blakismaximus22 Posted February 7, 2017 Report Share Posted February 7, 2017 Greetings! This is my first post, so please bear with me if anything is not formatted correctly In an English course I am taking at University, we have an oppurtunity to write an analysis about a text we enjoy and are interested in. I've been devouring Sanderson's books lately, so naturally I want to do the assignment on one of his works. I was wondering what people think would be the best/ most interesting to analyze. The analysis will feature a brief summary of the text, and should focus on a theme or two that run throughout the piece (Keep in mind the paper can't be too long, ca. 1500 words). Thanks in advance to everyone who replies! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemalurgic Headshot Posted February 7, 2017 Report Share Posted February 7, 2017 Welcome to the Shard! As far as I know, there are no formatting requirements, as long as we can understand you. I think The Emperor's Soul is a great one to do a report on. A lot of topics to choose from. And good for you, Emperor's Soul is only a short story, short being a relative term. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flynn Posted February 7, 2017 Report Share Posted February 7, 2017 Your formatting seems good to me. Alternatively, you could do Way of kings, which is ten tumes longer than Emperor's soul, so LOTS of material, and there are some cool themes in that book. Leadership, war, and a gazillion other things... (honour...) PS: if someone offers you cookies, beware. They may ruin your appetite. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treygec Posted February 7, 2017 Report Share Posted February 7, 2017 I would go with Mistborn and discuss themes of class, hatred, and how to approach a life in society. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shqueeves Posted February 7, 2017 Report Share Posted February 7, 2017 Welcome! Avoid cookies and have an upvote. As for your assignment, any book chosen would work, as Brandon Sanderson's books all have themes that can be discussed and analyzed 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yezrien Posted February 7, 2017 Report Share Posted February 7, 2017 Yeah, Mistborn and Stormlight both deal extensively with class struggles and cycles of hate. Note the journeys of Kelsier and Kaladin. Both suffered the oppression of a brutal, abusive nobility, and developed a categorical hatred that seemed perfectly rational -- a justified bigotry. Then they're both forced to get over themselves when they're confronted with (respectively) Elend and Dalinar -- the noble who's actually a decent person. Learning to recognize morality and virtue as independent of hegemonic power structures is what makes you a real hero. Something like... "The Kalsier Archetype: The Redemption of the Bigot-Hero in Marxist Fantasy." ("Marxist" being the term that literary critics use to describe any text that explores themes of class struggle and socioeconomic inequality. ("Literary critics" being the term that English professors uses to describe themselves.) And "Kalsier" being a fusion of Kaladin and Kelsier, who've been combined into one being by grotesque hemalurgic soul-stapling, and who must eventually become a shardholder to give us the godmetal "Kalsium.") Storms, I wish I'd read Brandon's books back when I was an English major. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skaa Posted February 8, 2017 Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 Welcome to the 17th Shard! The others have already offered some great ideas, but if you (and your professor) are in any way Science-minded, then you might also consider discussing how Brandon uses scientific themes in his fantasy stories. For example, the Stormlight Archive shows how most of the native creatures have evolved to adapt to the violent highstorms and the weaker gravity of Roshar. Other science-related topics explored in the SA are cymatics, ecological balance (Shallan brings up the dangers of hunting greatshells to extinction once), the fundamental forces (which are the inspiration for the Surges), and technology (how applied science turns something "mystical", like the spren, into something with practical use for common people). The other Sanderson series with a great potential for "Science Meets Magic" discussions is the Mistborn series. At this point we're still far away from the Sci-Fi Fantasy theme that Sanderson has planned for the series' future, but at least we now have a glimpse of how the magic on Scadrial can have technological applications. You can also discuss how the science of metallurgy is harnessed in the magic system, how some scientific concepts relate to some of the powers (e.g. External Physical Allomancy and Newton's laws of motion, External Temporal Allomancy and Einstein's Special Relativity), and other stuff that might be too spoilery to mention here. Anyway, good luck on your paper. See you around! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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