“He was laying on his back, legs folded at the knees, stretching his thighs after running further and with more weight than he ever had before—when the loud, liquid, rumble erupted from his innards.” (p. 72)
I can’t have been the only one who though Eragon was struck with a disastrous bout of diarrhea. I mean, it is reasonable, right?
“Finding food in that desolate place, however, was not only far more difficult, it presented him with a moral dilemma that he had hoped to avoid.” (p. 72)
You and me both, Eragon. I don’t want to hear about another one of these for three pages. Very long story short, Eragon decides that just this one time, he can kill a poor little animal and eat it. This from the guy who remorselessly incinerates thousands of the Empire’s soldiers. I love it. At least this scene is well written in that I get the sense CP really is a vegetarian. The description of revulsion at having to eat meat matches up nicely with my vegetarian friends’ descriptions. Bravo to Paolini to writing what he knows.
Time to impress Sloan!
““I am Eragon and far more. I am Argetlam and Shadeslayer and Firesword. My dragon is Saphira, she who is also Bjartskular and Flametongue. We were taught by Brom, who was a Rider before us, and by the dwarves and by the elves. We have fought the Urgals and a Shade and Murtagh, who is Morzan’s son. We serve the Verden and the peoples of Alagaesia. And I have brought you here, Sloan Aldensson, to pass judgment upon you for murdering Bryd and betraying Carvahall to the Empire.”“ (p. 78)
Eragon’s long winded speech fails to impress. But he does manage to learn Sloan’s true name. How convenient. But, oh no, not another moral dilemma. Whatever will Eragon do?
He will ask Queen Islanzadi for help, is what. And I actually like the Elves’ turn to the psychotic. Some humans go and chop down some trees, so they go all MURDER on the humans. Which results in Islanzadi talking to Eragon—while her hands are still dripping in blood. What the hell. This would be cool, if I didn’t think the Ents had done it before. Again, to CP’s credit, at least Eragon is creeped out. I like the direction CP is taking his elves.
Now that his conflict is resolved, Eragon goes to use his completely immoral ancient language stuff on another human! This should be good.
“You can’t do this,” whispered Sloan. Even in the starlight, Eragon could see the last remnants of color drain from his skin, leaving him bone white. “You don’t have the means. You don’t have the right.”
“I am a Dragon Rider. I have as much right as any king or queen.”
Don’t you see, Sloan? He is a dragon rider he can do whatever the hell he feels like. I always suspected Eragon had this feeling of entitlement, I just needed it confirmed.
Basically, Sloan’s punishment is that he can never see Katrina. Even we allow prisoners to see their family. Ah, unnecessary cruelty, all in the name of “poetic” justice.
Seeing Sloan understandably freak out, Eragon offers some hope. People can change their True Names. What was it that made them a True Name again? I think we can pretty reasonably expect Murtagh to change his true name in the future, just in time to be a good guy again.
Zeamer on 22 September 2008, 22:26 said:
Oh boy, these excerpts seriously wouldn’t make me look twice at FanFiction.net. Honestly…
“the loud, liquid, rumble erupted from his innards”
I really wish you were making this up.
Also, ew.
Corsair on 23 September 2008, 16:45 said:
How can that NOT refer to him crapping his bowels out?
Zahano on 7 October 2008, 19:30 said:
The super-duper secret Resistance is called the “Varden”. Even if we do not care for the books, we must spell everything correctly.
Snow White Queen on 8 October 2008, 00:17 said:
the diarrhea thing made me giggle.
does cp realize what he’s writing…?
although, having psychotic, manic elves would be a fun change from the boringly benevolent, wise ones we’ve been seeing since the late 1900s.
Enaj on 8 October 2008, 13:06 said:
Hmm, I’m sure you meant “The description of REVULSION at having to eat meat;” meaning the state of being revolted as opposed to the state of being revolutionized :)
SlyShy on 8 October 2008, 13:08 said:
Dear Enaj,
Thanks, good catch.
sean on 16 October 2008, 19:04 said:
it’s not great literature by any means, but you’re really reaching with some of the critisism.
SlyShy on 16 October 2008, 19:16 said:
Could you give examples? That way I could modify them.
Thanks.
SQUINTY-VEGO on 21 October 2008, 10:42 said:
Hey SlyShy,
Cheers for your views on this chapter…here is mine:
As a vegetarian,
What really irked me in the meat-nomming scene is that Eragon was so carefully and creatively constructed through the elves as one aware of existentialism, the importance of life and equal-life-worth.
Even feeling the necessity to dawdle in the Empire, therefore endangering his life and the future of Alagaesia, because he COULD NOT take away the life of a murderer…Additionally, he has a crazy little moral dilemma over harming a bee after being the biggest idiot in the world.
YET he can (after what? 1-2 pages?) spontaneously justify killing a innocent animals, because he is hungry and his murderer captive needs feeding.
Then follows the rest of the book and much meat-nomming…..AND much nightmares and rumination over human lives he has taken, what about the animals you parasite!
Did you SlyShy or anyone else find this hypocrisy rather jarring?
SlyShy on 21 October 2008, 10:47 said:
The most jarring hypocrisy was in Eldest. The night before the big battle, he spends an hour moaning about how he had to kill a rabbit for dinner. The next day he kills upwards of 100,000 humans without remorse.
But yes, pretty much everything dealing with Eragon and killing is sickeningly twisted.
Virgil on 21 October 2008, 15:10 said:
Again, a fault of ‘characters by necessity’ thought process.
LiquidNitrogen on 23 February 2009, 22:06 said:
Also I’d like to point out the seeing Sloan in ‘starlight’. It’s overly wordy, and I don’t know how the heck light from distant stars can reach them.
Addie on 23 February 2009, 22:15 said:
Ahh, but he has elf vision, remember? Light from stars would probably be quite enough.
Pi on 24 February 2009, 03:52 said:
To show off these extraordinary elf eyes of his, the moon, and the moonlight that accompanies it, is strangely absent. Does Paolini give any reason for this?
SlyShy on 24 February 2009, 04:00 said:
I just assume lunar eclipses happen whenever it is convenient for Paolini. It seems reasonable, given how convenient weather usually is in writing, too. ;)
Silent Storm on 24 February 2009, 08:19 said:
Is the line about the starlight even needed to convey the change in Sloan? I suppose some description is nice, but…I thought the less description the better. Perhaps a condensed sentence is in order.
Though it seems sad that this sentence gets picked on. I’m sure there are worse ones. Plenty of worse ones. Maybe even entire chapters that should be condensed and combined. I struggle to comprehend, though, that somehow this WAS the condensed version compared to what Paolini originally had. I wonder how much purple prose Paolini managed to fit in with his first draft…
Pi on 24 February 2009, 08:24 said:
yeah, when seeing the colour drain out of someone’s face by moonlight is just too easy, not portraying the magnificence of our hero, blot out the moon and just use the stars. He should have had Eragon notice the colour change whilst in a pitch black cave. Pfft, needing light to see. I expect better from Eragon who is Argetlam, Shadeslayer and Firesword.
scary_viking on 24 February 2009, 21:15 said:
I wonder how much purple prose Paolini managed to fit in with his first draft…
I admit I would actually LOVE to see it. For kicks, of couse.
SlyShy on 24 February 2009, 21:33 said:
One of the articles I have planned is a system of analyzing sentences and literally assigning them color… aheh. I’m going to have a lot of fun comparing Hemmingway, Paolini, Tolkien, Tolstoy, and others.
SMARTALIENQT on 24 May 2009, 10:23 said:
Don’t you see, Sloan? He is a dragon rider he can do whatever the hell he feels like. I always suspected Eragon had this feeling of entitlement, I just needed it confirmed.
Have you not heard that line from the Abomination-that-is-the-Movie? “I’m the Rider, and I say we go!”
I used to think that that line was added by the writers, but no! The writers were just prophets!