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Interview #689: Alloy of Law Midnight Release, Entry #12

Question

I know that Tolkein hated allegory in his story. What is your belief?

Brandon Sandrson

Tolkein hated allegory. He thought that his stories should just be stories, and I actually feel similar to him. I do have themes in my books, but I let the theme come as an outgrowth of what the characters are passionate about. And certainly, there are certain things, you’ll read Way of Kings and Dalinar’s very interested, a very big theme spiritually in the book (I know, that sentence doesn’t make any sense). But, it’s not me going in and intentionally writing an allegory. I like the story to stand as a story, I like telling stories. I’m not big into writing metaphors.

Certain people are very good at that. C.S. Lewis did a great job of that, it’s not what I try to do.

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