#wise man's fear

[climbthemountain2020]

I can't live laugh love in these conditions, Patrick

[qpjianghu]

“It had flaws, but what does that matter when it comes to matters of the heart? We love what we love. Reason does not enter into it. In many ways, unwise love is the truest love. Anyone can love a thing because. That's as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them, too. That is rare and pure and perfect.” ― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear // Mysterious Lotus Casebook

[simauita]

Props to El'the Mola for being the only sane person at the whole University.

[eliza-makepeace]

cheerful humming nothing-like-depressed-innkeeper-kote-anymore kvothe my beloved

[lifeimitatesmeme]

Run outside. Run and hide.

(clipped image of Cinder from the wonderfully eerie illustration "Late visit" by Marc Simonetti)

[edotvie]

Felurian thae

[jinxstark]

As I work on my dress for graduation atm I've been listening to the audio book of 'Name of the Wind' and am struck again by how different audio books are to experience vs reading.

When I tell you I have read Name of the Wind and Wise Man's fear at least five times each, I am not exaggerating. I have read these books once a year every year since I was introduced to them at 15(ish). But I listened to the audio book for the first time last year and it is a WHOLE NEW EXPERIENCE!!

Before I didn't really care for Wise Man's Fear as much and I found Denna to grate on my nerves. But listening to the books, I've absorbed so much more, I like Denna now, Wise Man's Fear is just as good as Name of the Wind, I could not pick a favourite. It's completely changed my perception of the books. I've also picked up on a lot of Rothfuss' repeated language - like Kvothe repeats a lot about how he though the current bad thing he was going through was the worst it could get, and then apologising to the reader because he was young and stupid and didn't know how much worse things would get.

Anyway listen to the audiobook

[randomaccessmike]

Falling...

[sunlit-music]

I feel like the Kingkiller books are a safe space. Kvothe gets into trouble to standing up to student bullies like Ambrose and to people like Master Hemme. And instead of victim blaming him for not having more finesse or calm, Sim tells him kindly to lay low. He tells him it’s ok to take a break for his health or reputation and to come back later. 

[automaticchaosmilkshake]

I am a thousand years late to this series but I forgot how to read for pleasure for a while. BLeeM used The Kingkiller Chronicle as an example while talking about the importance of details-when-they-matter in an an old episode of Adventuring Academy, the podcast I binged while painting my garage last fall.

I'm about 7/8ths from the end, have a pretty good idea of where this is going now, and am doing my best to enjoy the ride that I know isn't going to land. It's fine. I was adequately warned and waded this deep on my own accord.

I've been kind of put off by the way he wrote about women (or more specifically, left women *out* of his story), but dismissed it as a relatively minor negative compared to the parts I really like as positives. Oooh baby, let me see those satisfying tangible magic systems. Look at that monomyth. Gimme stories-within-stories-within-stories all day. I guess I could try to find this kind of story from a feminine lens, and I have indeed been searching, but for now I'm going to think about this story I've been chewing on since September.

I put the book down a few minutes ago to write something lighthearted about Adem women, and now I can't stop thinking about how *of course* that sounds great, it's not patriarchy.

I dunno, I think I'm probably writing above my pay grade now, but I feel like before he went through the abyss, women were left out of the story purposely, because he had no experience with them. Now that it feels like I'm landing this book between transformation and atonement, it feels different. The protagonist has never acted misogynistically, and in fact has several times fought the patriarchy of his world. Because of that, it's hard to illustrate what specifically has changed about the writing that feels better now. Is it just the exponential increase in women who have names and stories of their own now? In the first book there was Only One Girl in The Entire World. This is progress, my friends. We've nearly got binders full of women.

After I'm done with The Wise Man's Fear, I'm taking suggestions for which direction to go next. Like I said, it's been many years since I've regularly read for pleasure. I'm going to give Mistborn a try because if this many people love Brandon Sanderson's books he must be pretty good and it does tick those boxes I mentioned before. Considering he's a Mormon who is buddies with OSC, I don't expect him to address matters of feminism in any capacity, and certainly not as well as Rothfuss has so far done. Maybe that's why I am more excited about The Priory of the Orange Tree, but I have heard it can be unapproachable and I worry it won't hold my attention. I feel like my reading habit is fragile and I want to baby it before I give it anything where "slog" is a recurring theme in the reviews? But what do reviewers know anyway. I have been assured that despite the volume of Sanderson's work, it's fairly "light" in terms of effort.

[qpjianghu]

Mysterious Lotus Casebook / The Kingkiller Chronicle

[simauita]

Kvothe when saying goodbye to Dedan, Hespe and Marten so he could accompany Tempi to Haert, and instructing them to report to the Maer:

Kvothe: While I'm gone, Dedan, you're in charge.

Dedan: Hell yeah!

Kvothe whispering to Marten: Marten, you are secretly in charge.

Marten: Obviously.

[eliza-makepeace]

No one:

Kvothe:

[dearjewels22]

In order to have a valley, there must be a mountain on either side... get up and try again.

[nowtransparent]

I finally own both, "The Name of the Wind" and "Wise Man's Fear" .... Now when is Patrick Rothfuss going to get that third book to us!?!