Marci Mac’s Reviews > Words of Radiance > Status Update

“You ready?” “of course,” said Syl. “I’m not the one we’ve been waiting on.”

Dalinar did not fight for his life. His life hadn’t been his own for years. He fought for Gavilar. He fought as he wished he had all those years ago, for the chance he had missed. In that moment between storms – when the rain stilled and the winds drew in their breaths to blow – he danced with the slayer of kings, and somehow he held his own.

A fool is a person who ignores information because it disagrees with desired results.

He had a certain tempting arrogance. Not the haughty pride of a highlord. Instead, the secure, stable sense of determination that whispered that no matter who you were-or what you did-you could not hurt him. Could not change him. He was. Like the wind and rocks were.

“There are those among you who assume I will flee, or be broken, because of this attack. They do not know me as well as they presume. Let the feast continue, for J wish to speak with each and every one of you. The words you hold may mock, but if you must laugh, do it while looking me in the eyes.”

"Do I know you?" Amaram asked.
"No," Wit said lightly, "but fortunately, you can add it to the list of many, many things of which you are ignorant."
"But now I've met you," Amaram said, holding out a hand.
"So the list is one smaller."
"Please," Wit said, refusing the hand. "I wouldn't want it to rub off on me."
"It?"
"Whatever you've been using to make your hands look clean. It must be powerful stuff indeed."

OH

"You must not despise them," Navani said.
"I don't hate them."
"You loathe their excess," she said, "and you are close to applying that emotion to them as well. They live the lives they have known, the lives that society has taught them are proper.
You won't change them with contempt. You aren't Wit; it isn't your job to scorn them. Your job is to enfold them, encourage them. Lead them, Dalinar."

My confidence in who is good and evil...or at least right vs wrong, is dwindling.

Do not mistake me in assuming I value one woman's role above another. My point is not to stratify our society--we have done that far too well already--my point is to diversify our discourse. A woman's strength should not be in her role, whatever she chooses it to be, but in the power to choose that role.

I say that there is no role for women--there is, instead, a role for each woman, and she must make it for herself. For some, it will be the role of a scholar; for others, it will be the role of wife. For others, it will be both. For yet others, it will be neither.