04-15-2014, 09:50 AM
I feel as though I should jump in here.
While Spectra represents the dystopian, dark extreme - which is quite fitting given her origins in South America (the 21st century "dark continent") - Jensen's backstory focused on the other extreme. He quickly rose to prominence as a charismatic televangelist because he espoused a religious extreme: reviving the demands of high morality mirroring that of puritanical levels. His church, his books, and his audience gobbled it up. In his words he gave a sense of order to a chaotic world, and by teaching people to adhere to ritualistic high morality demands, individuals found that sense of order in their own lives, one that bled over into religious fervor. His wife, Jessika, embodies this perfectly. Of course this is the root of Jensen's betrayal of his followers. All the things he was saying turned out to be shallow. He is hypocritical - saying one thing and yet doing another - he is a liar, an adulterer, greedy and an embezzler - (how did he have $10 million easily accessible cash on hand that his wife didn't know about?). This is exactly why he is such a controversial figure. He was the leader of this extremely optimistic, pure hope that Connor described, then completely stabbed everything he stood for in the back and walked away. In the meantime, Jessika has kind of taken up where he left off, and as the Texan ray of sunshine she is, has gained so much influence in the past few years. This is also why she wants Jensen to stay under the radar, so his association doesn't spoil what she's made of herself.
So while Spectra represents the darker extreme of non-CCD and non-USA pop culture, Jensen (as he was before) represented the opposite extreme.
Which if you think about it is a very WoT sort of philosophy.
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As we get more extreme in one-direction, we also see elements of society, or even of the culture itself, that are filling the vacuum of the other end with material.
While Spectra represents the dystopian, dark extreme - which is quite fitting given her origins in South America (the 21st century "dark continent") - Jensen's backstory focused on the other extreme. He quickly rose to prominence as a charismatic televangelist because he espoused a religious extreme: reviving the demands of high morality mirroring that of puritanical levels. His church, his books, and his audience gobbled it up. In his words he gave a sense of order to a chaotic world, and by teaching people to adhere to ritualistic high morality demands, individuals found that sense of order in their own lives, one that bled over into religious fervor. His wife, Jessika, embodies this perfectly. Of course this is the root of Jensen's betrayal of his followers. All the things he was saying turned out to be shallow. He is hypocritical - saying one thing and yet doing another - he is a liar, an adulterer, greedy and an embezzler - (how did he have $10 million easily accessible cash on hand that his wife didn't know about?). This is exactly why he is such a controversial figure. He was the leader of this extremely optimistic, pure hope that Connor described, then completely stabbed everything he stood for in the back and walked away. In the meantime, Jessika has kind of taken up where he left off, and as the Texan ray of sunshine she is, has gained so much influence in the past few years. This is also why she wants Jensen to stay under the radar, so his association doesn't spoil what she's made of herself.
So while Spectra represents the darker extreme of non-CCD and non-USA pop culture, Jensen (as he was before) represented the opposite extreme.
Which if you think about it is a very WoT sort of philosophy.