Captivating Character of September: Kvothe

My Most Captivating Character of the Month for September comes from Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind. First, yes, I know that the book and character have their detractors. If you’re one of them, that’s cool. Stand there in your wrongness and be wrong, and get used to it–just don’t talk to me about it. That’s an exaggeration, actually–like I told the people at Book Club a few weeks ago, I’m utterly incapable of being objective about this novel, and even if you point out glaring errors, plotholes, problems with the characters and convince me of them–I’ll forget it within 15 minutes and get back to loving it. Secondly, for things like this, I prefer to go with a book that was new to me that month. But, there’s just no way that I can pick any other character (and there were a few that were worthy) when I can pick Kvothe. I don’t have a post written about The Name of the Wind and really don’t know if it’s possible for me to write anything shorter than 100 pages about it, so don’t expect that anytime soon. But maybe, just maybe I can talk a little about Kvothe in this context.

My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as “Quothe.” Names are important as they tell you a great deal about a person. I’ve had more names than anyone has a right to.

The Adem call me Maedre. Which, depending on how it’s spoken, can mean “The Flame,” “The Thunder,” or “The Broken Tree.”

“The Flame” is obvious if you’ve ever seen me. I have red hair, bright. If I had been born a couple hundred years ago I would probably have been burned as a demon. I keep it short but it’s unruly. When left to its own devices, it sticks up and makes me look as if I have been set afire.

“The Thunder” I attribute to a strong baritone and a great deal of stage training at an early age.

I’ve never thought of “The Broken Tree” as very significant. Although in retrospect I suppose it could be considered at least partially prophetic.

My first mentor called me E’lir because I was clever and I knew it. My first real lover called me Dulator because she liked the sound of it. I have been called Shadicar, Lightfinger, and Six-String. 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.

This is how he begins telling his life story to The Chronicler. Now, Kvothe was raised to be a performer, a storyteller–his parents were excellent at it, as were many of the others he grew up alongside. He had some time to think about how he was going to tell his story, and crafted it. In his youth, a storyteller told him, “You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.” So he’s telling us the truth in this book (and the sequel–and hopefully, one day, the third volume). But that doesn’t mean he’s telling it to us straight.

is he an unreliable narrator? Sort of–but he’s telling us his story the right way. He focuses on his triumphs, makes himself look good, clever, witty–especially compared to rivals. Yes, he admits mistakes and talks about setbacks and defeats. But he still looks pretty good throughout. He’s setting himself up for a major fall.

We know he’s going to fall, because we first meet him as a tavern owner under an assumed name. Something happens between the flashback events of the novel* and the present, something dramatic. And now, the man–the legend–whatever you want to call him is “a man who is waiting to die.”

How we get from the quotation I opened with to the one I ended with is pretty captivating

* It’s something after the second book, too…but that’s for another time.

What character would you name for last month?