I have finished the book The Slow Regard of Silent Things, and have written my last blog post on the content of the story. The best part of the story, in my opinion, was reading the endnote where Patrick Rothfuss gives an account of all the problems he encountered during the creation of this novella. Before reading the endnote I was disappointed with the book but after reading it I gained much more respect for Rothfuss and the novella itself, which I now rank as ‘It wasn’t a bad read’.
In the endnote, Rothfuss talks about his conversation over dinner, after having too many drinks, with his friend Vi Hart, a mathemusician, whatever that is. This was their first time meeting in person and being fans of each other’s work for awhile. They started talking about Rothfuss’ recently written novella and the truth comes out.
Rothfuss tells her, “It doesn’t do the things a story is supposed to do. A story should have dialogue, action, conflict. A story should have more than one character. I have written a thirty-thousand-word vignette!” After reading this I was like, ‘woah’ because those are all things lacking from the story that I thought were part of the disappointment, the difference between his other superb novels.
Vi says she likes it and Rothfuss says, “I like it too. But that doesn’t matter. You see, people expect certain things from a story. You can leave out one or two if you step carefully, but you can’t ditch all of them. The closest thing I have to an action scene is someone making soap. I spent eight pages of a sixty page story making soap. That’s something a crazy person does.” I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Rothfuss experienced the same emotions I did but it is his book. He later says, “People are going to read this and be pissed.” I literally laughed out loud when I read that because he was right! What the hell is this monotonous, drudgery of Auri’s daily routine, Rothfuss? It was boring for the most part and I was definitely pissed. I was so excited for this book to come out and it was a total let down at first. I knew it wouldn’t be about Kvothe but Auri’s life is terribly ceremonial and not really fun to read about.
Vi then tells Rothfuss that she’s connected with the inanimate objects in the book more than real people in other books. Rothfuss says, “Readers expect certain things. People are going to read this and be disappointed. It doesn’t do what a normal story is supposed to do.”
Then Vi says something that stuck with Rothfuss and myself. She says, “Fuck those people. Those people have stories written for them all the time. What about me? Where’s the story for people like me?” Rothfuss then goes on to talk about how the story about Auri wasn’t supposed to be written the way it was, but after floating around in his head for so long, that’s the way it came out. He was also overdue on his deadlines and knew his published would accept the novella. Rothfuss said he learned a lot about Auri himself and has grown fond of her.
This endnote means more to me than most of the story because I know what it feels like to have something floating around and wanting to just put words to it. I can totally respect that. He wrote it for himself. Rothfuss regained my trust with this endnote and I learned from his dilemmas. I think it is amazing that he was able to realize everything traditionally wrong with his novella and still say fuck it.
In the endnote, Rothfuss talks about his conversation over dinner, after having too many drinks, with his friend Vi Hart, a mathemusician, whatever that is. This was their first time meeting in person and being fans of each other’s work for awhile. They started talking about Rothfuss’ recently written novella and the truth comes out.
Rothfuss tells her, “It doesn’t do the things a story is supposed to do. A story should have dialogue, action, conflict. A story should have more than one character. I have written a thirty-thousand-word vignette!” After reading this I was like, ‘woah’ because those are all things lacking from the story that I thought were part of the disappointment, the difference between his other superb novels.
Vi says she likes it and Rothfuss says, “I like it too. But that doesn’t matter. You see, people expect certain things from a story. You can leave out one or two if you step carefully, but you can’t ditch all of them. The closest thing I have to an action scene is someone making soap. I spent eight pages of a sixty page story making soap. That’s something a crazy person does.” I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Rothfuss experienced the same emotions I did but it is his book. He later says, “People are going to read this and be pissed.” I literally laughed out loud when I read that because he was right! What the hell is this monotonous, drudgery of Auri’s daily routine, Rothfuss? It was boring for the most part and I was definitely pissed. I was so excited for this book to come out and it was a total let down at first. I knew it wouldn’t be about Kvothe but Auri’s life is terribly ceremonial and not really fun to read about.
Vi then tells Rothfuss that she’s connected with the inanimate objects in the book more than real people in other books. Rothfuss says, “Readers expect certain things. People are going to read this and be disappointed. It doesn’t do what a normal story is supposed to do.”
Then Vi says something that stuck with Rothfuss and myself. She says, “Fuck those people. Those people have stories written for them all the time. What about me? Where’s the story for people like me?” Rothfuss then goes on to talk about how the story about Auri wasn’t supposed to be written the way it was, but after floating around in his head for so long, that’s the way it came out. He was also overdue on his deadlines and knew his published would accept the novella. Rothfuss said he learned a lot about Auri himself and has grown fond of her.
This endnote means more to me than most of the story because I know what it feels like to have something floating around and wanting to just put words to it. I can totally respect that. He wrote it for himself. Rothfuss regained my trust with this endnote and I learned from his dilemmas. I think it is amazing that he was able to realize everything traditionally wrong with his novella and still say fuck it.