but not alphabet, since the former are much more complicated than the latter. they look a bit like gerogliphics. Someone should calculate and monetize how much vorin society loses from their silly gender restrictions. From the time needed to prepare three different meals for men, women and kids, to that needed to go fetch your wife to translate a note for you, to that of learning gliphs when alphabet would be better and easier, I wonder how much farther ahead they would be if they devoted all that energy to doing some productive work.

 

Also, by getting shardblades the men got to be the kings, but the women, being scribes and administrators, got to be the power behind the throne. I think they got the best out of the deal.

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As I recall being remarked upon in the books by someone, it's uncanny that all the masculine professions tend towards getting a spear run through one's own chest, while women just do desk jobs and artistic works.

Truly odd.

It's even stranger how Vorinism even adopted this when the Heralds themselves were superhuman warriors, with half of them being female.

Edited by natc
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As I recall being remarked upon in the books by someone, it's uncanny that all the masculine professions tend towards getting a spear run through one's own chest, while women just do desk jobs and artistic works.

Truly odd.

It's even stranger how Vorinism even adopted this when the Heralds themselves were superhuman warriors, with half of them being female.

Oh no, ladies, the men are catching on! We better start convincing them war is a good thing.

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