#Kingkiller chronicles sexism

[hydrogenandhelium]

Oh reading update I should have given you guys a couple of days ago!!!

Wow this ended up being longer than I expected. Preview of what I talk about below the cut so I don’t take over everyone’s homepage if you’re only here for cosmemes: Priory of the Orange Tree (Samantha Shannon), The Slow Regard of Silent Things (Patrick Rothfuss), Kings of the Wyld (Nicholas Eames), The Broken Eye (Brent Weeks)

I finished priory of the orange tree. I loved it, but I felt like the last 300 pages or so dragged until I got to the ending. It could just be me though, the changes at work really cut into my reading time so I spent more days reading that book than I’d planned. Definitely recommend, it’s got dragons and politics and court intrigue and queer rep and spies and secret sects and all sorts of things.

Then I read the slow regard of silent things in one night. It was cute and weird and a lot of fun. I wouldn’t consider it essential reading for kingkiller chronicles, but it IS Auri’s pov and she’s definitely my favorite character so I could t skip it. Another highly recommended, and it’s spoiler free so if you just want to read a week in the life of a quirky girl with maybe OCD and definitely anxiety living in the tunnels under a city, I’d recommend it. The tunnels are cool, not icky, there’s an abandoned ballroom down there!

Now I’m reading Kings of the Wyld. I’ve seen it described as the A-team reunited and someone’s wild dnd campaign. I’m only on page 70 but I’m already comfortable saying those people are wrong. This is a 70s rock band trying to hold a reunion tour in 2010 when emo reigns. I’m really enjoying the campy humor especially after priory of the orange tree, which was so so so serious.

I’m also about halfway through book 3 of lightbringer (the broken eye) too on my audiobook. I’m liking that series a lot. Brent Weeks isn’t great with characterizing women and I’ll never argue with that but I think people overstate how bad he is. The women of Night Angel seriously needed some personality but the women in lightbringer actually have agency and a lot of depth. They’re not perfect and Karris is more motivated by men than she probably should be, but she still makes decisions for herself. And Teia might be my favorite female character he’s written. So it’s not all bad, just depends on how sensitive your meter is for unintentional sexism. For me, I tend to be more forgiving of older books than newer books, especially when you can see the author is making an effort to improve.

I think that’s all I’ve got. Based on how fast I’m going through kings of the wyld in the rare opportunity I do get to crack it open, I’ll go through it pretty fast, so I’m already starting to think about what I’ll be reading next. I’ve got a few things standing out on my bookshelf to me right now but we’ll see how I feel when it’s time for the next one. Mood reader problems I guess 😂

#priory of the orange tree #samantha shannon #the slow regard of silent things #kingkiller chronicle #patrick rothfuss #kings of the wyld #nicholas eames #the broken eye #lightbringer chronicles #brent weeks #currently reading #reading #fantasy books #fantasy reader #reading update

[glittercracker]

Kingkiller Crap

So, I’ve never really posted much here that involves my own thoughts. There are a number of reasons why, but whatever. I feel the need NOW to post some thoughts, and having no working independent blog (yet!) I suppose this is the place to dump them. PSA: none of this is about anime. None of this is frivolous or fun. TW for sexual abuse. You have been warned! So. I’ve been rereading the Kingkiller Chronicles. aka “Name of the Wind” and “The Wise Man’s Fear” and “That Other One That Shall Not Be Named.” This reread was, at the beginning, almost an afterthought. A way to keep my 13 yo happy on a 7 hour car ride. Except, he could not have cared less, and I got sucked back into the story (and okay, if that is how all our audiobook car rides go, meh? At least it keeps me sharp!) I raced through book one, and bought book 2 on audible with an eye to my upcoming surgery and recooperation. Book one was problematic in the places I remembered, but also as generally engaging as I remembered. And then book 2 happened, and surgery happened, and I have had weeks to lie in bed listening to this bloody interminable sequel, and I find myself lost in a morass of, “WTF was I ever THINKING?” Namely, how did I ever love this book enough to pine for the next? It’s been hard to put a finger on exactly what is making this time through book 2 both a slog and also vaguely, creepily uncomfortable, but if you’re interested, my rather stream-of-consciousness ramble of thoughts ensues. First, the male gaze that rears its head at times in book 1 predominates here. But while I don’t love the way Kvothe describes women, I also have 2 degrees in literature, and I’m beyond that being a reason not to read an otherwise engaging book. Second, Kvothe is a Gary Stu, for all of Rothfuss’s protestations to the contrary. Again, so far, so much traditional high fantasy. But while, say, Aragorn is content to just quietly be Awesome At Everything, Kvothe is a braggy little shit of a Gary Stu: the person you hated for announcing their perfect scores in that hs class you could never quite master. I could fill several pages with examples, but for some reason what really made me want to kick him in the head was not Felurian’s disbelief of his virginity (though really, jfc, REALLY?) Nope, it was the end of his time w the Ademrae (sp may be off, remember, I’m listening not reading!) when he crows about having learned the history of his sword 2 days earlier than expected. Why does this stick out? Oh, idk. Maybe bc he sucks so hard he can’t even get past the first obstacle in his practical final exam? Yet he still has to tell us how fucking awesome he is for remembering 6000 names of previous owners.

I know, I’m supposed to forgive his teenage idiocy. The internet sympathists (no pun intended!) keep telling me this. And I suppose that I would, IF this were a simple first-person narrative - but it isn’t. Let’s repeat that, and really think about it. This story is being narrated by an older and presumably wiser Kvothe who has lost everything - whose abilities have been expunged to the extent that he can’t open his own chest of Cool Stuff. He shows humility in his actions, mostly. And yet when discussing his 16 yo self, the humility evaporates, and he speaks with no kind of perspective or lens of accrued wisdom. He still compares women to instruments waiting for the “right” player (i.e. him) and defends this choice of words by saying, essentially, “You aren’t a musician, you don’t know!”

Interesting assumption for an innkeeper in a medieval-esque world. Interesting assumption if this is in fact authorial interjection, too, because I suspect the majority of this book’s audience *are* musicians to at least an extent, and I also suspect that the majority of us (yes, us - I own several beloved instruments, including a harp custom made for me as a wedding present from my husband) would not equate a human lover to even the most beloved of instruments.

But all of this is well-trodden critical ground. As far as I can tell, though, my third issue isn’t: although it’s perhaps the most glaringly tone-deaf example of all of Rothfuss’s excruciatingly tone-deaf portrayal of his world’s women. Namely, the two girls kidnapped and gang-raped by the fake Ruh.

Almost all of the criticism I’ve read on this section of TWMF concentrates on Kvothe’s treatment of the girls’ abusers. What’s interesting is that no one ever seems to write about Kvothe’s treatment of the girls themselves. Yes, he treats them kindly. He tends their wounds, he feeds them, he tries (and succeeds, of course) to draw Ellie out of her shocked stupor. 

Yet what he never once does, from the moment he takes control of the situation, is ask their opinions on any of this, including what their next step should be. He just decides to bring them back to their families - families who, in this type of society, might well disown them for being “ruined”. And the girls themselves, namely the intelligent and savvy Krin, seem to go blindly along with what he says. Why? Would Krin at least not question this, or object to his making decisions for her, when a group of men had so recently and brutally taken away all of her agency? Would she not question whether being brought back to her family is the best thing for the catatonic Ellie?

Okay, apparently not. So they return to their apparently very forgiving town. Kvothe stands up for the girls against the village shithead: thank you, Kvothe, bc I’m sure Krin could not have said those words herself. He assures the reader that they are with people who will love and care for them despite what has happened to them: thank you, Kvothe, though it’s stretching my credulity a bit that you would assume that no one will take issue with their deflowering. But then he “gifts” the girls the spoils of his slaughter: the horses, the valuables, the wagons. And I was about to give him a (grudging) pass for being decent about this, EXCEPT: he goes on to say that these goods are meant for the girls’ dowries. Specifically, to make them worth enough financially for potential husbands to overlook their loss of virginity. He even tells Krin not to settle for a less-than-lucrative marriage.

And suddenly, I was outraged. Why? Because a man who had witnessed the full extend of these women’s abuse brought them back to a backwater town believing that he was being magnanimous both in doing so, and in giving up whatever share he might have taken of the spoils of the debacle to make them financially lucrative marriage prospects. Because he never asked these traumatized girls if they might rather cut and run with the money than use it to make some man overlook their abuse in order to make them his property. He never even questions the idea that they will be grateful to submit to marriage contracts that will no doubt require them to have sex with their husbands, even though these women have been abused to the extent that they cannot sit a horse for *two days* after being rescued. And the worst part is that 20-something frame-story Kvothe doesn’t question this either; he just goes on to gloat about people singing songs about his daring rescue. Maybe I was just ready for a straw to break my benefit of the doubt. Or maybe this really is as outrageous as it feels. Either way, I can’t help being angry at Rothfuss. As a writer, I am very well aware that character and author are not the same thing; that authorial intent is not the same as authorial beliefs. But there are moments in some books when I have to wonder if that line is blurring, and this is one of them. Kvothe has literally JUST left a female-dominated country full of independent women happily doing their own thing. He has given these girls the means to find themselves a situation that will never require them to be beholden to a man again - even houses ffs, in the shape of those 2 wagons, should they want them. There are so many options beyond marriage: I can’t, for instance, think of a medieval society that didn’t have its version of a convent. Or, for Krin at least, why not the University? For that matter, why not marry her himself, and then set her free to do as she likes under the awning of a respectable marriage? 

Instead he returns them to their fathers, and likewise gives their fathers the means to marry them off with no argument. Who, after all, holds the reins of the horses at the end? Why does Kvothe assume that these families will actually use the wealth even in the dubious way that he recommends?

And in this, I think, I am justified in giving Rothfuss the stink-eye. This is one more instance for Kvothe to play the hero with no real attention given to the consequences. Kvothe himself, I think, would be appalled. He has suffered so much deprivation in his life, so often been marginalized, scapegoated, powerless, how on earth could he so easily consign others to that fate? How could he think, loving Denna as he does, having heard her words to the beaten girl in Severin, that buying these girls husbands who will “overlook” their abuse for the sake of wealth is anything but a wretched life sentence for them?

Sigh. There was a time when I desperate awaited book three. Now, given the other women’s lives at stake in this series, I’m not so sure I want to know.

#kingkiller chronicle #kvothe #patrick rothfuss #wise man's fear #Kingkiller chronicles sexism #kvothe gary stu #kkc sexism

[sunlit-music]

Some disturbing online posts on reddit and goodreads about the Kingkiller Chronicles books: Denna won’t sleep with Kvothe or officially date him. And that is why we’re glad Denna was abused by Cinder and has a miserable life. Man, we’re so nice, like Kvothe, and women keep rejecting us.

My response: Kvothe wanted what was best for Denna and apologised for when he was saying mean things to her. He wants her to have a happy life and he never resents her for not dating him.

Those people gloating over Denna’s misery and anyone who enjoys Denna being abused are not like Kvothe.

Denna only doesn’t date Kvothe because she fears he’ll leave her and she’ll be heartbroken. She’s worried Kvothe only wants to sleep with her then break up with her. I don’t see many people criticising Kvothe as much as Denna for sleeping around.

Also, Denna is running away from abusive jerks like Ambrose who paid her to be their girlfriend and then stole her ring, so why are people getting offended by her tricking and not sleeping with awful people? I’d be a lot more worried if she tricked good people.

There’s many good people on reddit and good reads. But there’s also a lot of sexism on the reddit posts and good reads comments about Denna in general.

#denna #kvothe #goodreads #kkc #reddit #sexism tw #the wise man’s fear #kingkiller chronicles #the name of the wind #name of the wind #el nombre del viento #il nom du vent

[squirreltidings]

Then I realized that our culture views women as prizes and property and when they don't make themselves available in the way we want, we hate them for it.

Patrick Rothfuss on Denna, Seattle, October 3, 2017

#Denna #kingkiller chronicle #the name of the wind #kkc #notw #feminism #sexism #women #rothfuss #patrick rothfuss

[teamkrissy]

A coworker lent me 3 books in the kingkiller chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss.

The first book was fine, but long. The series isnt finished yet, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon. It was an interesting journey until the main character gets to go to school. And then he stays in school. Sometimes he thinks he might get kicked out of school, or that he wont be able to afford school, but no, for thousands of pages you better believe that he will be in school. Next page guess what? The story hasnt changed and he is still in school. If you wanted to write Hogwarts: The College Years, call it that instead of KingKiller Chronicle. What king? I've read almost 3 books and you haven't even mentioned a king.

The second book is incredibly boring. Its supposed to be a companion piece about a tertiary character who is genuinely interesting. I would like to know how she came to be the person she is, but instead we follow her around while she practices interior design. Who is she? I still don't know, but she has a very clean living space.

By the third book I had completely lost patience. I could barely maintain interest for more than a couple pages. There were moments of suspense, but always punctuated by a growing sexism throughout the story. I noticed it in the first book, but I shook it off as a rocky start, hoping there would be more fleshed out female characters to come. I threw in the towel a quarter of the way through this book during a moment that made me literally feel ill. A handful of main and secondary characters are plotting in the woods to protect the protagonist from the villain of the story so far. Their scheme includes sending the 'second most beautiful woman in the city' on a date with the antagonist. 1 paragraph after a character mentions that this man beats the women he dates, she is giving the girl tips on how to keep him interested without drawing too much out of him. She is complimenting her breasts, advising her to let him get her drunk. And all the characters are treating it like this is no big deal. The protagonist is thankful for the favor, but I don't think he or the author really understand what they are asking of her. This is after pages and pages and pages of practically every one in the series objectifying her (like a teacher mock groping her in front of class) and she just bashfully smiles through it all and looks at her feet. Like what the fuck. Also I think the author forgot the ages of all these characters, either that or he is cool with talking about 14 year old girls as sexual objects as much as he does.

1/10 only because the lore in the first book was interesting

#patrick rothfuss #the kingkiller chronicle #it really takes a lot to make me quit a book #especially if recommended to me by a friend #what the fuck dude seriously

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Do you have any advice for writing a setting that would basically be a look into Earth 20-30 years after Animorphs happened? I like your exploration of post-canon so I'm curious about your thoughts about what further in the future might look like.

Biggest piece of advice: research galactic suburbia, and then figure out how to avoid it.

Galactic suburbia refers to any work of fiction set in a time and/or place that has no logical reason to reflect the social divisions of the author’s own time and place, and yet does.  It’s more obvious in works from earlier eras, such as how 2001: A Space Odyssey is filled with people acting out mid-1960s white American gender roles... in space!  But it’s definitely still present today; everything from Mistborn to Kingkiller Chronicles to The Expanse to Six of Crows will either pretend that sexism doesn’t exist in that universe or that sexism was solved years ago, while still portraying female characters as concerned with ornamenting themselves and male characters concerned with being in charge in order to ascribe to gender norms.  Obviously, this can be applied across identities — don’t get me started the way some sci fi works decide to address ableism through removing all disabled people from existence, because if that’s not American eugenics then I don’t know what is.

Some books that do an excellent job of breaking out of this trap: 

City of Thieves takes place in a culture that definitely has sexism, but cut along different lines than contemporary American culture — women are the source of all bloodlines, men are considered more expendable, and family units are comprised of adult siblings working together to raise children whose fathers are usually unknown.

Ancillary Justice is narrated by a character who comes from a culture with no conceptualization of gender, who frequently makes gaffes while navigating a culture with gender norms.

The Left Hand of Darkness takes a society where all people change sex as they age, and plays out that thought experiment into every aspect of the culture.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is about a crew from a variety of cultures working together, including one character who comes from a culture with no nudity taboos where group sex is an everyday pastime and a different character who comes from a rigidly conservative Earth society, both of whom have to learn to respect each other’s differences.

Please note: I’m just rolling with the sexism example because it’s what came to mind, but it’s not hard to extend this to Inexplicably Homophobic Fantasy Cultures, Kingdom of White = Might = Right, etcetera.  All of those examples also have excellent subversion of or commentary upon racism, heteronormativity, classism, ableism, or all of the above.

ANYWAY, Animorphs.

A few ways I could see the technologies and cultural shifts of Animorphs having a long-term impact:

At least some people, at least some of the time, can change their bodies into completely different bodies.

Plus: probably greater ability for trans or disabled people to transform themselves for their own comfort and quality of life, with interesting implications for gender confirmation.

Minus: probably greater pressure upon disabled and trans people to “just change your body!” while ignoring all of the reasons they might be perfectly happy how they are and/or not in a position legally or financially to take on a whole new appearance.

Turns out, mind control is a thing.  And it’s perpetrated by alien slugs.

Plus: probably interesting neuroscience research implications, if all participants involved give their fully informed consent first.

Minus: everything I explored in Eleutherophobia.  Outsized fear of morph-capable hosts.  Inappropriate jokes about “I didn’t scratch your car; aliens made me do it.”  Suggestions that some people (i.e. no one I know) should just let yeerks control them because they can’t run their own lives.  Legal messes around intentionality.

Humans are not alone in the universe, and a lot of our neighbors are sentient.

Plus: cross-seeding of ideas, probably to the benefit of all cultures’ science and technology and arts.  Redefining of rights and protections, ideally to include hork-bajir and taxxons.  Broken view of humans as the center of the universe, or even the most important species on the planet.

Minus: whole new batch of prejudices.  Probably some people straight-up wanna annihilate the hork-bajir and taxxons, and feel comfortable saying so in public.

Andalites and humans canonically swapped z-space technology for Krispy Kreme recipes.

Plus: lots of new opportunities for humans to learn from andalites with regard to interstellar travel, peaceful breakup of urban centers, and how to run a society filled with lots of morphers.

Minus: you know that one American friend we all have who is, like, uncomfortably obsessed with British culture?  To the point of writing “colour” and saying “petrol”?  You know how that one person treats British culture as automatically being more valid and sophisticated than other cultures, and doesn’t take constructive criticism about that view being just an eensy bit imperialist as fuck?  Yeeeeaaaah, now just imagine it’s a human doing that with andalites.

That’s not meant to be an exhaustive list, just a bunch of spitballing to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.  Rather than asking how cars and cell phones would change in light of z-space technology, instead consider asking how flying and intergalactic phones would change us as a society.

#animorphs #galactic suburbia #animorphs meta #sci fi #sf #writing #sexism #imperialism #BY THE WAY #what I said about Britain also goes for Japan #and for France #and for the Netherlands #at least here in the U.S. #undoubtedly the impact of imperialism is different in other cultures #but when we worship upward #those are the ways it tends to go #anonymous #asks

[fandomshatewomen]

Hi, there! It's obviously perfectly okay to enjoy Kingkiller Chronicles but I didn't get the feeling that the author was against sexism in his books and the fanbase is misogynistic as a result of it rather than in spite of it. Also there's this (kind old) article about the author too. jezebel (.) com/bestselling-fantasy-author-writes-icky-sexist-blog-post-5942221

Thank you for the note! And the article link! Because that is indeed some very yikes behavior on part of the author. Definitely not “the opposite of misogynistic.”

article linked in case anyone wants to read it: https://jezebel.com/bestselling-fantasy-author 

• mod y

#kingkiller chronicles

[breadedsinner]

fuckyeahdiomedes replied to your post “[Fantasy race of] Men don’t give money away, it seems womanish,” Ugh...”

ew, what book?

The Name of the Wind, Kingkiller Chronicles.

Listen I’m not going to turn my nose up, I can deal with a little fantasy sexism here and there...although it’s more a matter of lowered standards than not caring...

But I’m not super enthralled.

I’m trying to hang on because the author was on MBMBaM and said some nice things about writing and inspiration but...that might not be enough to carry me through.

#fuckyeahdiomedes #Breaded Replies

[sunlit-music]

Honestly I will never understand why some authors who treat women well and write great women characters have fans on reddit who are ridiculously sexist. While there’s people on reddit who aren’t sexist, there’s a lot of sexist posts on reddit.

Those readers complain they hate brave, smart and likeable female characters and characters who won’t have sex with the male protagonist, but they continue reading those books anyway.

Fine. I’ll stop vagueing. This is about the sexist fans who complain about Patrick Rothfuss writing well written female characters and resent Denna for not sleeping with Kvothe.

Disclaimer: I’m a Denna fan.

While there are fans who dislike Denna for valid reasons, disliking Denna because she hasn’t had sex with Kvothe is a stupid reason to dislike her.

#denna #kkc #the kingkiller chronicles #the name of the wind #the wise man’s fear #doors of stone #books #fantasy #sexism tw

[sunlit-music]

Why I like the Kingkiller Chronicles.

Look, I’d like other tumblr blogs to stop implying that KKC fans are sexist with bad taste for reading KKC. They’re entitled to their opinion, but I have to disagree with them. Let’s look at their arguments:

Question: Why don’t you and other KKC fans read female and people of color authors? Why is KKC everywhere on tumblr?

My answer: There are tumblr blogs that love kkc, female and poc authors. One well known tumblr blog that loves KKC, poc and women authors is bookcub. I think bookcub makes some of the defenses I’m about to mention - apologies if I’m repeating what she or other tumblr bloggers have already said.

The KKC fandom bloggers on tumblr already read diverse authors from what I can see. To be fair, I’m fairly new to tumblr, so I don’t know everyone in the KKC fandom on tumblr.

Also, the KKC fandom is really small on tumblr, so I’m not sure why you think KKC is everywhere on tumblr blogs?

I do read female and people of color authors. I’ve posted a lot about Sarah Rees Brennan’s books, The Lynburn Legacy and the Demon’s Lexicon trilogy, and J K Rowling’s Harry Potter books.

Apologies if I make crappy spelling mistakes, my spellcheck is atrocious.

I’ve read women and poc authors, such as: Any mystery novel by Agatha Christie, especially the Hercule Poirot books and the Miss Marple series.

Lgbt authors and poets I like - I have so many, but my favourite ones are Scott Ryan Tracey (author), Malinda Lo (author), any poetry by Sappho (Ancient Greek poetess), and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. I also don’t like Lord Byron’s sexism towards women writers, but I like his writing.

Other female and or poc authors I like: Anything by Emily Rodda - especially Deltora Quest, Rowan of Rin series and the Teen Power Inc books.

Ten things I hate about me. By Randa Abdel-Fattah, who is Palestinian Muslim.

Tahereh Mafi. Iranian American author. Shatter Me series.

Cecilia Dart-Thornton. The Bitterbynde Trilogy.

Diana Wynne Jones, The Christopher Chant books.

N K Jemisin’s 100 thousand kingdoms trilogy books. I’ve already read and loved this trilogy prior to 2014. The last book in the series was published in 2011.

Cassandra Clare. Shadow hunter series - City of Glass. The Dark Artifices. Magnus Bane books.

Holly Black - Spiderwick Chronicles.

Malinda Lo - Ash, Adaptation, Inheritance, Tremontaine.

Robin McKinley - Beauty.

Ursula K LeGuin - Wizard of Earthsea, The ones who walk away from Omelas.

Ellen Kushner - Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword.

JK Rowling - Harry Potter books.

Stranger (The Change series) - science fiction and fantasy young adult apocalyptic fiction, by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith.

Crown Duel - fantasy, by Sherwood Smith.

Song of the Lioness, The Immortals, anything else by Tamora Pierce.

Question: You shouldn’t read Patrick Rothfuss because there’s better women writers and poc writers than him.

My answer: Actually, I can read what I want. My spare time, my hobbies, my decision. I agree it’s important to read women and poc authors too. ❤️ But that shouldn’t prevent me from reading KKC.

Question: Can’t you stop blogging about KKC? I don’t like KKC.

My answer: No, sorry. You’re entitled to your opinion, and I’m entitled to mine. If you don’t like my KKC posts, you can either scroll past them or stop reading my tumblr blog.

Question: aren’t you bothered that Patrick Rothfuss writes sexist parts in his books?

My answer: Yes. I like The Name of the Wind, but I was bothered by the lack of women in the first few chapters, and the constant tactless jokes made by Kvothe and his friend Sovoy about sex workers.

And Wise Man’s Fear is way less sexist than The Name of the Wind. Patrick Rothfuss takes on constructive criticism really well, hence why he has way more female characters who appear more often and have much more skills and knowledge than Kvothe.

Sexism in fantasy books is not solely a Rothfuss problem. Sexism appears in a lot of books by men, women and gender queer people, and I agree we should work hard to not write books with sexist messages, and include more equal number of well written female characters. 💕

Kvothe even gets female martial arts teachers from the Adem mercenaries. There are plenty of brave, smart, kind and interesting female characters, like Auri, Devi, Denna, Fela, Mola, and Kvothe’s mum Laurian.

Laurian was brave enough to leave a loveless arranged marriage and unsupportive family to marry Kvothe’s dad Arliden. And the antagonist Cinder said Laurian was tougher than Arliden.

Plus you get a book from Auri’s point of view, The Slow Regard of Silent Things.

I come across other authors who are really bad at taking constructive criticism from readers and even have the nerve to bully and sue readers who disagree politely. Authors who sue people for writing fanfiction. At least Patrick Rothfuss never does that.

I’ve read across plenty of books that are incredibly racist and frustrating. I’ve also been disappointed by books with negative and cruel portrayals of musicians. Say what you want about Rothfuss, he’s strongly anti racist and he respects musicians.

I’m a poc of South East Asian descent and I have relatives who play in a band and other relatives who play music in their spare time. I play piano as a hobby. I don’t have to worry about seeing racist rubbish or insults to musicians when I read any book by Rothfuss.

#kkc #sexism #music #kingkiller #kingkiller chronicles #the name of the wind #the wise man’s fear #wise man’s fear #name of the wind #kvothe #denna #devi #auri #mola #fela #hespe #shehyn #adem #adem merceneries #ademre #meluan lackless #savirn #aloine #laurian #arliden #poc #racism #women #authors #books

[sunlit-music]

Me, after reading online comments that say they dislike Denna from the Kingkiller Chronicles books because she’s unhappy in her job (as a homeless courtesan and con artist) and unhappy with her patron (her patron physically assaults her with his cane for fun until she blacks out):

Denna doesn’t have to like her job or patron. She has a dangerous job, she’s been stalked by past customers and she has an abusive patron, why should she be happy about that?

I have a supportive workplace, I like my job, I don’t have an abusive patron and I know that people aren’t morally obligated to be happy if they have abusive customers or abusive workplaces.

#denna #kkc #tw: abuse #the kingkiller chronicles #the name of the wind #the wise man’s fear #doors of stone #tw: sexism #online #comments #female characters #trauma #happiness #danger #work #patron #tw: abusive patron #tw: stalking #tw: domestic violence #poor people #homeless characters #trigger warnings

[sunlit-music]

About Denna from the Kingkiller Chronicles books. I am getting sick of the sexism against Denna online. Saying she must be dumb or not that smart because she never went to university is a stupid reason for assuming Denna is stupid.

#denna #denna defense squad #kkc #stop sexism #elitism #stop elitism #education #university #school #female characters #favourite characters #online #learning #music #the name of the wind #the wise man's fear #doors of stone #the kingkiller chronicles

[sunlit-music]

I would really like to see a scene in a fantasy book where the guy who gets angry at the girl for singing the wrong information about history finds out the girl was right all along (or mostly right).

Fine. I’m talking about Denna from the Kingkiller Chronicles. I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve read other books where a man tells off a female singer for getting historical facts wrong (which is okay if their accusation is fair. But why is the accuser always male? And why is the person who always gets the historical facts wrong in their songs always female?). The difference being that Patrick Rothfuss is much less sexist than other authors who write this trope. Thank god.

#denna #kkc #fact checking #the cursed song #song of the seven sorrows #history #bias #books #fantasy #sexism #the name of the wind #the wise man's fear #the kingkiller chronicles #thank god patrick rothfuss is much less sexist than other authors

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Defence of Denna from KKC.

You don’t have to like Denna from the Kingkiller Chronicles books, but I don’t get how people hate her more than male characters that are much more violent and nastier than she is. Edited to add: I’ve made a defence post for Denna before, and there are other tumblr blogs including bookcub and incorrectkingkillerquotes who have defended Denna too. I apologise if I’ve repeated points that have already been made about defending Denna.💕

Denna has only fought in self defence or to protect the poor girl in the alley from getting raped. Unlike the Chandrian, who kill people who have never harmed them. Ambrose starts fights with people like Kvothe who he thinks can’t fight back because of their poverty or race.

Denna usually cons rich guys that are nasty and cruel. I didn’t like her con of Sovoy, but maybe she didn’t know he’s an okay guy?

I know that conning cruel people isn’t moral, but she’s starving, homeless and there are few job opportunities for poor women where she lives.

She’s only fourteen in The Name of the Wind, and she’s about sixteen in The Wise Man’s Fear. Give her a break.

Denna was protective of her nice but slow male friend who was duped into giving away his money to another con artist.

I see more posts on reddit hating Denna than hating Ambrose (who bullies Kvothe and other students, forcibly gropes and beats up innocent women), the evil tree spirit Cthaeh, and the Chandrian (who murdered and tortured innocent people for speaking the Chandrian’s true names). Which makes no sense at all. To be fair, there are some reddit posts where people are neutral about Denna or love her.

Thank you for listening and have a good evening. ❤️

#denna #denna defence squad #denna defense squad #kkc #kingkiller #chronicles #patrick rothfuss #fantasy #teens #characters #defence of denna #in defence of denna #books #musicians #girls #ladies #sexism #double standards #sovoy #ambrose #cthaeh #chandrian #the name of the wind #the wise man’s fear #doors of stone #day three

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Thoughts on Denna

*reads Kingkiller Chronicles wiki on Denna* Thank goodness they've changed the wiki so that it no longer says Kvothe has a fatal attraction to her.

*sees the bit that says Denna is bitter* Denna is not bitter. And even if she was, she has every right to be after her traumatic life.

*sees the bit that claims she was unskilled, and that the girl she helped in Horses was unskilled*

*sighs* OK. Look. There is no such thing as unskilled work. OK? Also, Denna is gifted in music, maths and science, given how easily she can keep up with Kvothe, Sim and Wil in a conversation about physics and magic.

Also, the girl in Horses was willing to do an apprenticeship. That takes serious skill! Girls wouldn't have been allowed to do that stuff in Kvothe's world - not from lack of skill, but because of sexism.

#kingkiller chronicle #kingkiller chronicles #kvothe #denna #name of the wind #wise man's fear #books #fantasy