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jivjov
Sep 13, 2007

But how does it taste? Yummy!
Dinosaur Gum

BananaNutkins posted:

Was there ANY movement on that plot line in book 2? I vaguely recall maybe the lightning tree bandit thing being connected in some vague hand wavy way, but I got distracted when Kvothfuss started having sex with his karate instructor.

The bandit leader literally being one of the Seven isn't "vague and hand wavy"

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Ravenfood
Nov 4, 2011

BananaNutkins posted:

Was there ANY movement on that plot line in book 2? I vaguely recall maybe the lightning tree bandit thing being connected in some vague hand wavy way, but I got distracted when Kvothfuss started having sex with his karate instructor.
Kvothe blows one up with a lightning bolt. That's right, Kvothe accidentally scares off one of the supposed driving antagonist forces of the series and doesn't even seem to realize. Later the evil tree tells Kvothe and he still doesn't seem to care too much, because as you said, sex ninjas happen. He's got priorities.

SpacePig
Apr 4, 2007

Hold that pose.
I've gotta get something.
I'm gonna have to read WMF again, I guess, because I don't remember that at all. I don't remember most of that much at all, honestly.

Evil Fluffy
Jul 13, 2009

Scholars are some of the most pompous and pedantic people I've ever had the joy of meeting.

SpacePig posted:

I'm gonna have to read WMF again, I guess, because I don't remember that at all. I don't remember most of that much at all, honestly.

I have a better idea. You could read literally anything else. If you want to read page after page of a story with no stable story arc and a bunch of weird and random poo poo happening just read one of the Dwarf Fortress LPs.

Solice Kirsk
Jun 1, 2004

.
But the tree lies to make the worst possible outcome happen. So it may or may not have been Cinder or whoever and Denna may not be being abused by her, probably Chandrian, benefactor. And we'll never know because the last book will never come out and if it does it will never be mentioned directly again. This was a part of the story that Bast, who apparently knows the story already, didn't know because Kvothe didn't think it important until he decided to tell "The Girl Creeping Chronicles" story of his life.

MartingaleJack
Aug 26, 2004

I'll split you open and I don't even like coconuts.

SpacePig posted:

I'm gonna have to read WMF again, I guess, because I don't remember that at all. I don't remember most of that much at all, honestly.

The only memorable things were the things we hated about it. Book two is just a rambling extension of book one with more flaws and less conflict.

The Chad Jihad
Feb 24, 2007


The tree is good. Or at least the idea of the tree

Benson Cunningham
Dec 9, 2006

Chief of J.U.N.K.E.R. H.Q.
Everything about the tree was great. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

Karnegal
Dec 24, 2005

Is it... safe?

The OP that this links to is the section of the book my wife came in on while I was listening to the audiobook. She's still making lute jokes a few years later because of how bad she thought the writing was.

Oxxidation
Jul 22, 2007

Karnegal posted:

The OP that this links to is the section of the book my wife came in on while I was listening to the audiobook. She's still making lute jokes a few years later because of how bad she thought the writing was.

If the books are modeled after D&D campaigns I guess it makes sense they'd be fixated on lute.

HIJK
Nov 25, 2012
in the room where you sleep
Patrick Rothfuss guest starred in the most recent episode of Hello From the Magic Tavern. He was a pretty decent guest too. So check that out if you like?

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
You seem to be operating under the misapprehension that this is a fan thread.

HIJK
Nov 25, 2012
in the room where you sleep

anilEhilated posted:

You seem to be operating under the misapprehension that this is a fan thread.

It's Rothfuss news, I figured some people would be interested...even if it's only jivjov.

SpacePig
Apr 4, 2007

Hold that pose.
I've gotta get something.
I think it's a fair enough split between the two, honestly. There's only, like, 8 people that post in this thread, and I think 2 or 3 of them are fans.

Atlas Hugged
Mar 12, 2007


Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all
It's also possible for him to be a good guest on a program and a lovely writer.

Number Ten Cocks
Feb 25, 2016

by zen death robot
Seems legit.

https://twitter.com/patrickrothfuss/status/733575945949347840

Hot Dog Day #91
Jun 19, 2003

The pizza delivery driver smiled kindly. She was 21 (but thin and waifish as an 11 year old boy) and the victim of several rapes, probably. "That's a nice tak board," she smiled kindly with her eyes.

I smiled kindly back.

Boing
Jul 12, 2005

trapped in custom title factory, send help
I'm convinced Rothfuss is shit_that_didn't_happen.txt in human form

Benson Cunningham
Dec 9, 2006

Chief of J.U.N.K.E.R. H.Q.
I feel that a likely candidate to feverishly follow Rothfuss would be a permanently stoned, 20 year old pizza driver.

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

Perhaps. Or perhaps Rothfuss snatched this poor sucker through the door and kept screaming, "CHECK OUT MY TAK BOARD! I INVENTED THIS GAME! HOW NICE IS THIS TAK BOARD?"

Pizza guy was just trying to escape with his life.

StonecutterJoe
Mar 29, 2016
I had twelve dollars and fifty-nine cents in my belt purse. The driver, after complimenting my Tak board (which I had created myself, using the lost technique of Sanding Wood With Wang) required ten dollars and eighty-five cents in exchange for my deep dish pizza and a side of garlic breadsticks. I paid him ten dollars and eighty-five cents, which left me with only one dollar and seventy four cents. It is a misery to be poor, a misery you cannot understand unless you have found yourself with less than two dollars to tip a pizza-delivery driver. No. I did not tip. His glimpse of my Tak board should have been payment enough.

I ate the pizza. Its flavor was one note, a note only lovers of music and haters of poetry could comprehend. A note that said "sad."

BravestOfTheLamps
Oct 12, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
Lipstick Apathy
Sheesh I better finish that update to bring things back on track.

BravestOfTheLamps
Oct 12, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
Lipstick Apathy
LET’S READ THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLE CRITICALLY

Part 24: “Foolishness. Hyperbole. Tripe."


Chapter 56, “Patrons, Maids, and Metheglin,” continue immediately with Kvothe waiting for the judgement of his performance. Despite his fears, he gets his “pipes” which mark him as a master performer. The friend who is a nobleman (Simmon, aka the White Friend) is crying for the beauty of the song. Kvothe meets of course another elderly benefactor, and there’s a stream of congratulations from different audience members. Despite being so self-congratulory, the chapter still isn’t bad, because the self-aggrandizement is once again sublimated into dialogue.

quote:

“You’ll have to promise me,” a red-eyed Simmon said seriously, “That you will never play that song again without warning me first. Ever.”

“Was it that bad?” I smiled giddily at him.

“No!” Simmon almost cried out. “It’s…I’ve never—” He struggled, wordless for a moment, then bowed his head and began to cry hopelessly into his hands.

Wilem put a protective arm around Simmon, who leaned unashamedly against his shoulder. “Our Simmon has a tender heart,” he said gently. “I imagine he meant to say that he liked it very much.”

I noticed that Wilem’s eyes were red around the edges too. I lay a hand on Simmon’s back. “It hit me hard the first time I heard it too.” I told him honestly. “My parents performed it during the Midwinter Pageantry when I was nine, and I was a wreck for two hours afterward. They had to cut my part from The Swineherd and the Nightingale because I wasn’t in any shape to act.”

quote:


“And Aloine,” Simmon added, and began to cry softly into the crook of his arm.


There is some incredibly insipid description of alcohol and drinking, appended at the end. Count Threpe, a patron of the arts, comes to congratulate Kvothe among many others:

quote:

“Does six strike you as a good number?”

I didn’t know what he was getting at. “Six isn’t exactly a lucky number,” I hedged. “If I were looking for a good number I’d have to go up to seven.” I shrugged. “Or down to three.”

Threpe considered this, tapping his chin. “You’re right. But six years with the Amyr means he came back to Aloine on the seventh year.” He dug into a pocket and brought out a handful of coins of at least three different currencies. He sorted seven talents out of the mess and pushed them into my surprised hand.

“My lord,” I stammered. “I cannot take your money.” It wasn’t the money itself that surprised me, but the amount.

Threpe looked confused. “Whyever not?”

I gaped a little bit, and for a rare moment I was at a loss for words.


His finances are safe for the moment, but there’s still the question of Ambrose in the audience. He left before the performance ended, deeply shaken by the music. Kvothe, however, realises it was a side-effect off using magic to cut of a string from his lute, which was still not enough to stop Kvothe. He’s just that good, you know.

Except with women. One of the well-wishers is the harpist after whom Kvothe lusted after earlier. She’s attracted to him, to which Kvothe is oblivious, much to the amusement of his friends. Besides, he wants to find “his Aloine,” the volunteer from the audience who sang with him. Kvothe circles around the Eolian’s floors, becoming more and more desperate, until he hears her voice again.

quote:

I didn’t really have any idea how I would find her. Some foolish, romantic part of me thought I would know her when I saw her. If she were half as radiant as her voice, she would shine like a candle in a dark room.

But as I thought these things, the wiser part of me was whispering in my other ear. Do not hope, it said. Do not dare hold hope that any woman could burn as brightly as the voice that sang the part of Aloine. And while this voice was not comforting, I knew it to be wise. I had learned to listen to it on the streets of Tarbean, where it had kept me alive.

quote:

As I made my desolate way back to the stairs, my wise self took the opportunity to berate me. That is what comes of hope, it said. No good. Still, you are better having missed her. She could never have been equal to her voice. That voice, fair and terrible as burning silver, like moonlight on river stones, like a feather against your lips.

I headed to the stairs, eyes on the floor lest anyone try to catch me in a conversation.

Then I heard a voice, a voice like burning silver, like a kiss against my ears. Looking up, my heart lifted and I knew it was my Aloine. Looking up, I saw her and all I could think was, beautiful.

Beautiful.

With that Chapter 57, “Interlude—The Parts that Form Us” cuts to the present, and Kvothe is struggling how to describe the beauty of “the woman”. It’s Denna, by the way, if you were impatient.

quote:

“The trouble is, she is unlike anyone I have ever known. There was something intangible about her. Something compelling, like heat from a fire. She had a grace, a spark—”

“She had a crooked nose, Reshi,” Bast said, interrupting his master’s reverie.

Kvothe looked at him, a line of irritation creasing his forehead. “What?”

Bast held his hands up defensively. “It’s just something I noticed, Reshi. All the women in your story are beautiful. I can’t gainsay you as a whole, as I’ve never seen any of them. But this one I did see. Her nose was a little crooked. And if we’re being honest here, her face was a little narrow for my taste. She wasn’t a perfect beauty by any means, Reshi. I should know. I’ve made some study of these things.”

It turns out that Kvothe is hilariously petty about this topic, but this makes him intimidating to some. High-lighted are today's entries on Rothfussian Attributes:

quote:

“She…” Kvothe’s head was bowed so low he seemed to be speaking to his hands laying in his lap. “What am I doing?” He said faintly, as if his mouth was full of grey ash. “What good can come of this? How can I make any sense of her for you when I have never understood the least piece of her myself?”

Chronicler had written most of this out before he realized that Kvothe had probably not intended him to. He froze for a bare moment, then finished scratching down the rest of the sentence. Then he waited a long, quiet moment, before he stole a look upward at Kvothe.

Kvothe’s eyes caught and held him. They were the same dark eyes that Chronicler had seen before. Eyes like an angry God’s. For a moment it was all Chronicler could do to not draw back from the table. There was an icy silence.

Kvothe stood and pointed at the paper that lay in front of Chronicler. “Cross that out,” he grated.

[...]

“Copy to here,” he said in a voice that was cold and motionless as iron. The iron was in his eyes too, hard and dark.

[...]

Once Chronicler was finished, Kvothe began to speak crisply and clearly, as if he were biting off pieces of ice. “In what manner was she beautiful? I realize that I cannot say enough. So. Since I cannot say enough, at least I will avoid saying too much.”

And with that we’re at Chapter 58, “Names for Beginning”. Kvothe “Aloine” was Denna, the girl she met six months ago while traveling to the University. He talks about how their immediate meeting was not out of a fairy-tale romance, because life is not “scripted”.

The chapter is, however, mostly about Kvothe’s and Denna’s romantically charged exchange of wits. It’s rather inconsistent. After some initial, over-described awkwardness, Kvothe and Denna hit it off once again. Unfortunately, Denna is at the Eolian with one of Kvothe’s other friends. They finally exchange their names. Yes, they apparently skipped that during their first meeting. Denna introduces herself as Dianne, although the narrative always refers her to as Denna. It’s reasonably clever, since it established some dissonance between Kvothe-as-narrator and Kvothe-as-character. Kvothe leaves regretfully.

Now this chapter actually ranks as good by the standards of Kingkiller, because there is a sense of forward movement and dynamism. Denna is one of those characters that are intriguing if only because they’re not. The romance in itself is bad, because it doesn't and will never go anywhere. This is because it is explicitly based on unattainability.

But by normal standards, it’s still bad:

quote:

She smiled at me then. It was warm and sweet and shy, like a flower unfurling. It was friendly and honest and slightly embarrassed. When she smiled at me, I felt…

[...]

Go out in the early days of winter, after the first cold snap of the season. Find a pool of water with a sheet of ice across the top, still fresh and new and clear as glass. Near the shore the ice will hold you. Slide out farther. Farther. Eventually you’ll find the place where the surface just barely bears your weight. There you will feel what I felt. The ice splinters under your feet. Look down and you can see the white cracks darting through the ice like mad, elaborate spiderwebs. It is perfectly silent, but you can feel the sudden sharp vibrations through the bottoms of your feet.

That is what happened when Denna smiled at me. I don’t mean to imply I felt as if I stood on brittle ice about to give way beneath me. No. I felt like the ice itself, suddenly shattered, with cracks spiraling out from where she had touched my chest. The only reason I held together was because my thousand pieces were all leaning together. If I moved, I feared I would fall apart.

Perhaps it is enough to say that I was caught by a smile. And though that sounds as if it came from a storybook, it is very near the truth.

This kind of passage seems to pop up now and then, if you recall Kvothe’s stunning anecdote about seeing a drug addict strip naked for money.

Rothfuss also brings in the “ships passing in the night”:

quote:

“‘So we were ill-lit ships at night…’” I quoted.

“…‘passing close but all unknown to one another,’” Denna finished.

Felward’s Falling,” I said with something that touched the outward boundary of respect. “Not many people know that play.”

“I am not many people,” she said.

“I will never forget that again,” I bowed my head with exaggerated deference. She snorted derisively


It’s actually from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. See, this is something offensive, rather than probably made-up compliments about Kickstarter projects.

quote:

"Lucky for you I picked the Eolian for our entertainment tonight,” Sovoy said. “Otherwise you’d have had nothing but echoes and crickets to accompany you.”

“Then I’m in your debt,” I said to him, with a deferential nod.

“Make it up to me by taking Simmon as a partner next time we play corners,” he said. “That way you’re the one to eat the forfeit when the giddy little bastard calls the tall card with nothing but a pair.”

“Done,” I said. “Though it pains me.” I turned to Denna. “What of you? I owe you a great favor—how can I repay it? Ask anything and it is yours, should it be within my skill.”

[...]

I sighed. “So I am left in your debt.”

“Oh no!” she exclaimed. “Another weight upon my Savien’s heart….”

“The reason my heart is so heavy is that I fear I might never know your name. I could keep thinking of you as Felurian,” I said. “But that could lead to unfortunate confusion.”

She gave me an appraising look. “Felurian? I might like that if I didn’t think you were a liar.”

“A liar?” I said indignantly. “My first thought in seeing you was ‘Felurian! What have I done? The adulation of my peers below has been a waste of hours. Could I recall the moments I have careless cast away, I could but hope to spend them in a wiser way, and warm myself in light that rivals light of day.’”

She smiled. “A thief and a liar. You stole that from the third act of Daeonica.”

She knew Daeonica too? “Guilty,” I admitted freely. “But that doesn’t make it untrue.”¨

quote:

Sovoy stood and shook my hand, no doubt eager to be rid of me. “Well done tonight, Kvothe. I’ll be seeing you.”

I turned to see Denna standing too. She met my eyes and smiled. “I hope to see you too.” She held out her hand.

I gave her my best smile. “There’s always hope.” I meant it to seem witty, but the words seemed to turn boorish as soon as they left my mouth. I had to leave before I made an even greater rear end of myself. I shook her hand quickly. It was slightly cool to the touch. Soft, delicate, and strong. I did not kiss it, as Sovoy was my friend, and that is not the sort of thing friends do.


Chapter 59, “All This Knowing”, is another short one (quoted here in it entirety), and it reaches for cosmic irony. But it’s no John Crowley. These fits of poesy are always ill-fitting. There's no need for it to be a separate chapter, since it creates a needless break in the narrative.

quote:

In the fullness of time, and with considerable help from Deoch and Wilem, I became drunk.

Thus it was that three students made their slightly erratic way back to the University. See them as they go, weaving only slightly. It is quiet, and when the belling tower strikes the late hour, it doesn’t break the silence so much as it underpins it. The crickets, too, respect the silence. Their calls are like careful stitches in its fabric, almost too small to be seen.

The night is like warm velvet around them. The stars, burning diamonds in the cloudless sky, turn the road beneath their feet a silver grey. The University and Imre are the hearts of understanding and art, the strongest of the four corners of civilization. Here on the road between the two there is nothing but old trees and long grass bending to the wind. The night is perfect in a wild way, almost terrifyingly beautiful.

The three boys, one dark, one light, and one—for lack of a better word—fiery, do not notice the night. Perhaps some part of them does, but they are young, and drunk, and busy knowing deep in their hearts that they will never grow old or die. They also know that they are friends, and they share a certain love that will never leave them. The boys know many other things, but none of them seem as important as this. Perhaps they are right.


JUST ROTHFUSS THINGS


quote:

While we were waiting for their drinks to come, I tried to peer curiously into my tankard, and found that doing so while it was sitting on the bar would require me to stand on my stool.

“Metheglin,” Stanchion informed me. “Try it and you can thank me later. Where I’m from, they say a man will come back from the dead to get a drink of it.”

I tipped an imaginary hat to him. “At your service.”

“Yours and your family’s,” he replied politely.

I took a drink from the tall tankard to give myself a chance to collect my wits, and something wonderful happened in my mouth: cool spring honey, clove, cardamom, cinnamon, pressed grape, burnt apple, sweet pear, and clear well water. That is all I have to say of metheglin. If you haven’t tried it, then I am sorry I cannot describe it properly. If you have, you don’t need me to remind you what it is like.

I was relieved to see the cut-tail had come in moderately sized glasses, with one for Stanchion too. If my friends had received tankards of the black wine, I would have needed a wheelbarrow to get them back to the other side of the river.

BravestOfTheLamps fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jan 10, 2017

Atlas Hugged
Mar 12, 2007


Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all
I'll take a thousand pages of sniffs and braid tugging if it means I never have to hear about Denna again.

Solice Kirsk
Jun 1, 2004

.

Rothfuss posted:

cool spring honey, clove, cardamom, cinnamon, pressed grape, burnt apple, sweet pear, and clear well water

This sounds like a lovely craft beer.

neongrey
Feb 28, 2007

Plaguing your posts with incidental music.

Solice Kirsk posted:

This sounds like a lovely craft beer.

I would give solid odds on that actually being his reference material there.

No Dignity
Oct 15, 2007

'Cool spring honey'

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
doot doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot


College Slice

Solice Kirsk posted:

This sounds like a lovely craft beer.


neongrey posted:

I would give solid odds on that actually being his reference material there.

Funny you should mention that.

LemonyTang
Nov 29, 2009

Ask me about holding 4gate!
BravestOfTheLamps, I just wanna thank you for your posts. You inspired me to read Umberto Eco and after finishing Name of the Rose, I raced through Baudolino (and then perhaps aptly spent the night in an archway of a Minster?) which I absolutely adored, and am now halfway through Foucault's Pendulum.

It was amazing to me to see just how good a choice it was to compare Kvothe with Baudolino. Baudolino rules.

Strom Cuzewon
Jul 1, 2010


a bit of a chemistry geek posted:

But as I read more it all started sounding like a *huge* pain in the rear end. The books went on and on about about how I’m supposed to check the ph level and… I don’t know, hydroginize things or some poo poo like that.

What it sounds like is a lot of fiddly bullshit work to me, and that’s not what I signed up for. I wasn’t looking for a part time job. I didn’t want to babysit this goddamn thing for 6 months, petting it and taking its temperature and cooing sweet nothings in its ear.

No. I wanted to muck about with glass bottles and tubes for an afternoon. I wanted to make a potion. I wanted to do some goddamn mad science and then not think about it again until the stuff was ready to drink.


I hope his lecturers read this ans send him angry letters.

HIJK
Nov 25, 2012
in the room where you sleep
So what he actually wanted to do was be a cook with glass measuring cups.

Solice Kirsk
Jun 1, 2004

.
Sounds a lot like what he's going through with his third book.

Tim Burns Effect
Apr 1, 2011


" I originally went to College to study the equivalent of chemical engineering."

What does that even mean?

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
Sounds like an euphemism for getting drunk.

Oxxidation
Jul 22, 2007

Christ, what an rear end in a top hat.

Hate Fibration
Apr 8, 2013

FLÄSHYN!

quote:

Patrick Rothfuss was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and received his B.S. in English from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in 1999 after spending nine years as an undergraduate

Hooooooleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee poo poo.

Nakar
Sep 2, 2002

Ultima Ratio Regum
An English degree is in many ways the equivalent of a Chemical Engineering degree.

Evil Fluffy
Jul 13, 2009

Scholars are some of the most pompous and pedantic people I've ever had the joy of meeting.

Hate Fibration posted:

Hooooooleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee poo poo.

The fact he now teaches others is horrifying. Pretty sure at least one friend who I went to college with who became a doctor got through the entire thing in less than 9 goddamn years.

Hate Fibration
Apr 8, 2013

FLÄSHYN!

Evil Fluffy posted:

The fact he now teaches others is horrifying. Pretty sure at least one friend who I went to college with who became a doctor got through the entire thing in less than 9 goddamn years.

If I do not gently caress up, that is how long my PhD* will take. That's incredible. Nine loving years for a BS in English.

*Years in school from undergrad to PhD.

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BravestOfTheLamps
Oct 12, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
Lipstick Apathy
I think the plagiarism is worse honestly

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