I have a confession. This is not the first time I am reading this book. But it is the first time I am reading this book since starting this blog. “The Slow Regard of Silent Things” is actually a novella, and it is about my favorite character from Rothfuss’ ‘Kingkiller Chronicles’ series. This story is six days in the life of the enigmatic Auri. Auri lives under the University, in a place forgotten by time, but discovered by her. She calls it the Underthing. We do not know much about Auri’s past, but we do know she was once a student at the University, but she has since ‘cracked.’ She is not all right in the head, you might say a little crazy. Perfectly harmless, though.
We first meet Auri in “The Name of the Wind,” a story told through the eyes of a man, Kvothe. Kvothe is the person who gave Auri her name. Names are very important in this universe, and hers is like a flower unfurling in her heart. In this world, if you know the name of something, if you truly understand a thing, or a person, you can control it. These are not ‘calling names,’ but the true names. In this novella, we get the idea that Auri’s original name turned against her. She speaks of the days before ‘him’ as dark, these days before he gave her her name. I should mention, Kvothe’s name is never actually stated in this entire story. But it’s not that hard to figure out who she means. She has only one human companion.
This story answers many questions, but it also opens up a whole new batch. Or rather, now I know which questions to ask. From Kvothe’s perspective, he could only tell us what he gleaned from observing Auri. He was never allowed to ask her anything remotely resembling a personal question, so he relied purely on his powers of deduction. For instance, he never knew that the blue-green glowing light that Auri used has a name, Foxen. But now that we see the world through Auri’s eyes, we can start to ask deeper questions.
This story starts with Auri waking up and knowing that he will be coming to visit in seven days. It doesn’t tell you how she knows, but she is certain nonetheless. She gathers from the amount of light seeping into her room that it is a finding day. I am not sure what makes one day better for finding than another, but this seems to be a ritual. She wakes up, looks around, and she knows what kind of day it is. She does not know exactly what she will be doing on any given day, but she knows the shape of the day.
The closest thing resembling a plot to this novella is that Auri must find him a present. He always brings her things when he visits, so it is only polite to reciprocate. But this is in no way her driving force. She gets sidetracked constantly, and she has all sorts of responsibilities. Like making sure her blanket never touches the ground. And fixing the problems in the newly discovered places she found.
On her first day, she dived into a deep pool and found a brazen brass gear. It is full of secrets and love. But Auri has a difficult time finding the right place for it. This brass gear is the closest we come to another character in the entire story. It calms her down when she falls into a panic attack, and it helps her discover what her gift for him should be. She knew instantly that it was full of knowing and calm, and we discover that she was right. Auri sees the world differently than anyone else. She sees the true shape of things.
She also feels pain. She feels the deep gut-wrenching, breathless pain of a full blown panic attack. I have never read anything that so completely describes that experience.
“She heard the sound of things she normally couldn’t hear…The nameless empty everything was clawing at the fraying edges of the walls. Even Foxen wasn’t even nearly. The stones were strange. The air. She went looking for her name and couldn’t even find it flickering. She was just hollow in. Everything was. Everything was everything. Everything was everything else. Even here in her most perfect place. She needed. Please she needed please…”
That is just a piece of her attack, and I have been there. As Patrick Rothfuss wrote in his author’s end note, “This story is for the slightly broken people out there. I am one of you. You are not alone. You are all beautiful to me.” This might not be a traditional story. There is no hero, there is no real plot. There is nothing flashy. It’s a true story. It’s my story.
Booktastik Reviews 