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Post by appacatbus on Nov 17, 2007 0:38:09 GMT -5
Because every story has to be completely original in every way, and if a writer isn't perfect, we have to be jacka**es and post nasty stuff in our signatures. Am I right, or is that the truth? You're getting it all wrong, You can write a completely unoriginal story and still make it amazing. If someone is a good writer, then I still enjoy the book anyway. But the problem with Eragon is that he took an unoriginal plot and wrote it out terribly. And then became ridiculously popular. Its kind of a disrgace to the literary world.
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Post by Chibi Chan-o on Nov 17, 2007 23:29:00 GMT -5
How DID it become so popular?
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Post by appacatbus on Nov 18, 2007 0:51:34 GMT -5
I dunno, magic.
taken from Ursala Le Guin
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Post by Chibi Chan-o on Nov 19, 2007 21:46:18 GMT -5
taken from Ursala Le GuinWhom are her?
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Post by syarafire on Nov 19, 2007 21:52:33 GMT -5
She wrote the Earthsea series, I think. ♥ Awesome books.
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Post by Chibi Chan-o on Nov 19, 2007 21:55:58 GMT -5
Still not ringing any bells, but okay....
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Pleading Eyes
Kyoshi Mai
I feel violated... and crispy
Posts: 2,327
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Post by Pleading Eyes on Nov 20, 2007 13:32:13 GMT -5
He became popular because of advertising and timing.
With the success of the Harry Potter books, and the LOTR movies encouraging more people to pick up those books too, the fantasy genre was (and still is) making a huge comeback.
Then Paolini comes along with his series, which publishers take and rant and rave about. They talk about what a prodigy he is, how young he started writing it, how its the best fantasy book since EVER, etc etc.
So people hear this and go out to get the books. But most people, instead of forming their own opinions, or having not read enough of this type of book, keep the preconceived notions about how good this book is (thanks to the advertising) and believe that its a great book.
Then they go tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends.
And THAT'S how he got so popular without having to write an especially good series. Sad thing is, it happens all the time. People are very impressionable.
Just look at when the Awakening episode came out. One reviewer called the Katara and Hakoda scene "random". Personally, I think it was a wonderful scene which demonstated a feeling of abandonment despite the logical reasoning that it wasn't her father's fault, that is EXPECTED of a child in such a situation. Especially a child who assumes as much responsibility as Katara does. I loved it.
But because that one reviewer called it random, several people went into the episode expecting that scene to feel random. And so they believed it was. And then they posted about it, and other people read it, and decided "Okay, it was random." And soon the majority of the boards was calling it random.
*shrug* It happens to everyone, whether or not we realize it. Group mentality.
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Post by Chibi Chan-o on Nov 22, 2007 22:51:26 GMT -5
Sometimes I have to read or watch something again to see if I really disliked or liked it. But with Eragon, it only took one read, because I couldn't go and read it a second time. -_-
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Post by appacatbus on Nov 23, 2007 18:42:15 GMT -5
She wrote the Earthsea series, I think. ♥ Awesome books. Yah, I was making fun of how Paolini used her magic system... it was clever... ... *cough*
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Post by Consonant*** on Nov 24, 2007 0:10:41 GMT -5
He wouldn't have gotten anywhere if some rich publisher's daughter hadn't bought the piece of crap in a school Book Fair.
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Post by Chibi Chan-o on Nov 25, 2007 21:00:55 GMT -5
Did she like it? Then again, RICH daughter....
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femaleairbender
Blue Spirit
Just a fool to believe I have anything she needs...She's like the wind...
Posts: 2,165
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Post by femaleairbender on Oct 17, 2008 19:08:07 GMT -5
Okay, after mulling it over for a few months, I decided I would go ahead and read the only copy of Eragon my library has. I heard plenty of negative things about the series as a whole (usually on the Internet), but my friend and even my English teacher were telling me that it was good. So I figured I would give it a shot.
Well, it took me four days to read Eragon. And you know what I thought? It sucked.
I mean, does this Paolini guy have ANY of his own material? The bare basics of the plot is lifted straight out of Star Wars, there are elements that were obviously ripped off of Lord of the Rings (especially the elves--that ticked me off so much), and the plot drags on forever.
And oh, the purple prose. A famous example would be that "rippling like liquid silver" description. When I read that, I laughed. Out loud. And people call Paolini the next Tolkien? Paolini can't even be in the same category as Tolkien!
And the characters are walking cliches, no doubt about it. Eragon's nothing more than a shadow of Luke Skywalker, Brom is the token Gandalf/Obi-Wan character, Murtagh is the Brooding Loner With A Psychotic Father (although I think I like Murtagh--at least he's not as irritating as some of the other characters), and Arya seems like a combination of Arwen and Leia. Have I mentioned how annoying it is for Paolini to ramble on about how beautiful Arya is? When I read the part where Arya was "exceptionally beautiful" despite her injuries, I wanted to throw the book across the room.
So, in short, I don't think Paolini deserves half the praise he gets. Eragon is mediocre at best and seems like he's putting all his fantasies to paper and calling it a story, especially since he's all but admitted that Eragon is his self-insert and Arya is his dream girl. How much you wanna bet that Eragon and Arya are going to get together?
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