A Different Sort of Interview

So as some of you know, Jo Walton has been doing an in-depth reading of my first two books over at Tor.com for more than a year now.

That’s a bit of a boggling thought by itself right there. That there’s a whole community of folks over there that have been going over my books with a fine tooth comb for over a year. The fact that the discussion is being headed up my a World Fantasy Award winning novelist is the cherry on top of my surrealism sundae.

While it’s flattering knowing that the discussion is out there, I’ve been keeping myself away from the posts because I don’t really want to know *too* much about what speculation is going on. That sort of thing can be bad for a writer.

But when Jo contacted me to let me know that they were wrapping up book two, and folks were dying to ask me some questions, I couldn’t say no.

I only had two stipulations:

1. I wouldn’t give any spoilers.

2. I could be cryptic and evasive, if not downright opaque in my answers.

3. I reserved the right to make puns, flippant jokes, and obscure quotes without fear of reprisal.

Jo agreed and sent me the questions.

There were roughly a billion of them. So many that even after I weeded some out, the finished interview ended up being over a dozen pages long.

Because of this, we decided to split it in half. The first part is here on my blog. The second half is over on Tor.com. (I’ll give you the link later.)

What really impressed me was the nature of the questions. The quality of the questions. A lot of these made me stop and think. A lot more made me pull copies of my book down off the shelf to double check things before I gave an answer.

The truth is, I’ve never been asked questions like these before. Or at least I’ve never had to deal with so many of them packed into one short period of time. It felt a little bit like I was being tested on my own book. But in a good way.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the first half of the interview.

  • Geography

Why did you choose to give us the kind of map you did? Is there any hope of a really detailed map that contains locations of vital interest like Caluptena and Newarre?

This is a question that many, many people have asked. And I’ve been meaning to post a blog about it for years and years.

How here’s the deal: I’ll pass over this question lightly so I can spend more time on the rest of the interview. But I promise to post up a detailed answer here on my blog in just a month or so. Lhin?

As far as future maps go, where there is life, there is hope. (And need of vittles.) I’ll probably include some more detailed regional maps if/when I ever do the role playing game based off my book.

What is the physical shape of the world of the Four Corners? (Spherical, flat, hyperbolic, …)

I try to avoid hyperbole in my writing. I find it distasteful.

In a related question, what’s up with the moon being always full before the War of Naming?

I can only refer you to Chapter 102. At this time, all I have to say on the subject is right there.

Also, it’s not called the war of naming. It’s called the Creation War.

Were there any particularly cool scenes/ideas/random facts about the 4C world you had to leave out, and could you please tell us about them if so?

Generally speaking, I leave the cool parts in the book. When I take something out, it’s because it’s not cool enough, so it drags down the overall awesome of the book.

If I do cut something cool, it’s usually because there’s a better place for it somewhere else. There are two whole chapters that used to be in book one, that are now going to show up in book three. They work much better there.

Can you tell us about any locations we haven’t seen yet which we’ll be visiting on D3?

Hmmmm…. You see, the thing is, even a relatively innocuous question like this could be considered a spoiler to some people.

Let me give you an example. I’m going to assume you’re all solid geeks, and that you’ve already gone to see The Avengers.

(I’m going to talk about the movie, so consider this your spoiler alert.)

You know in the trailer for The Avengers where they show the hulk catching Iron Man out of the air?

That’s a spoiler.

Why? Here’s why.

There I am, watching in the theatre, watching Tony Stark flying off into space to jam a nuke up the ass of some aliens. Good times. High stakes. Big adventure. Then his HUD starts to get all crackly.

Now they’ve already established Tony as being the selfish guy who’s ripe for a transformational moment, ready to become the self-sacrificing hero. He’s just called his girlfriend to say goodbye.

And I think, “Oh shit. This is Joss Whedon directing this. He’s at the helm. He wouldn’t…. Fuck. No. Of course he would. Joss would totally kill off Tony Stark….”

Except that moment of honest dread only lasts a microsecond because I’ve seen in the trailer that the Hulk grabs Iron Man out of the air and slides down the building.

So I know he’s not going to snuff it. I’m robbed of my dramatic tension.

Spoiler.

So I’ll answer this question, and give away a little piece of advance knowledge to the folks that hunger for such things.

But here’s what we’re going to do. Let’s move this question WAAAAAY down to the end of the interview. Way at the end of the second piece over on tor.com. We’ll have the tiny potential spoilers tucked away safely down there. Because I know some of you are like me, and you like your stories pure.

Does that sound fair?

Where do they get all of the chocolate from?

The same place we do. From coco beans.

  • Naming

Does time have a name that could be learned?

Boy. That’s a really good question. Any question I can’t answer off the top of my head is a good one.

Elodin would probably have a really great reply to this….

My gut response, given about a minute’s thought is that no, it doesn’t. No more than, say, height has a name.

That’s not cannon though. I might be wrong.

Does the difficulty of learning names vary from name to name, or namer to namer?

Oh god yes. That should be really obvious from the books.

What is the difference between shaping and naming?

That is a very good question. A very, very good question. You have no idea how good a question that is.

Whoever asked this, you’re going to really enjoy parts of book three….

Is there a Collective Sleeping Mind, akin to Jungian ideas of the collective unconscious?

While I’ll admit I find the concept of the collective unconscious appealing, I don’t really know if it exists in this world…. Let alone if it has an analog in the Four Corners….

And if so, did Iax take a big chunk of it, weave it into whole-cloth and Shape Faen, thus separating essential energy from the mortal world?

Boy. Wow. There are a bunch of assumptions in that question. I can count three distinct underlying implied concepts without even trying. It’s the onion-layered cosmological version of, “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?”

So I’ll have to pass on answering it. But it’s a good question. It reveals that you’ve put a flattering amount of thought into figuring out how the world works.

  • Sympathy

You say sympathy was invented at the University. Are magics truly invented or just discovered and developed, like radio? If invented, are there other magics to be created? Does Kvothe create one? Is the Fae realm different from the 4C in the kind of magics that can be created there?

Merciful Buddah. A four question, question. You don’t write high-school essays by any chance, do you?

Questions like these are a huge mess to answer all at once, so I’m going to separate them out. One answer for each sentence.

1. I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that.

2. I’m pretty sure that a radio counts as an invention.

3. That’s a good question.

4. No spoilers. But nice try.

5. No. (But faen magic is notably different than the sort of magic normally practiced in the four corners.)

In Austin, you said there were six kinds of magic of which we’d seen five. What are they? If the sixth is a spoiler, what are the five we’ve seen?

Depending on how you look at things, there are a lot of different ways you could group, and therefore count, the different magics in the books.

For example. Sympathy and Sygaldry are both very similar, as they both deal almost exclusively with the manipulation of tangible force in all its varied forms.

Which means, of course, depending on how you count them, (or on how I was counting them that particular day in Austin) there could be more that six types of magic.

Still, here are the names of the five I’ve exposed you to in the book so far.

Alchemy.
Sympathy.
Naming.
Sygaldry.
Glamourie.

You’ve seen glimpses of one other, but you don’t have a name for it yet.

Are all the different types of magic (e.g., naming/shaping, sympathy/sygaldry, alchemy, glamourie, gramerie, etc.) fundamentally different, or are they actually different sides of the same six-sided die?

Whoops. Did I mention grammarie in the book by name.

[Pat goes to look.]

Huh. I guess I did, twice. That was probably later in the revision process.

So yeah, I guess that’s six magics I’ve shown in the books.

(Whoops. Seven. I just remembered one more that gets a whisper of a mention. And there’s an eighth you haven’t seen yet.)

To answer your question though, some types of magic are very much the same (as I mentioned above.) While others are very, very different.

Whether all types of magic somehow follow the same underlying principles is a matter of some discussion at the University. But nobody has discovered the Grand Unified Theory of magic, if that’s what you’re asking.

People have tried, of course. But mostly that’s the sort of thing that students talk about late at night when they get drunk. It’s also the sort of thing that rhetoricians and philosophers discuss. But those aren’t the sort of people Kvothe hangs out with.

*     *     *

For the second, larger chunk of the interview, you can head over here.

For bonus points, see if you can spot and identify all four of my quotes references in the interview. Without using google, lameass.

Best,

pat

This entry was posted in fan coolness, geeking out, Interviews, Surreal enthusiasm. By Pat78 Responses

78 Comments

  1. davedelong
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 12:31 PM | Permalink

    Thank you for answering our questions! Hopefully someday we’ll get the lyrics to “The Pontifex Always Ranks Under a Queen” …. :)

  2. Scott--DFW
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 12:35 PM | Permalink

    A fantasy world without chocolate is a dystopia. (It’s cocoa or cacao, though–not “coco.”)

    • Brady Dill
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 1:13 PM | Permalink

      Maybe in the Four Corners it is “coco.”

  3. Jsherry
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 1:07 PM | Permalink

    OK, playing fair, although I wish I were clever enough to have picked up on all four quotations…The only one I picked out was B from MAAN. Thought I’d (poorly) encrypt the answer in case anyone else hopes to find them all on his or her own.

    • RevRobt
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 1:31 PM | Permalink

      Jsherry – You encrypted it just fine, even if in plain sight. I tried running “B” from “MAAN” through a few rot-13 filters, and adjusted it through the alphabet, and couldn’t figure it out.
      Then I actually looked at the quote and realized which play of S’s it was from, although I couldn’t remember what character.
      (I have a tendency to overthink a bit sometimes.)

  4. kevintictac
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 1:17 PM | Permalink

    Honestly, I loved this interview. I need my bonus points though! could only find the answer to: Do the names Edema Ruh and Adem relate to the Hebrew “adamah” meaning “red” and “earth”?
    and also: Are the Adem right about how childbirth occurs or is the rest of the world with their man mothers theory correct? (or, possibly more interestingly, are they both correct?)
    where on earth (or the 4 corners) are the other two?

    • DrFood
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 2:42 PM | Permalink

      Check out the rest of the interview at tor.com (Pat gives the link above)

  5. shizomou
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 1:35 PM | Permalink

    While the hulk catching stark is as spoiler that let’s you know he doesn’t die, I had already read that they plan on releasing iron man 3 next year. So he couldn’t die. Although, you could get creative with that as well.

    And now, I must go back and read the first two books as this interview has revealed that I have forgotten things…

    • Mitchell Hundred
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 4:07 PM | Permalink

      They could have changed his identity for the third movie. I read somewhere that once in the comics Tony Stark lost all of his money and became a homeless man, forcing Rhodes/War Machine to become Iron Man.

  6. Lukalock
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 1:41 PM | Permalink

    Ok, so there are 8 different kinds of magic – but only 7 that we’ve been given a name for thus far…

    Alchemy.
    Sympathy.
    Naming.
    Sygaldry.
    Glamourie.
    Grammarie.

    …what is the 7th? I am going to have to do some major trawling through the books to see if I can’t find it.

    • CGilga
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 2:56 PM | Permalink

      I was thinking Knacks. Early on in NotW when Abenthy and Kvothe discuss how some guy grew awesome plants and the jester guy (his name escapes me) from Kvothe’s troop always rolled 7s. I could be wrong and Knacks could be something totally different, but that’s what my first thought was.

      • Lukalock
        Posted May 17, 2012 at 3:26 PM | Permalink

        See, and I wasn’t sure if it was knacks, or possibly something to do with Yllish knots… or I could be completely wrong and it could be niether…

        • rmcphail
          Posted May 17, 2012 at 4:27 PM | Permalink

          I suspect knacks are a diluted form of grammerie. Maybe a throwback to some mixed faen blood or something. It would explain why they were viewed with such superstition. I know all magic is viewed such, but Ben made a point to mention knacks. I bet its Denna’s knots.

          • Posted May 17, 2012 at 9:25 PM | Permalink

            I just re-counted, so far there’s been:

            Six magics named in the books.

            Eight magics mentioned in the books.

            And at least 10 magics in the world.

            That I can think of right now, depending on how you count them.

          • musiclover67
            Posted January 27, 2014 at 9:06 PM | Permalink

            In a guess a seventh form of magic has something to do with language. Elodin reassures Kvothe that there are six words to make a women fall in love with you. The smiths apprentice makes reference to a legend where Kvothe knew six words that could be whispered in a horses ear to make it run a hundred miles without tiring. Lastly (though this speculation is unfounded) is that in the interview Rothfuss specifically says that one form of magic gets a “whisper” of a mention. You will notice that in the books both Elodin and Aaron use the word whisper when speaking of how this magic is used.

    • shalizakhanali
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 5:58 PM | Permalink

      Denna made reference to this magic when she asked Kvothe, Will and Simm about it. the kind of magic where someone is compelled to do something if it is written down? It was a scene at the Eolian.

    • Illarion
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 7:01 PM | Permalink

      Yllish braiding as the 7th?

      • Brady Dill
        Posted May 17, 2012 at 7:57 PM | Permalink

        I don’t think so. I think that’s just a writing system for Yll. Interesting thought, though.

    • Brady Dill
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 7:59 PM | Permalink

      Pat, are you sure you haven’t mentioned the eighth magic? You’ve mentioned two types of unknown magic: Knacks and, as shalizhakanali said, Denna’s magic system where you just sort of write things down.

      If Pat was right, we have more evidence for Knacks being real (Kvothe’s word) than for Denna’s hypothetical magic system. I vote for Knacks.

    • Lioness
      Posted May 18, 2012 at 9:49 PM | Permalink

      I’m pretty sure one of them is the “does writing something down make it come true?” that Denna and…I’m pretty sure someone else mentioned.

      • kevintictac
        Posted May 19, 2012 at 3:50 AM | Permalink

        Kvothe and Bast mention it in NofTW with Chronicler. claims that he was able to write a persons name and they would be forced to do what ever he wanted.

    • Kate@LivingTheFrugalLife
      Posted August 15, 2013 at 7:15 AM | Permalink

      I’m very, very late to this discussion, but…What about the healing Bast performs on K’s tooth? Pat, are you counting this (unnamed) healing magic among the ten? All the healing taught at the University seems very non-magical, especially when compared to what Bast does.

      Yllish knots seem to at the least have a magical quality to them. Maybe Denna’s question about magic in writing things down had to do with Yllish knots, and the knotted word “beautiful” that later shows up in her braided hair. It’s totally plausible that Denna would reach for any bit of magic that would augment her appearance. At a stretch, I could see this being counted as a type of glamourrie.

      Knacks was a good catch by Brady. Abenthy is somewhat dismissive of knacks, as compared with the stuff that’s taught at university. But he doesn’t deny that they exist and does use the term chill-charmer, establishing the point that some people have knacks useful enough to make a sort of living off them.

      • ephabulous
        Posted November 11, 2013 at 8:52 PM | Permalink

        I think the only reason that the Yllish knots are important is that they are Denna’s method of “writing things down” surreptitiously. The magic quality isn’t directly the knot itself but Denna’s ability to perform magic upon it. As Elodin pointed out that is their recorded language.

  7. ryan7273
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 1:46 PM | Permalink

    Pat, thanks for answering so many of our questions. You’ve given all of us over at Jo’s re-read a lot to talk about. I’m particularly excited about the ones you chose not to answer…

    I’m really looking forward to Day 3, any short stories, and especially a role playing game. I’d love a chance to play in your world.

  8. Lomky
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 1:47 PM | Permalink

    Please Please Please let me make the currency widget! I love math, currency and programming.

    Here’s one I did for Harry Potter; Galleons/Sickles/Knuts to Pounds and Dollars.

  9. Posted May 17, 2012 at 2:08 PM | Permalink

    Thanks for answering our many questions.

  10. DrFood
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 2:53 PM | Permalink

    If you haven’t seen the ReRead over at tor.com, and you love Pat’s books, I recommend going through it. This will not be the task of one evening, so pace yourself! There are hundreds of thousands of words, I’d guess, when you add up all the comments. And, much of the best stuff is in the comments, although Jo did make an effort to pull many of the really good ones into her next post.

  11. Oneirogen
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 3:01 PM | Permalink

    I’ve been lurking and following the reread from the start. Deep and heartfelt thanks to both you and Jo for taking the time and arranging this grand finale to the reread.

  12. Hedgehog Dan
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 3:10 PM | Permalink

    AVENGERS SPOILER!!!

    “I’m robbed of my dramatic tension.”

    Heh, I never thought, that they would really do that, since there is a third IM solo film in the progress, with RDJr. :)

  13. Mitchell Hundred
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 4:10 PM | Permalink

    In the question about the name of time, I think you meant ‘canon’ instead of ‘cannon’. A cannon is a big tube you use to shoot metal balls at things. Canon is the official authenticated record of events (probably).

    And yes, I know I’m being pedantic.

    • Mitchell Hundred
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 4:23 PM | Permalink

      Also, regarding your remark about Kilvin being black: whenever I read his lines in the books I always imagined him being played by Michael Dorn. It just seemed kind of right.

    • rmcphail
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 4:36 PM | Permalink

      No. I think Pat was referring to the literary cannon. Its a big brass tube they load with copies of Tolstoy and James Joyce and fire at writers of fanfic and bad vampire books.

      • Brady Dill
        Posted May 17, 2012 at 8:02 PM | Permalink

        They fire it at pedantic people, too. Like those who correct the High Lord Patrick Rothfuss’s spelling.

        • rmcphail
          Posted May 18, 2012 at 10:25 AM | Permalink

          Yes but when they fire it at pedantic people they load it with Dostoevsky and grapeshot.

  14. rmcphail
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 4:32 PM | Permalink

    The thing about Loren at the end of the Tor interview makes me wonder: How many awesome things did Kvothe miss out on because he was being a turd? Maybe when D3 is done Pat can give us a ballpark figure?

  15. cjshwee
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 4:45 PM | Permalink

    I haven’t read the books in about a year (I’m overdue for a reread), so I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t catch the trefoil compass. I liked your explanation though. If I liked math a little more in school, I think that would have been an excellent topic for a project.

  16. IvoryDoom
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 4:51 PM | Permalink

    Merciful Tehlu!
    Stoked to read the article on Tor….going there now. This blog made my heart thump! (Then I read you might give a tiny spoiler in that one question…I thought I might pee myself, cant wait to go home and pull this up for the household to read)
    I’ve been following the re-read a bit myself though I’ve been doing my own recently and stopped following it because reading it effects my own ideas too much LOL. It is awesome though!
    I’m going to make sure this is up in the Goodreads forum now also, we have been speculating about your books a tremendous amount over there….

    (I mean that..some of our theories are pretty insane LOL)

    Thanks Pat! Cant wait to read the ending! *all smiles*

    • IvoryDoom
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 5:14 PM | Permalink

      Oh, man, just finished reading the Tor page.

      Thanks so much! That was incredibly interesting!
      I have question though…where does it say that Taborlin had a copper sword? I really didnt remember that at all. It made me feel super dumb!

      (FYI, I’ve read a lot about Copper since reading your books, and its actually a pretty interesting metal. Pfft, and people at my book club try to say reading fiction novels doesnt help you gain intellegence. *eye roll* Like I’d give a flying flip about the properties of copper otherwise.)

      • thistlepong
        Posted May 17, 2012 at 7:23 PM | Permalink

        Marten’s story about Taborlin and Scyphus features a copper sword named Skyaldrin.

        • IvoryDoom
          Posted May 18, 2012 at 11:28 AM | Permalink

          Muchas Gracias…

          Will be checking that out asap. I havent done a re-read of WMF yet, so probably why I didnt remember it.

          • zom
            Posted May 20, 2012 at 10:30 PM | Permalink

            The sword might be amber instead of copper.. copper as a metal wouldnt be very good. Plus felurian talks about making a sword out of amber for kvothe in the fae world but decides that he is more of a night skulker then a fighter so she makes him the shaed. So im assuming its amber and people just thought it was copper by its color and were mistaken happens often in pats stories baisically whole point if the three books to get kvothes story straight. So it would make sense that some details were lost with time

          • IvoryDoom
            Posted May 21, 2012 at 6:52 PM | Permalink

            Thats definately an interesting and plausible idea.

            I thought maybe it was copper so the chandrian couldnt make it rust up and be useless…

            Time to look up the qualities of amber….dun dun dun

  17. thistlepong
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 7:21 PM | Permalink

    Tehlu’s tits and teeth! Thanks for answering so many of our questions.

    If I might dig too greedily, are knacks a substantially different for of magic?

  18. HeroineOfCanton
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 9:11 PM | Permalink

    That was awesome! Also, yes, I’d be interested in a currency widget since I asked the question. ;)

    (Oh, and I apologize for not making my question clearer. The second I hit “post,” I realized that I hadn’t explained that I did want all the various systems and a converter.)

  19. Kerensky287
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 9:53 PM | Permalink

    Aww, I was hoping someone was going to ask about how spans work. That left me confused as hell. They’re, what, week-equivalents? With ten days? And one of them is called Mourning, if I remember correctly… does that mean someone might use the phrase “Mourning morning” at some point? How about “mourning on Mourning morning?”

    I was also hoping someone would ask for confirmation on a few of the little secrets that I feel particularly clever for figuring out. Maybe I’ll check out what the folks doing the in-depth reading think…

    • HeroineOfCanton
      Posted May 17, 2012 at 9:58 PM | Permalink

      I can’t remember exactly off the top of my head (because I’m on my second cocktail of the evening–having every other Friday off is awesome!) but this was figured out over at the Tor.com reread. If memory serves, it works out to something like a month being 44 days. Or so the whiskey tells me.

      • laurene135
        Posted May 18, 2012 at 2:08 AM | Permalink
        • beelissa
          Posted May 20, 2012 at 9:46 AM | Permalink

          The link about the spans and such says that a month has 4 spans and is 1 span is 10 days, though other comments here seem to differ from that. What I was hoping to see, and didn’t find, was a list of the days in order, as well as some explanation — I remember a mention of a certain night being more busy in the place where Kvothe plays, like it’s a weekend night, so what days are weekends, how does that work if a week has 10 days? Has this been answered anywhere and I just haven’t seen it?

  20. AO_22
    Posted May 18, 2012 at 2:05 AM | Permalink

    “I’m going to assume you’re all solid geeks, and that you’ve already gone to see The Avengers.”

    Well. Some of us have been boycotting the movie actually (not that it’s noticeable financially, but still, it’s the right thing to do [at least for some people]). An excellent article about the reason why (imo) is here:

    http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/02/the_avengers_why_i_m_boycotting_marvel_s_movie.single.html

  21. laurene135
    Posted May 18, 2012 at 2:05 AM | Permalink

    Pat,
    I can’t believe I forgot to submit this question on tor the few weeks ago when submissions we open, so I’ll ask now in hopes of an answer.
    It’s just a simple world building/writing one:
    I really enjoy how you took terms from our world like ‘vintage,’ ‘lackey,’ and ‘ravel’ and wove then neatly into the 4Cs with new meanings.
    What made you think to do this? (Other than it being purely awesome)
    I’m asking more specifically with Vintas and vintage. Do you name Vintas and go “hey cool, I could play with the meaning of vintage” or did you take the word vintage and derive a name for a country from it so you could play with etymology?

  22. Posted May 18, 2012 at 5:58 AM | Permalink

    Wouldn’t everything have a name? If a name consists of every of the subject’s different aspects, understanding “time” and knowing its name would only be a whole different level than, for example, knowing the name of fire. It would be different due to the higher level of complexity, as “time” as it is, is a lot harder to even outline to begin with.
    If people have names you can learn and creatures and elements have names, why not time and life, too? Or age! The name of age could be the key to eternal youth, however, who would understand the complexity of age enough to know its name?
    The whole process of naming things is, to me, highly philosophical. One could spend hours just talking about the name of a pencil. However, talking about it might just be looking, not seeing, so maybe it is a completely wrong approach.
    Following my trail of thoughts; what would the name of names be?

    • ryan7273
      Posted May 21, 2012 at 2:04 PM | Permalink

      So far, only objects have names. Time is a dimension, not an object. If Pat sticks to this then people, animals, items, and elements would all have names, but time, directions, dimensions, age, and concepts would not. Then again, the text may not provide any support for your idea, but I can’t think of a place where it contradicts it, either.

      • Posted May 23, 2012 at 9:11 AM | Permalink

        That does make sense…
        However, what makes something an object and other things not? “Wind” is a good example for that, it’s not an element, technically. The element would be “air”.
        Wind is what happens if you have high and/or low pressure areas and air “moves” from high to low. Wind is measurable and the effect of wind can be visible, as particles are moved.
        However, time is measurable, too. The effect of time can be visible, which it is the progression of all things. So would time not be the same as wind and have a name?

  23. Hecuba
    Posted May 18, 2012 at 6:23 AM | Permalink

    Elodin: ‘Sympathy was invented here, but a sympathist without any naming might as well be a carriage driver’ (WMF, ‘Without Word or Warning’).

    Hm. Guess I’ve read the books too many times… ;)

  24. kyndylan
    Posted May 18, 2012 at 7:23 AM | Permalink

    You will be writing this world for many years to come, will you not? Atlases, ancient histories, recent histories, short stories, more about lesser characters, mythologies, church canon, more Fae stories, more human stories, more on linguistics, etc. I’m seeing a Tolkienesque body of work. Pretty please.

  25. Posted May 18, 2012 at 7:47 AM | Permalink

    I’m going to have to get around to reading book two at some point! There were a lot of things mentioned here that I didn’t recognize from book one :( Hahaha nice to hear what you have to say about them though Pat!

  26. Kiltedbear
    Posted May 18, 2012 at 8:06 AM | Permalink

    I’m looking forward to finding out how he lost the memory of how to cast sympathy…or maybe he lost the will to do that? Hmm…should be interesting to find out.

  27. shalizakhanali
    Posted May 18, 2012 at 8:17 AM | Permalink

    A span is eleven days

  28. Posted May 18, 2012 at 8:22 AM | Permalink

    Saw this question below and thought I would respond here…I am currently working on a metal song about Encanis. Will send you the song once I get everything done.

    A musical sound track would be so awesome. Have any musicians approached you with the idea?

    I wish. I’d love to do a CD of music people made about/for the book. That would be a ton of fun….

    • IvoryDoom
      Posted May 18, 2012 at 11:26 AM | Permalink

      Hey I’ve been working on something a little more softer (acoustic actually) in regards to Lanre, but have been waiting for book three to put everything together, since the character isnt fully fleshed out yet.

      I’d love to send mine in too when complete.

      So yah, Pat…we’re out there…and you’ve inspired us.

  29. MicrobexX
    Posted May 18, 2012 at 9:12 AM | Permalink

    Hmm, I count 3 stipulations.

  30. Posted May 18, 2012 at 11:33 AM | Permalink

    That was wonderfully fulfilling. Even though I don’t need an excuse to wait as long as it takes for you to write book three, had I the need for such an excuse, this would have sufficed. Thanks.

    Also felt the same way about the Hulk catch. Pissed me off.

    Also started reading Fletch. Hilarious and brilliant dialog, just like you said.

  31. cromotocciano
    Posted May 18, 2012 at 4:04 PM | Permalink

    I’ve read both of the parts and loved every word. But I felt like I hadn’t read the books and I have, twice. Could it be because of the translation or do I have to refresh my knowledgfe?

    • laurene135
      Posted May 18, 2012 at 10:01 PM | Permalink

      I think it’s a simple matter of so much happening in each of the books. I just did a reread of both books, and forgot some of the information mentioned above and at tor. I’ve read the books in english on my end, so I know for me it isn’t about translation. As I said, I think a major reason is simply how much information is in the books.

  32. liet
    Posted May 18, 2012 at 4:23 PM | Permalink

    Pat, can Dr. Banner control the Hulk now?

  33. ccceto
    Posted May 19, 2012 at 8:54 AM | Permalink

    Did a mental data-dump about some theories and such… anyone wanna shoot them down or lift them on high as genius?

    Firstly, what ever happened to Skarpi…? He’s obviously more than he seems. Could he even be that guy mentioned in the Stealing of the Moon story?

    Thoughts on proprioception:
    Kvothes Hands = loss of power = the one injury not silver on him prior to the Scrael fight. (Early ref in NOTW) My idea is he’s given a choice between three things: Hands/abilities, Denna, and ____ (still cogitating…). Naturally, he saves Denna above all else, sacrificing his abilities…

    Bastas:
    Bastas is a fairly significant member of the Faen realm.. introduced as Prince of Twilight. (NOTW) Assume that to be a whole
    region unto itself. That said… what if he’s a companion NOW… but wasn’t always? More of a… Jailkeeper? Or at least a deterrent from re-entering Fae? It’s hard to imagine Bast being JUST a student to Kvothe.

    On Denna:
    Denna’s beatings/past may come from a human Amyr (which Felurian says doesn’t exist) trying to call upon Tehlu. Call on Tehlu only in times of greatest need… Tehlu judges every thought and deed.

    On the Waystone:
    Expect Disaster every 7 years… how long has Kvothe been at the Waystone? Could this support the Beautiful Game theory?

    What if Kvothe RESEALED whatever is in the Loecloes box in his own personal chest, after having destroyed the original box in opening it? Same wood, supposedly…

    Potentially the most addled idea of all… In reference to Felurian’s phrase:
    “no. as I said, this was before the fae. the first and greatest of the shapers.” She then refuses to name the shaper: “no calling of names here. I will not speak of that one, though he is shut beyond the doors of stone.” She finishes with: “this shaper of the dark and changing eye stretched out his hand against the pure black sky. he pulled the moon, but he could not make her stay. so now she moves ‘twixt mortal and the fae.

    What if Denna was right, Lanre WAS the hero, and it’s Selitos’s Dark Eye that is shut behind doors of stone? Mayhap even the bloody eye became a thing unto itself…

    • christie
      Posted May 19, 2012 at 9:50 AM | Permalink

      Goodreads has a “Rothfussians” group open to everyone with some interesting theory threads. I’m anti-spoiler so can’t comment here.

    • Gavin
      Posted May 28, 2012 at 1:24 PM | Permalink

      I’m not sure about your theories regarding Lanre being a hero but the 7th or 8th magic is the magic of the (Tal in wald) I forgot how to spell that but I’m pretty sure that the singing tree magic is one of them.

  34. crazysg1fan
    Posted May 20, 2012 at 7:05 PM | Permalink

    I feel another machine gun Q & A coming on? Maybe? Also, this whole situation makes me feel like I need to reread the books immediately. Which is torture, because they’re in storage on the other side of the country. I could either schedule moving my stuff around the release of the third book or buy new copies. What a horrible conundrum…

  35. phayes
    Posted May 20, 2012 at 8:21 PM | Permalink

    “Do not swear, and eat it.”

  36. Little My
    Posted May 21, 2012 at 7:30 PM | Permalink

    Some unfortunate person had a comment about the books and posted at the last blog. I’ve been thinking about the last blog for a bit and am posting today. At the wrong place and time, though still: you have my heartfelt and belated condolences. Here’s a Tove Jansson quote that seems apropos, although apparently Oot is not too young for a conversation:

    “Oh, you mean he’s dead,’ said Grandmother. She started thinking about all the euphemisms for death, all the anxious taboos that had always fascinated her. It was too bad you could never have an intelligent discussion on the subject. People were either too young or too old, or else they didn’t have time.”
    ― Tove Jansson, The Summer Book

  37. w0rdean
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 9:40 AM | Permalink

    Pat,
    I have to say, as I look out at the books I’ve read over the years, yours are some of the most gripping I’ve come across. Keep up the amazing work, and in a fit of synchronicity, the interwebs have delivered this to me
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP9BPhPmHF4&feature=related

  38. Gavin
    Posted May 26, 2012 at 2:35 PM | Permalink

    Idle brainstorming here but when Kvothe was talking to the Cathay (I know I spelled that wrong) it say I wish you creatures had the wit to appreciate me stick with the mayor Alveron he will lead you to the Amir (again I’m butchering the spelling) because he will lead him to the Amir. Cauticus was an Amir who was keeping an eye on Alveron then Kvothe foiled his orders from farther up the Amir chain of command to kill Alveron when he pissed up off the mayor and his new wife he was sent away. That is the Cathays joke. Another thing when the drunk man in the Waystone recognizes Kvothe he says he saw the area at the university .where the stone are shattered where he killed him and Ambrose Jakas was the one who got him expeled so did he kill Ambrose? These are just my thoughts when I came upon this post but there is so much depth to this story you know that you can never catch everything.

  39. knnn
    Posted June 1, 2012 at 1:40 PM | Permalink

    Regarding the shape of the world, take a look at the Great Stone Road — you’ll notice how it has a constant curve. Unless someone can explain why such a main road would be constantly curved, I’d say that the curvature we see comes from projecting a curved (probably spherical) world onto a flat plane.

    – Assuming a sphere, and with North pointing up, I’d say we are in the Northern hemisphere.

    – If someone were to measure the actual curvature of the road and get an estimate of the distance on the map, I’ll bet you mind even be able to obtain a number that would describe some relationship between the size of the 4C world and how far North we are.

  40. metanoia
    Posted June 13, 2012 at 5:55 AM | Permalink

    This makes me so excited for the next installment. Thanks for making such an amazing world. To me, your books read like I’m watching a play or movie. The world just comes alive!!

  41. Ruyh
    Posted June 20, 2012 at 10:09 PM | Permalink

    Hey pat i have some questions to you:
    1.Does Elthe means the one that hears?
    2.Is Dagon an Amyr?
    3.Is this the questions section?

Post a Reply to thistlepong Cancel reply

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • RSS info

  • Visit Worldbuilders!

  • Our Store

  • Previous Posts

  • Archives



  • Bookmark this Blog!

    (IE and Firefox users only - Safari users, click Command-D)