Christopher Paolini interview possible… suggestions wanted.

So, whether you are a fan or not, what questions would you like to see Paolini asked?

Comment

  1. Lord Snow on 7 October 2008, 16:50 said:

    “How do you live with yourself?”
    “What is your favorite thesaurus?”
    “Which episode of Star Wars was your favorite?”
    “Would you be interested in taking a writing class?”
    “Could you pronounce all of the words you invented?”
    “Is this entire series a big joke, created to see if you could con an entire generation of children and teenagers so you could get rich?”

    I’d also be interested if someone would show him some of the things on this site, like Everything Wrong With Eragon and the Epistles, and video tape his reaction.

  2. Kitty on 7 October 2008, 16:53 said:

    Ask if the ending will be just like Lord of the Rings. >_>

  3. Virgil on 7 October 2008, 17:07 said:

    Hm.. this is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Snow took all the good ones… :(

    “Please, please for the love of god, listen to fans over the age of 11!”

    “Have you seen the Epistles?”

    “How do you think you’re writing has improved from Eragon?” (If any) You can just mutter that last part under your breath.

    “How do you like your editors at Knopf?” (If at all)

    “What is your greatest influence besides Star Wars, Tolkien, Rowling?”

    “How did you come up with Eragon’s sword lighting on fire?” He actually says his dad came up with this, and he put it in for no apparent reason. I’d be cool if it had a reason.

    “Have you read any of your serious reviews?”

    “What’s your take on anti-shurtugal.com?”

    All I can think of at the moment, I’m sure I’ll come up with more soon.

  4. Carbon Copy on 7 October 2008, 17:38 said:

    This is a great opportunity, you’re right. I’m not sure I like the idea of asking him questions to make him look like an ass, though. Especially not in front of the kids.

    Paolini has racked up a list of crimes against literature, but he has also made children excited about reading, to the point where they will vehemently argue (although not often very articulately) about the merits of a series of books they love.

    Remember, if he can get kids reading (even bad books), then it is keeping the market alive for when all the better writers release their books. I would much rather my child read Eragon than watched television. (Of course, I would much rather he read Lord of the Rings or His Dark Materials, but we can’t have everything in life.)

    I have great cause to dislike Eragon, and I do, don’t get me wrong. I hate that people read his poor prose and think that normally that level is good enough to get published, and I hate that he gets so much more recognition than authors who pour their hearts into much better work. However, I believe Eragon et al has done some good in this world too.

    Anyway, this isn’t the right thread for that debate, so… If you want to make him look like an ass, ask him to give some advice to aspiring authors for how they should edit their manuscript and submit it to a publisher or agent. Ask him for tips on how to get a manuscript recognised in a slush pile of thousands of other manuscripts.

    That should have him stumped.

    Oh, and ask him to recite a bit of dwarf opera.

  5. CWB on 7 October 2008, 22:26 said:

    Ask him why he chose to base Saphira on his mom?

    Ask him if he has any other women in his life to base characters on, other than his mom, his sister and internet porn stars?

    Ask him how Arya can be a vegan but wear leather?

    Ask him how Eragon can proclaim pacifism but slaughter thousands?

    Ask him what he’s trying to convey with his overlong descriptions of the scenery — the trees, the rocks etc? Tolkien did it to highlight his antiquated Romantic views. Tolkien picked up on the Romantic movement’s infatuation with nature as the key to spiritual salvation. The Romantics also condemned industrialization and Tolkien was a big follower of Wordsworth in this respect.

    Ask him if that’s what he’s trying to say in his books. Ask him if he believes in Romanticism the way Tolkien did. If he says he does then ask him which of the Big Six Romantics are his favorites (if he can’t name them, by the way, they’re Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Blake, Shelley and Byron).

    But if you really want to put him on the spot, and make him look stupid, ask him to elaborate on his characters’ motivations.

    Ask him to explain the reasons why he chose to kill xyz character, why he chose to have xyz character do xyz thing.

    My feeling is that his answers to those questions will all be the same… Paolini’s characters are motivated only to follow the story line of Star Wars and Paolini himself is only motivated to kill off characters or have his characters act a certain way because he thinks it’s “cool” if they do.

    Good writers (who aren’t simply stealing from other published works) understand nearly every motivation of every character in their story in minute details.

    Good writers use every scene in their manuscript to pass along to the reader specific insights they want to convey about that character’s personality, motivations and emotions. It’s beyond a shadow of a doubt that CP doesn’t write this way and his answers will illustrate this.

  6. Vadskye on 7 October 2008, 23:04 said:

    Be nice to the guy, I think. It’s legitimate to ask him how much he thinks that he “borrowed” from other sources, but don’t ask “why is your writing so terrible”. He’s no Kenneth Eng.

  7. SlyShy on 7 October 2008, 23:09 said:

    I’ve phrased the questions so (hopefully) he won’t call the thing off in the middle. To be honest, a lot of these are pretty innocent.

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