Guest blog post from one of my sisters. Quotes from the book are in italics. Enjoy!
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Adult Harry Potter: That’s how I’d describe Patrick
Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind if I had to in only three words.
2017 marks the book’s tenth anniversary, and I can’t think
of a more fitting novel to review for a blog about CHEM:
• It’s got its
own “Hogwarts” (a less child-friendly one).
• It’s partly
about young Kvothe’s formal “Education” at the University.
• It certainly
has “Magic” (a science-inspired magic).
• It even has
“Chemistry”! (not a major subject in the novel, but Kvothe does learn a bit of
the natural sciences)
Introducing an adult Harry Potter (with minimal spoilers)
My name is Kvothe.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I
burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left
with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a
younger age than most people are allowed in...
That’s how Kvothe might introduce himself.
Actually, that’s how he does introduce himself, on the
book’s back cover blurb. And no, I can’t pronounce his name either.
You might guess from the blurb that Kvothe’s tale is more
“serious” than Harry Potter, at least in tone. The frequent goofiness and
light-heartedness found in HP is mostly absent in Name of the Wind. NOTW is
grittier; Kvothe is less sheltered and protected than Harry. In that sense,
NOTW is more adult than HP. But not adult in the sense of TV ratings – I would
rate NOTW as PG-13.
Kvothe and Harry aren’t far apart in age, but comparing them
is a little unfair – Kvothe might say so, I think.
It’s true they both come from “less fortunate” backgrounds
(I use the term loosely) and go to a school of magic. But the major
similarities end there.
What’s interesting are the differences. I would like to
focus on two differences: between the protagonists, and the magic in their
worlds. Finally, I’ll say why I enjoyed NOTW so much.
Harry vs. Kvothe: Protagonist differences
… I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of
during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the
minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.
Harry begins life as a legend. Along the way we see that he
is an ordinary boy, who succeeds with the help of friends. In contrast,
Kvothe’s tale is about how a nobody becomes somebody. Hardly unusual for a
fantasy novel, but Kvothe is, I’d argue, a more interesting protagonist than
Harry.
Kvothe is more of a smartass than Harry; it comes from being
brilliant and ambitious. Harry, on the other hand, often appears clueless –
though that’s not his fault, and to his credit he’s humble.
But I was more invested in Kvothe’s journey as a student.
Driven by goals that are different from Harry’s, Kvothe pursues knowledge more
fiercely and desperately. He’s also forced to work with fewer resources. For
example, Kvothe is poor and has to make weighty financial decisions … while
Harry has piles of gold sitting on the floor of his high-security bank vault
(which one reader estimated to be worth over USD$240,000).
Because of that and other factors, our two protagonists go
through very different school experiences. To avoid further spoilers, I’ll just
say that Harry’s school life was full of feasts and friendship while Kvothe’s
wasn’t.
A final, minor point: They had differing “extra-curricular”
interests. Kvothe’s was music, while Harry’s was Quidditch. Poet-performer or
sportsman? Take your pick!
I’m not arguing that Kvothe is a superior character or more
likeable than Harry. I do find Harry a worthy hero. But Kvothe is less of a
blank slate. And I like that he’s first a musician, and only second a magician.
Hogwarts Magic vs. Arcanum Sympathy: Magic differences
Abenthy proceeded to give me a brief overview of each of the
sciences. While his main love was for chemistry, he believed in a rounded
education. I learned how to work the sextant, the compass, the slipstick, the
abacus. More important, I learned to do without. Within a span I could identify
any chemical in his cart…
In a nutshell: The difference between magic in Harry’s world
and Kvothe’s world is that the latter’s magic is more science-inspired.
In a mouthful: For Harry, think “Wingardium leviosa!” For
Kvothe, think “The Maxim of Variable Heat Transferred to Constant Motion.”
Harry’s magic is more mysterious and inexplicable. The
effectiveness of a spell seems to depend on natural talent, the condition of
the spellcaster’s wand, and possibly practice. The power of the spell may also
depend on the nature of the magic being used. But that’s roughly all we know.
Now, let me introduce the magic in Kvothe’s world.
There are different types of magic in the Four Corners of
Civilization. Some are more sciencey; those are taught at the University. Other
types are considered legendary, rare, unknown, or old wives’ tales.
I’ll only talk about one type of magic, “sympathy,” which
the novel focuses on and which Kvothe first learns.
In sympathy, you create a “sympathetic link” between two
objects. For example, between a gold coin and a silver coin (lying on a table).
If successful, you can push the gold coin with your finger… and the silver coin
should move by itself too.
But you have to exert enough energy to move both coins
though you’re only touching one coin. Basically, sympathy is a system of energy
manipulation (says Wikia). And you can do more than move coins. You could heat
them, destroy them, etc. etc.
You can create a sympathetic link between almost any two
objects. For example, stone and fruit. Or doll and human. The more similar the
two objects are, the stronger their sympathetic link. This is foundational to
magic in Kvothe’s world. If you try to perform magic between two very
dissimilar, weakly-linked objects, you’ll exert and waste more energy.
Performing sympathy requires extreme concentration. And you
have to believe your two objects are connected.
Here are the 3 laws of sympathy, the 3Cs:
Correspondence: “similarity enhances sympathy”
Consanguinity: “one piece of a thing can represent the
whole”
Conservation: “energy cannot be destroyed or created”
Sound familiar? Sympathy isn’t a new concept invented by
Patrick Rothfuss – you can see it in HP too, in the link between Voldemort and
his Horcruxes.
But Rothfuss obviously put a lot of thought into his
version.
In an interview with WIRED, he said, “It’s hard to get more
scientific [than sympathy]. I literally have the math for a lot of these
things. I have run the numbers about how much heat it takes for this and that,
and accounting for slippage, or whatever. I can look at my chalkboard here and
see all of the delta calculations for how much energy it takes to boil gold. So
I do the math…”
If sympathy doesn’t strike your fancy, don’t worry. There’s
still “traditional” magic in Rothfuss’ novel.
He admitted himself that “sympathy is many things, but it’s
usually not wondrous. You never get true shock and amazement. So I wanted both.
I wanted my cake and to eat it, too. On the other end of the spectrum is magic
the art of which cannot be explained.”
Amazement. That’s why we enjoy tales of magic, such as the
tales of Harry and Kvothe. (But isn’t science amazing too?)
Introducing a literary fantasy
Prologue: A Silence of Three Parts
"[The third silence] was the greatest silence of the three,
wrapping the others inside itself. It was deep and wide as autumn’s ending. It
was heavy as a great river-smooth stone. It was the patient, cut-flower sound
of a man who is waiting to die."
What I enjoyed most about Name of the Wind was its prose.
The prose is often lyrical and poetic, both in the narration and the songs that
characters sing.
I also liked the lore of NOTW, which comes alive in the plot
and doesn’t merely serve as requisite-but-stale background. The mythology found
in songs and oral storytelling – such as tales about demons and Tehlu the
Creator – give Kvothe’s world life and depth. They are delightful, scary,
ironic, epic.
While you’ll recognize familiar ideas like demons and magic,
the novel doesn’t simply rehash these fantasy tropes. It successfully avoids
cliché.
Admittedly, the plot begins in a clichéd setting: a tavern
in Smallville, where insignificant villagers discuss rumors of Bad Stuff
happening in the Wide World Out There. It’s a slow start, and the real story
doesn’t get going until several chapters later.
But if you’re tempted to quit, know that these early
chapters do play a role in world-building – setting up important mythology –
and will arrive in full circle when you finish the novel. If you can get beyond
this slow, unassuming introduction, you won’t be disappointed.
If you’re open to a solid, meaty high-fantasy novel that’s
well-written, you’ll enjoy The Name of the Wind.
***
“What are the three most important rules of the chemist?”
This I knew from Ben.
“Label clearly. Measure twice. Eat elsewhere.”
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