Weekly Question - Irrationality

This week’s question is all about irrationality. We’re asking you to look within yourself for those irrational literary loves, hates and habits. Is there something strange and irrational about the way you read and/or write? Do you love something you know is crap, or hate something you know is of quality?

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Me personally, I can’t stand anything written in first person. There is just no personality that I don’t find unbelievably annoying when presented through a first-person perspective. To me, confidence reads like cockiness and misery reads like sooking when it’s the characters themselves explaining how they feel.

“The Name of The Wind” is a book that I particularly dislike for this reason. It was the first hardcover I’d ever bought without having read it beforehand. I flicked through the first couple chapters while in the bookstore and grew more and more intrigued. It wasn’t until I got the book home that I found it swaps to first person at the beginning of chapter eight for reasons beyond me. I continued reading for a little bit but very soon came to a quote from the main character that was so dripping in braggadocio that after barfing in my mouth I stopped reading and left the book to collect dust in my cupboard; stashed away in the hope that I one day get over this irrational hatred and can enjoy a story that despite my whining, did actually sound fascinating.

“I have been called Kvothe the Bloodless, Kvothe the Arcane, and Kvothe Kingkiller. I have earned those names. Bought and paid for them.

But I was brought up as Kvothe. My father once told me it meant ‘to know.’ I have, of course, been called many other things. Most of them uncouth, although very few were unearned. 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. 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.”

- Kvothe

(The Name of The Wind)

Feel free to answer in the comments below, or create your own post with the hashtag #irrationality

Art Credit

Daria - MTV Series(1997)