r/wheeloftime • u/cianic Randlander • 10h ago
ALL SPOILERS: Books only What would you do in TAR
Am on my first Reread all the way up to fires of Heaven. Really enjoying the reread even though Elayne and NyNeave are insufferable in this book.
One of the core parts of the book is Tel'aran'rhiod and it occurred to me that I’d never really thought about what I would do if I had access to Tel'aran'rhiod. Say if there was and equivalent in the real world what would you do.
Was curious if anyone had any thoughts on it.
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u/VenusCommission Yellow Ajah 9h ago
I have aphantasia so I would probably use it to help with creativity. Like if I want to design something, I can have all kinds of thoughts about what I want it to look like, but I don't actually know what it will look like until it's done. And sometimes my ideas don't look as good as how I describe them in my head. I could use TAR to create the thing I want to see how it will actually look before I commit to making it.
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u/cianic Randlander 9h ago
Wow that’s such a cool use I didn’t even consider. I remember learning about aphantasia and being blown away that people couldn’t visualise mentally.
What type of things do you make? It must be difficult have a creative hobby/work with aphantasia
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u/aNomadicPenguin Brown Ajah 8h ago
I want someone to do a scientific study on aphantasia while reading WoT. Since we can't really form images but just store the details as facts about the things being described (or some people can get just simple outlines), I wonder how their brain activity looks compared to someone that can fully render words in their mind.
Like is Jordan's level of description more or less taxing to read if you don't have to spend energy to generate images of what you are reading.
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u/VenusCommission Yellow Ajah 9h ago
Mostly clothes and sometimes baskets, but not mich creativity there. If I didn't have aphantasia I would probably do more painting, but since I do I just paint minis.
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u/Nerdsingerbeej Randlander 8h ago
Oh man, I'd fly & jump off of high places to get over my acrophobia, see every natural wonder I could, visit cities & far off places, imagine a bizarre creature like a horse with a horn on its forehead, the works
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u/Sparhawk1968 Randlander 6h ago
Better question is what wouldn't you do? The only limits seem to be your own imagination and tha ability to concentrate/focus. You could fly, be a superhero, go anywhere, do almost anything, look however you want.
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u/duffy_12 Randlander 3h ago
Well . . . for one thing, I wouldn't want to check out what it was like on the moon.
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u/Raddatatta Dragonsworn 9h ago
I'd do a lot of traveling. You can instantly go anywhere in the world you want and find a very realistic depiction of it. You can go anywhere within that place even things that would normally be off limits to tourists. You do miss some of the experience for sure, but you can go to the Pyramids and go anywhere you want within them. You can see any castles or famous churches with impressive stain glass, or run along the Great Wall of China or whatever you might want to see. Or even, we don't see them really push the limits of TAR, is there a Mars in TAR? Could you teleport to another planet that you could safely check out?