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ulmont posted:The thread needs to see this. Ha! I had forgotten how stupid the 10th anniversary cover was.
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Nov 9, 2017 18:29
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from the comments posted:I loved the “Name of the Wind” more than I have ever loved a book and I am a voracious reader. I used to regularly reread it every year or two. This person reminds me of the morbidly obese person who goes to the gym religiously every day for years and doesn't lose weight. They're convinced that going to the gym, putting the treadmill at 0.5 mph for thirty minutes will cancel out their otherwise sedentary lifestyle and poo poo diet. Rereading NotW 6+ times? That's loving lunacy!
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Nov 9, 2017 18:32
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ulmont posted:The thread needs to see this. I can't even be angry at the author of this hack job. It's literally ad copy for people who believe they're smarter than other people because they read, even if what they're reading is garbage.
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Nov 9, 2017 18:33
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Dienes posted:
Why would someone make this
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Nov 9, 2017 18:46
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Crimpolioni posted:Why would someone make this Because they are fans. Tycho posted:We called up Pat Rothfuss, who was wasting away at some kind of romance convention, to show him our new strip before it went up. It was important to us that he know it came from a place of love. Gabriel wanted to warn people about spoilers for those who have yet to read A Wise Man’s Fear, or The Name Of The Wind for that matter, but I told him - correctly - that if a person hasn’t read these books yet, they are villains, and we need not concern ourselves with their writhings. Gabe posted:Minor spoilers ahead I guess.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:16
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I think they are also now friends with Pat as well. It was honestly a PA recommendation a decade ago that got me to read NotW in the first place, and now my opinions on both have changed drastically.
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Nov 9, 2017 22:01
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SpacePig posted:I think they are also now friends with Pat as well. It was honestly a PA recommendation a decade ago that got me to read NotW in the first place, and now my opinions on both have changed drastically. Pat plays D&D with them on their show moderately regularly. He managed to be more obnoxious than Wil Wheton.
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Nov 10, 2017 00:29
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ulmont posted:The thread needs to see this.
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Nov 10, 2017 03:06
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Did Tor publish the book? if so anything on their blog would have to be effusive. It's advertising. If the blog author really did like the book that much, well, I guess it's good that people enjoy things.
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Nov 10, 2017 03:46
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Ccs posted:Did Tor publish the book? if so anything on their blog would have to be effusive. It's advertising. It was published by DAW.
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Nov 10, 2017 05:03
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ulmont posted:The thread needs to see this. ...and then I read it eight hundred more times, and realized that I had written it.
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Nov 10, 2017 06:16
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ulmont posted:Because they are fans. It 100% makes sense that Jerry would love Rothfuss. They both use an incredible number of words to say absolutely nothing.
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Nov 11, 2017 02:10
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Ornamented Death posted:It was published by DAW. It's akin to open mic night. You don't dare criticize anyone else, because it leaves you open to being criticized in turn. NotW doesn't really commit any new crimes insofar as the genre is concerned. It simply lays them bare where in other books you might have to brush off a layer of dirt.
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Nov 11, 2017 03:15
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Yeah it's not a great idea to burn bridges in your industry. It's pretty rare for authors to ever go on record against each other unless there's a preexisting feud between them. Stephen King called James Patterson trash once though, and that made me happy.
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Nov 11, 2017 07:13
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Stephen King is wonderful, and everyone should follow his Facebook. It's entirely recommendations for other horror, and pictures of his dog. quote:One of the main draws to this novel, and the series as a whole, is that Kvothe is the key that holds the story together. The great thing about the book, is that it has a main protagonist. quote:the kind of strong, poetic writing that you don’t even notice for how it slides across the page. Reading this language is a pleasure akin to savoring a mug of hot tea, or soaking in a bath, or smelling spring rain as it hits the grass The kind of writing you don't notice, just like [byword for something that you stop and take time to enjoy] It figures that a Rothfuss fan would himself be a dreadful writer.
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Nov 12, 2017 13:03
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Stephen King is wonderful
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Nov 12, 2017 13:43
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This kind of wildly fulsome praise for these books makes me feel as if I might be going crazy. It's one thing when people just flat out don't care about the quality of prose, whatever, I'm not a snob. If you get something out of the Da Vinci Code then more power to you. But these are people praising the beauty and effectiveness of what seems to me to be obviously mediocre prose and I am baffled.
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Nov 12, 2017 14:02
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Went to a Baby Shower with my wife for one of her friends. Scoped out the book case in the living room. Saw some Simmons, some Martin, Grossman, Varley, Vinge- even Octavia Butler. Was about to remark when my eyes caught something on the shelf sitting thin and ugly between A Dance with Dragons and Quicksilver. the slow regard of silent things. Noped right away from that discussion. Benson Cunningham fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Nov 13, 2017 |
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Nov 12, 2017 18:01
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HopperUK posted:This kind of wildly fulsome praise for these books makes me feel as if I might be going crazy. It's one thing when people just flat out don't care about the quality of prose, whatever, I'm not a snob. If you get something out of the Da Vinci Code then more power to you. But these are people praising the beauty and effectiveness of what seems to me to be obviously mediocre prose and I am baffled. I really want to sit down with one of the bafflingly large number of people comparing Rothfuss to Tolkien and have them have them give me a detailed breakdown on exactly what about it is Tolkienesque beyond just being fantasy.
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Nov 12, 2017 18:20
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Chuck Buried Treasure posted:I really want to sit down with one of the bafflingly large number of people comparing Rothfuss to Tolkien and have them have them give me a detailed breakdown on exactly what about it is Tolkienesque beyond just being fantasy. "I liked Tolkien therefore I'm not like the other plebes who were unable to appreciate his genius. I liked Name of the Wind therefore it's a good book like Tolkien."
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Nov 12, 2017 18:35
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Chuck Buried Treasure posted:I really want to sit down with one of the bafflingly large number of people comparing Rothfuss to Tolkien and have them have them give me a detailed breakdown on exactly what about it is Tolkienesque beyond just being fantasy. - "he actually writes women and he makes them prostitutes! he's so much more feminist than Tolkien" - "all of Tolkien's characters are perfect mary sues! Kvothe actually makes mistakes! - "only stuffy boring people read Tolkien, he doesn't have enough rape and violence in Lord of the Rings!" - "'silence in 3 parts' is way better writing than all those stupid poems Tolkien wrote, I didn't even understand any of those poems! poetry is so stupid but everything Rothfuss writes is beautiful" That's what I remember.
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Nov 12, 2017 21:59
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HIJK posted:- "he actually writes women and he makes them prostitutes! he's so much more feminist than Tolkien" This is on the same level as Gary Gygax claiming Gandalf was a poo poo wizard because he could only cast a level one light spell.
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Nov 12, 2017 22:46
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Stuporstar posted:This is on the same level as Gary Gygax claiming Gandalf was a poo poo wizard because he could only cast a level one light spell. It's a shallow understanding of literature and it also confirms the ever present whine through out all English classes: "reading is so haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrd" But Rothfuss isn't hard to read; not like Tolkien ("wahhhhh why is Aragorn literally Jesus Christ I don't understaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand why is it so haaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrd") so it was easy for it to get big with shallow people who want to appear smart. In the microcosm of fantasy lit, liking Rothfuss is an easy way to show off what a smart and well read person you are and everyone else are haaaaters.
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Nov 12, 2017 23:34
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I think I've said this before but in a country where Donald Trump was able to be elected president Rothfuss being popular is surprising, it's a perfect fit. Trump makes a bunch of stupid claims that you can see are obviously bullshit with even the slightest bit of thought, and Rothfuss's books are fine if you shut off your brain completely but their wonderful writing quickly reveals itself as horrible garbage if you actually think about it or the story.Stuporstar posted:This is on the same level as Gary Gygax claiming Gandalf was a poo poo wizard because he could only cast a level one light spell. I want to believe this is true because Gygax seems like the kind of turbonerd who wouldn't be able to notice any kinds of magic that isn't literal fireball and lightning tossing. Or that the Istari were prohibited from using their full powers while in Middle Earth because the Valar are lazy assholes who like to make men suffer and struggle against evil (why yes, Tolkien was very religious, how did you guess?  ).
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Nov 12, 2017 23:42
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Evil Fluffy posted:I think I've said this before but in a country where Donald Trump was able to be elected president Rothfuss being popular is surprising, it's a perfect fit. Trump makes a bunch of stupid claims that you can see are obviously bullshit with even the slightest bit of thought, and Rothfuss's books are fine if you shut off your brain completely but their wonderful writing quickly reveals itself as horrible garbage if you actually think about it or the story. Thought provoking stuff OP
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Nov 13, 2017 00:22
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Evil Fluffy posted:I want to believe this is true because Gygax seems like the kind of turbonerd who wouldn't be able to notice any kinds of magic that isn't literal fireball and lightning tossing. Or that the Istari were prohibited from using their full powers while in Middle Earth because the Valar are lazy assholes who like to make men suffer and struggle against evil (why yes, Tolkien was very religious, how did you guess? Here's the original article where Gygax tried to downplay Tolkien's influence on D&D because, though he stole from it shamelessly, he completely failed to get the point of the books: https://voat.co/v/RPG/1850953 I only know about it because I have an old grognard friend who read that in the original magazine and has bitched about Gygax being an idiot ever since. E. In case that link goes down: Gary Gygax posted:Though I thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit, I found the "Ring Trilogy"… well, tedious. The action dragged, and it smacked of an allegory of the struggle of the little common working folk of England against the threat of Hitler's Nazi evil. At the risk of incurring the wrath of the Professor's dedicated readers, I must say that I was so bored with his tomes that I took nearly three weeks to finish them. Considered in the light of fantasy action adventure, Tolkien is not dynamic. Gandalf is quite ineffectual, plying a sword at times and casting spells which are quite low-powered (in terms of the D&D ® game). Obviously, neither he nor his magic had any influence on the games. The Professor drops Tom Bombadil, my personal favorite, like the proverbial hot potato; had he been allowed to enter the action of the books, no fuzzy-footed manling would have been needed to undergo the trials and tribulations of the quest to destroy the Ring. Unfortunately, no character of Bombadil's power can enter the games, either — for the selfsame reasons! The wicked Sauron is poorly developed, virtually depersonalized, and at the end blows away in a cloud of evil smoke… poof! Nothing usable there. The mighty ring is nothing more than a standard ring of invisibility, found in the myths and legends of most cultures (albeit with a nasty curse upon it). No influence here, either… 
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Nov 13, 2017 05:03
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I mean aside from Gandalf's mastery of fire, force fields, and self-resurrection he totally sucked as a wizard, right?  The ring is adapted from, among other things, the ring of Gyges - which is in itself a blatant allegory on the corruption of power. Hell, Plato, Tolkien, and Wagner all use the ring as a symbol of worldly power that corrupts the user. I also question Gygax's commitment to high-powered magic considering that he included level draining monsters for the purpose of preventing high level D&D characters from running around, but what do I know?
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Nov 13, 2017 05:30
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Stuporstar posted:
That whole thing was an impressive exercise in missing the point, but this specifically is on a whole other level.
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Nov 13, 2017 05:53
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Evil Fluffy posted:I think I've said this before but in a country where Donald Trump was able to be elected president Rothfuss being popular is surprising, it's a perfect fit. Trump makes a bunch of stupid claims that you can see are obviously bullshit with even the slightest bit of thought, and Rothfuss's books are fine if you shut off your brain completely but their wonderful writing quickly reveals itself as horrible garbage if you actually think about it or the story.
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Nov 13, 2017 10:17
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i arrange the man's earthly works into a neat pile and then piss on them. they erupt in cackling green flame
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Nov 13, 2017 13:29
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Gary Gygax posted:Gary Gygax posted: This whole post is awful, but LOTR is too boring but Tom Bombadil is amazing is one I havn't heard before.
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Nov 13, 2017 16:38
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HopperUK posted:This kind of wildly fulsome praise for these books makes me feel as if I might be going crazy. It's one thing when people just flat out don't care about the quality of prose, whatever, I'm not a snob. If you get something out of the Da Vinci Code then more power to you. But these are people praising the beauty and effectiveness of what seems to me to be obviously mediocre prose and I am baffled. Most of these people are just not very well read, not only in classics and literary fiction but in genre too. They are simply calling Rothfuss using awkward metaphors "poetic" Chuck Buried Treasure posted:I really want to sit down with one of the bafflingly large number of people comparing Rothfuss to Tolkien and have them have them give me a detailed breakdown on exactly what about it is Tolkienesque beyond just being fantasy. "Tolkienesque" to these types simply means "a sword is in this book and there is traveling"
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Nov 13, 2017 18:42
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:This whole post is awful, but LOTR is too boring but Tom Bombadil is amazing is one I havn't heard before. If I knew more about his personality, I would assume that he purposefully made up an opinion designed specifically to annoy LOTR fans as a joke. He might have been entirely serious here though, I don't know. I DO know that he really, really liked the Conan stories and pulpy fantasy and didn't care as much about Tolkien. It's kind of fun to read about the early days of D&D, which fantasy novels influenced the creators and how those creators tried to pull the rules/settings their way.
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Nov 13, 2017 19:37
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Paladin posted:If I knew more about his personality, I would assume that he purposefully made up an opinion designed specifically to annoy LOTR fans as a joke. He might have been entirely serious here though, I don't know. He was a weird grouch so I assume both are true.
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Nov 13, 2017 20:40
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Paladin posted:If I knew more about his personality, I would assume that he purposefully made up an opinion designed specifically to annoy LOTR fans as a joke. He might have been entirely serious here though, I don't know. I DO know that he really, really liked the Conan stories and pulpy fantasy and didn't care as much about Tolkien. It's kind of fun to read about the early days of D&D, which fantasy novels influenced the creators and how those creators tried to pull the rules/settings their way. It also reads a bit like an angry rant at the end of a long argument so there is probably some missing context and rants are never the most coherent.
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Nov 13, 2017 20:58
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:It also reads a bit like an angry rant at the end of a long argument so there is probably some missing context and rants are never the most coherent. Oh, the context I can definitely provide. This was the mid-80s, TSR, had lost a few lawsuits with the Tolkien estate back in the 70s-- because even if Gary PERSONALLY didn't like LOTR, TSR was more than willing to sell "Battle of the five armies" expansions or something like that back when they thought they could get away with it. When this issue of Dragon came out (1985), the D&D cartoon was just coming to TV, and the company was making a big effort to present their brand as something different and unique. This was the moment when D&D was poised to become a super-mainstream cultural phenomena, only for it to recede back into fringe nerdom for a time due to a combination of a little bad timing and a LOT of terrible business decisions. So, articles/speeches like this were meant to distract everyone from the fact that vanilla D&D was basically middle earth with bits of Conan and Elric.
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Nov 13, 2017 22:47
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Are you saying that it's surprising or not? And where's the link to your HuffPo editorial? Meant to say it isn't surprising.
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Nov 14, 2017 00:14
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I found a picture of a rothfuss fan:jivjov posted:
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Nov 16, 2017 11:50
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An elegant library, for a more civilized age.
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Nov 16, 2017 14:07
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Without paying attention to the fact that you were quoting, I was going to joke that it was a picture of jivjov. And then it actually was. And posted with some pride in his collection of Star Wars books. You know, I think he's a bit of a silly guy, who kinda gets hurt too easily if you insult a thing he like, but god bless him for finding a thing he loves, I guess.
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Nov 16, 2017 15:18
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