There were lots of other cool aspects of the signing. He’s a wildly interesting man to hear speak. My wife hasn’t read any of the books, but she came with me and she was fascinated. There was one story he told that was too cool not to pass along. I hope I am faithful to the story and don’t embellish too much.
RJ was asked about his portrayal of elected officials and rulers, and he said that he wrote them in the way that he thought politicians in the real world acted. Then he told a story of a meeting he had with a fan in Russia. This fan turned out to be an ex-KGB officer who had been nicknamed “The Dragon” and wanted to know how RJ “knew what he knew.” RJ admitted to being really nervous at this point, imagining KGB torture stories, but said that he replied, “First, we must determine what it is that I know.” The Dragon seemed to find this funny, and then proceeded to compliment RJ on his writing of politics, saying that he gave the WoT books to friends with the caveat they were not books about politics, but books about the “poetry of politics.”
So, don’t bad mouth RJ in Russia, unless you want the Dragon on your ass.
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