Patrick Rothfuss: Technical Difficulties

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Patrick Rothfuss: Technical Difficulties

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

im starting to feel like im either stupid or a bad person for really liking his book and eagerly anticipating a sequel

# ¿ Dec 8, 2010 04:01

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:45

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Liesmith posted:

actually SaviourX inspired the patron saint of Fantasy Fiction, peep the sig if you don't believe me.

You're wrong pretty much across the board, reading critically isn't "making myself seem like an iGenius" at all. And in fact what you are doing is trying to bring down critical reading because you don't do it and are insecure about it. You read shallowly and respond in the most childish way and then when other people have actual criticisms about what they read you are dismissive. Because you're an idiot.

I've been extremely critical of this book in this thread. At the same time, I liked "the story" enough when I read it. The difference between me and you isn't that I can't appreciate the simple story like you can, it's that you are incapable of looking beyond that and are actually proud of it.

I think the initial assumption that he is incapable of critical reading isn't necessarily an accurate one. However it's quite possible that, like me, he chooses instead to forego the critical thinking and merely enjoy the story for what it is and nothing more. My personal experience and training is mostly in movie/cinematic storytelling but many of the concepts are (obviously) extremely similiar if not identical. I make an active effort not to over think entertainment unless I'm doing it for a specific purpose (i.e. improving my own work)

sometimes it's fun to read something for no other purpose than enjoying the story, regardless of the quality. There was nothing outwardly offensive about his structure and the prose is beautiful, he ranks in my top 5 fantasy authors at the moment (assuming his new works are improvements which they hopefully should be)

# ¿ Dec 16, 2010 18:00

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

uberkeyzer posted:

I totally understand this argument and empathized with it until i read about 20 pages of the transformers 2 thread in Cinema Discusso and saw it trotted out about five million to defend jive-shuckin' robots with TRUCK BALLSs, and realized it can be used to defend the indefensible. You can make the exact same argument in the Animorphs thread (with the exception of the prose, I guess, although at least those books probably don't refer to every loving shade of red as "hearts blood") In conclusion, "hey dude turn your brain off and just enjoy what was your favorite magic spell Kvothe cast ^__^" is a useless thing to post, thanks.

Goony characters are not quite the same as robot balls. The latter fall quite squarely under what i termed "offensive" in my previous post, while the former are simply part of the character.

i guess my litmus test would be my suspension of disbelief. If a writer creates a situation or a character undergoes some event that breaks my suspension that's obviously a big red 'X' in the "bad book" column. (though i had 'fun' at transformers2, there were multiple eyerolls which definitely pulled me out of the movie) I thought Rotfuss did a good job of writing a highly intelligent and talented teenager with the social maturity of a five year old and an idealism/attitude towards women caught somewhere between the crusades and the 1950s

Even in the 'present' events Kvothe is not past his mid-twenties, and by all appearances hasn't matured much. If the internet has taught me anything, this is quite normal. One might argue that Rothfuss is simply writing what he knows, or perhaps he's writing something that he sees. The fact that we can so easily describe Kvothe with a term such as 'Goony' demonstrates his characterization isn't too far from certain everyday realities. With luck Wise Man's Fear will show marked improvement (he's been writing it long enough damnit)

Anyway, i enjoyed the book, look forward to the next one, and highly recommend it to anyone who likes a great fantasy novel. It's should hopefully shape into a fantastic series.

edit: and yeah...blogpost awkwardness...thats why i dont read authors blogs, books are easier to enjoy when i know nothing about the author and their odd obsessions.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2010 10:52

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Evfedu posted:

I read Earthsea first then Kvothe, that was a real hurdle for the book to jump over. I mean, if you're going to rip off something that good you need to do better than this with it.

Was it stated somewhere that he drew from LeGuinn? It's been over a decade since I read A Wizard of Earthsea, but I can't really come up with a parallel. I'm not doubtful per se, honestly curious

# ¿ Jan 20, 2011 19:35

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

finished the book and loved it. I really felt that by the end Kvothe does not actually lend himself to being a very trustworthy narrator. There were several instances where I found myself doubting the character (and not the author)

Also I was at a signing this evening and Patrick is a really honestly funny guy. He wouldn't let anyone ask any questions regarding the second book so as not to spoil anyone and for readings he read some of his humor columns from college and some poetry he'd written.

Also I asked him how to pronounce Cthaeh (and I was right for once in my own head!)

Kuh - thay - uh

treeboy fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Mar 15, 2011

# ¿ Mar 15, 2011 05:23

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:45

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Doltos posted:

I just finished the second book in the Kingkiller Chronicles and was really disappointed. It was going well and seemed to be as good as the first book, then the Maer sends Kvothe to go hunt bandits.

Queue seemingly endless chapters of Kvothe slogging through forests page after page, finding the bandits for a brief 3 paragraph fight scene, slogging through the Fae and having cringey to read sex with Felurian, then slogging through Ademre getting trained for something that could have been summarized in 10 pages instead of 100.

Like 50% of the book felt like pointless filler and I was so relieved when Kvothe found the fake Edema Ruh and slaughtered them all. Felt like the first time in hours of reading that he did anything of worth. Really, really painful to read through especially considering every chapter felt like Rothfuss was awkwardly inserting another sex scene with Kvothe and beautiful women who are absolutely in love with him wherever he goes.

Also while I agree that Rothfuss is a great writer, these books reek of Mary Sue scenarios where the white knight wins in the end and gets m'lady.

i would agree if not for the fact that he's actually pretty incompetent (or at least not nearly as awesome as he pretends to be) and gets by, generally, on dumb luck

# ¿ May 15, 2014 21:31

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Patrick Rothfuss: Technical Difficulties