Choice Extracts From The Making Of Book

[epistler]

Something I realised I hadn't reposted since its original appearance on the old comm.! I have a copy of The Making of Eragon, and took pictures of some of the highlights, including some truly weird early Saphira designs and some of the worst of young Paolini's pretentious blatherings. Here they are in no particular order.




























































































































































 

Comments

[epistler]

it feels tragic in an abstract sort of way to see the transition from a young man who was excited to see his "boy and his dragon" story succeed enough to get a movie adaptation made to the rambling, disinterested mess he is now.

It really does. It makes me wonder if he eventually realised it shouldn't have been published and resented having been pushed into it, or if he just got bored with the whole thing, or if he came to the conclusion that his fans are a bunch of idiots and should be treated with the appropriate level of condescending rudeness. Or some combination of the above. He certainly isn't very good at feigning enthusiasm.

His "I'm all the characters, even the bad ones" quote was impressively detached from reality, even by his standards, though. The man has zero empathy for any characters outside of his Sue squad, and I don't believe he spent even a second trying to understand Galbatorix (or Sloan. Especially Sloan.).

Honestly, I don't think he even empathises with his Sues given how dismissively he treats their suffering and how little he seems to understand what it would actually be like to suddenly be thrown into the middle of a massively destructive war with a goddamn dragon stuck in your head when you're only a sheltered sixteen year old kid. Instead of which Eragon and later Roran clearly only matter to him as action figures for living out his personal fantasies. It certainly explains the absurd lack of reaction Eragon has to what should have been an insanely traumatic set of circumstances, along with Roran suddenly turning into a super soldier/military commander right the fuck out of nowhere.

No author with a shred of empathy for their villains would've inflicted that kind of pain and suffering on their characters and framed it as a good thing that they deserved to have happen to them.

Indeed, and given his ridiculous insistence that Eragon is a thoughtful, empathetic person with a powerful sense of right and wrong (I still can't believe he actually said that with a straight face) it leaves me wondering if he even knows what "empathy" actually is

[sassyelfby]

It makes me wonder if he eventually realised it shouldn't have been published and resented having been pushed into it, or if he just got bored with the whole thing, or if he came to the conclusion that his fans are a bunch of idiots and should be treated with the appropriate level of condescending rudeness.

I'd probably chalk it up to a mixture of resentment and boredom. His parents basically chose his life path for him when he was a teenager, despite him being too immature for a decision of that magnitude and having no way of knowing whether he'd still like writing as much when he grew up. And now he's a middle-aged adult with zero marketable skills outside of writing, so he's stuck doing that for the rest of his life if he wants to maintain the lifestyle he's grown accustomed to after the Inheritance Cycle took off. Based on the mind-numbing dullness and total creative bankruptcy of To Sleep, I'd believe he's as miserable writing his books as we are reading them at this point - at least Eragon had an occasional spark of creative energy to cut through the tedium, because he obviously enjoyed writing it. Which is his own fault for deciding not to pursue any further education, learn a trade, or manage his initial fortune better (though the fault for that probably lies more with his parents than him). Being able to write as your sole occupation is supposed to be every writer's dream, but there's something to be said for getting your primary income elsewhere and writing what makes you happy without having to worry about how profitable it is.

Honestly, I don't think he even empathises with his Sues given how dismissively he treats their suffering and how little he seems to understand what it would actually be like to suddenly be thrown into the middle of a massively destructive war with a goddamn dragon stuck in your head when you're only a sheltered sixteen year old kid.

Yeah, "empathy" may have been too strong a word there. He at least acknowledges that (most) bad things are bad when they happen to Roran and Eragon, but even then, he doesn't do more than pause for a moment or two while they say they feel bad or *insert emotion here* washes over them before moving on and forgetting about it entirely.

[epistler]

Being able to write as your sole occupation is supposed to be every writer's dream, but there's something to be said for getting your primary income elsewhere and writing what makes you happy without having to worry about how profitable it is.

Yeah, definitely. I've often said that if I could live off my writing I'd keep my day job anyway. It gets me out of the house, for one thing.

He at least acknowledges that (most) bad things are bad when they happen to Roran and Eragon, but even then, he doesn't do more than pause for a moment or two while they say they feel bad or *insert emotion here* washes over them before moving on and forgetting about it entirely.

It makes me wonder if it's lack of skill, or lack of giving a damn, or sheer laziness, or all of the above. Does he actually believe he's giving his characters believable emotions but he's just crap at it, or is he just plain not even trying? It's hard to say really.