Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Kvothe - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Thieves, Heretics, and Whores

While Rothfuss starts writing in the first person in the previous chapter, he continues full-bore in this one. Many have said how hard it is to write from this perspective and how nobody can get away with writing anything worthwhile with this method. Rothfuss proves them wrong in this chapter as he flings “I,” “our,” and “my” as if Kvothe is talking to you. And that’s the greatest thing Rothfuss does; he invites the reader into the Waystone Inn with Kvothe’s story as if you belong there, inside the story. It goes from writing to artwork.

As to the story being told, we learn Kvothe is of the Edema Ruh. The Edema Ruh are akin to gypsies that travel around in their fancy wagons and entertain people. Kvothe’s father runs the troupe and we learn where Kvothe learned to use words as weapons, though subtle ones. Much like today’s gypsies, the Ruh are not well-liked and are seen as, well, the chapter’s title gives you an idea. This particular troupe is under the sponsorship, protection, and direction (of a sort) by a Baron Greyfallow.

Besides Kvothe’s father, we also meet Trip (a fellow Ruh and a juggler with a dry wit) and Abenthy (an arcanist who becomes a bigger character later). Arcanists in this world are like magicians; loved by some, hated by others, and tolerated by most. We see a tidbit of Abenthy’s power as he actually calls upon the power of the wind by speaking its “true” name; something we’ll learn more about later.

--Read more about the detailed analysis here--

3 comments:

Sarah said...

Ooh, I am not gonna read this because I really want this book. I hope it lives up to the good things i hear.

Neil Richard said...

Yeah, I thought about starting a seperate blog just for this or posting them elsewhere on my site, but I decided "what the heck" and put them in with my regular posts.

Sorry if I spoiled anything.

Anonymous said...

OH MY GOD!!! I love the title of this post, this is my cup of tea!! Unfortunately I will not partake in reading this since I have this book in my wish list and will pick it up soon. But, that is a title worthy of the Nobel prize.. or whatever equivelant. I think I will keep that in my memory for a rainy day.

Thanks!

~Epheros Aldor - Apostle of Cale