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Chaglby posted:I was still slightly interested in trying the book at some point even after the intro turned me off until I read the thread a while back in which someone stated the book is much better when you read it in the voice of Zapp Brannigan, which someone mentioned already. This was me, and I stand by it - there's one line in particular that I remember laughing so hard on the train that people were looking at me. It was something like: "Sometimes my mind is so clean and sharp I have to be careful not to cut myself." I couldn't write a more Branniganesque line if I tried. Kvothe is an insufferably smug protagonist and I can't believe people are trying to defend him by saying he's an unreliable narrator. He isn't. Old washed up Kvothe learns a complicated form of written language in two minutes flat while the man who invented it sits by astonished. He almost breaks his assistant's arm without realizing it because he's so cool and strong and badass and unaware of his own incredible strength. He isn't narrating these parts! This is a pretty strong indicator that Kvothe is a perfectly reliable narrator - I'm happy to be proven wrong though, so if anyone can provide any evidence of this besides all of the women in his story being beautiful I'd love to hear it. I was definitely able to see some merit in his writing style, which flowed well and created some good imagery - I liked some of his descriptions and ideas, but Kvothe sucks and Rothfuss definitely came across as a big fat goony goon with some of his themes whether he is aware of it or not - oh look, Kvothe is white knighting a girl in an abusive relationship and now she wants to sleep with him. Oh look, Kvothe is putting a bully in his place. Oh look, Kvothe's daddy is banging on for three pages about how proud he is of his son before dying tragically. Liesmith posted:I can't point to specific pages, but when he's dalking about Denna/Diana/Dean whatever her name is to his buddy, and his buddy is all "she a bitch" his response is goony as gently caress. "Yes, she is cruel, like a cruel wind, a force of nature that cannot be controlled. And she's also a shy deer, you can't make any sudden movements or she will be startled and run away. That's why I'm hanging around while she bangs other dudes, creeping slowly closer until one day we will be lovers instead of friends." There is even a paragraph where he revels in the fact that he's superior to all her lovers because they don't truly understand her like he does, and they come and go while he's always there for her. Oh god, that part. That's exactly how I felt as I read it, it was just so loving creepy and the part where he's having his smug inner monologue about how she belongs to him and once her boyfriend is out of the way he'll still be there made my skin crawl. He's the ultimate self-appointed "Nice Guy" McGoonygoon. Maybe it's more obvious to female readers, I don't know. I honestly do think Rothfuss has a talent for the written word and despite Kvothe I read and enjoyed some aspects of the book, but I really hope he learns some things about character development as he continues the series.
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Dec 18, 2010 01:17
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 13:46 |
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Melche posted:I don't know about everyone else, but I've been describing the author as goony, not the character. A Confederacy of Dunces and the Catcher in the Rye are books that describe flawed, goony characters really well. This is what happens when a goony author tries to write a cool, deep character, but his gooniness seeps through (at least partially) unintentionally. Yeah, this is pretty much spot-on. Kvothe is goony because Rothfuss is goony and it's just seeping out through his characterization. If Kvothe didn't start out as Rothfuss' D&D character I'll be surprised. quote: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) Kvothe does not live in our reality - it isn't realistic for him to be a goon. Where is his internet? Where are his pornographic images of women he both desires and resents? Where's his ladder theory? Where's his world of warcraft? Where is his comedy forum? Do not these things make a goony gently caress who he is? Besides which, we loving laugh at goony assholes. Nobody in Rothfuss' world is laughing at Kvothe, they are all making GBS threads their pants because his eyes are flashing with badassery. This is the objection. quote:Ah, I see now. Stories aren't allowed to have superheros anymore. Check. This isn't even remotely close to what I said, but ok. Penfold the Brave fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Dec 21, 2010 |
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Dec 21, 2010 18:19
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Sil posted:words Scott Lynch covers a lot of the same ground that Patrick Rothfuss does and does it much better. It's not the tropes that annoy me, it's that it's badly done. I have nothing but nice things to say about The Lies of Locke Lamora so it has nothing to do with me expecting some great work of literature from a bloody fantasy novel. Besides which, my primary reason for disliking Kvothe comes not from his weird and offputting attitudes towards women, but from this: HeroOfTheRevolution posted:The problem is that Kvothe would be a shut-in in real life, not a tremendous badass whose name is whispered like a bogey man. But whatever, blurf durf, sorry I don't like a character in the book that you like.
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Dec 25, 2010 23:40
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I just finished The Wise Man's Fear - Kvothe is far less smug throughout, which was great because I loving hated him in the first book and couldn't tolerate him at all without Zapp Brannigan's voice in my head. But it was such an about turn for his character with no real explanation that it came off a bit jarring for me. Like Rothfuss has heard the complaints and just changed Kvothe without any context as to why he's different. It was a bit weird, but I was willing to overlook it because hey, less  . Not that he didn't still come off smug or anything, he definitely had his moments. I just wasn't rolling my eyes constantly like I did during the first book. Probably my favourite part was Felurian's Faerie sex school, because it was just hilarious and weird. Now I will never shake the idea that Rothfuss thinks having sex is like playing Street Fighter, where if you use the correct special move you will cause your opponent to have a bangin' orgasm instead of knocking them unconscious. The rhyming couplet poo poo he tries out with Denna and Felurian was loving excruciatingly bad and while I found it very funny, he really ought to stop doing it and/or get a decent editor who will tell him when he writes utter bollocks. I liked the stuff about the Cthaeh, that was pretty interesting, there was some character development for the more minor players (especially Denna, who is still boring but less "she is a deer, a shy deer" type dreck can only be a good thing). The argument where Kvothe immediately went to call her a whore took us back into creepy manchild territory, sadly. Despite this and the fact that we went over tons of stuff from the first book (money woes, bloo bloo I love Denna, Ambrose is a dick, Auri is still Luna Lovegood) it was oddly enjoyable. The second instalment confirms that it's very firmly in guilty pleasure territory for me, though. Rothfuss writes as though he spends his whole life on the internet. Penfold the Brave fucked around with this message at 18:37 on May 19, 2011 |
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May 19, 2011 18:29
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Oh hey, that was me. I found it didn't work quite as well for the second book, sadly. The line from the first one about how he has "a mind so clear and sharp that sometimes I have to be careful not to cut myself" made me laugh out loud so hard that people on the train were looking at me, iirc.
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Oct 10, 2011 17:43
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pentyne posted:The Felurian had a weird semi poetic tone to it that made it seem mystical and dreamlike. The Adem on the other hand had 'man-mothers'. The part where they started talking in rhyming couplets made me cringe so hard I had to put the book down. To me it just felt smug, self-satisfied, masturbatory and frankly embarrassing. This was the point at which Rothfuss completely disappeared up his own arsehole. But then, I was reading Kvothe's lines in Zapp Brannigan's voice from about the third chapter of book one so I'm clearly in it for the wrong reasons.
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Nov 17, 2012 13:45
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