Word Frequency in Inheritance

By SlyShy
on Oct 12, 10:06 PM

Oh,

177 lost
105 consciousness

23 throbbing

what fun.

By Virgil
on Oct 12, 10:14 PM

Wow.. someone should email it to CP.

By Zahano
on Oct 13, 12:11 AM

What is “wly”? I think that is a typo, Esillisar

By Snow White Queen
on Oct 13, 12:27 AM

thwump?

really?

teehee someone had better tell knopf that their spellchecker broke.

By Spanman
on Oct 13, 09:45 PM

In the entire book of Eldest there are no less than 63 “aye“s.

This might be slightly off, since I simply tallied them up as I was reading the book a few months ago, but it should be fairly close.

And 63 is waaaay beyond excess.

By SlyShy
on Oct 13, 10:31 PM

‘Aye’ comes up 130 times in this list. Heh.

By Virgil
on Oct 13, 10:41 PM

Yeah, not good. I think he might have been over-excited when he was using his fantasy-speak.

By Snow White Queen
on Oct 15, 01:27 AM

if you think this is bad you should see twilight…‘smoldering’ is now a taboo word with me, as in the phrase ‘smoldering topaz eyes’.

By Elizabeth
on Oct 15, 09:33 PM

Absolute favorite misplaced fancy vocabulary:
“Roran laughed and spun widdershins to stand toe to toe with the smith.” Meaning simply that he spun counterclockwise — why on earth do we care? At least he only uses words like that once.
The use of “Aye” annoyed me so much more than it would if the characters had simply said “Yes” each of those times, which would already sound inane.

By Snow White Queen
on Oct 16, 07:05 PM

widdershins?

who knows that word? i also add ‘ameliorate’ to that list (i found it from an excerpt on this site)

maybe home-schooled kids have a more eclectic vocabulary than the rest of us…after all, the public education system is going down the drain.

By Elizabeth
on Oct 16, 08:19 PM

I’m not sure…for example, I’m public-schooled, and recognized the word “widdershins” even though I think it’s entirely useless in this context. I guess I do like the breadth of vocabulary Paolini uses, even though he usually uses it wrong. His prose is a good place to dig for interesting new words.

…Is anyone else wondering at what point CP used the word “bra”? Little anachronistic for Alagaësia, isn’t that — or is it a typo?

By ExitMouse
on Oct 16, 08:42 PM

I know widdershins…I think from Eva Ibbotson books? Theory: crets and wly are slowly and secrets with a mis-scanned space.

By SlyShy
on Oct 16, 09:09 PM

Snow White,

Actually, those are just examples of his thesaurus writing. It’s unnecessary and pretentious, and Stephen King argues against it much better than I could in On Writing.

By Virgil
on Oct 16, 09:24 PM

Paolini as annoyingly pretentious. I forgot exactly what it was, I think I saw it in one of the Epistles…

At one time Paolini was called upon to write a review for J.K.Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Here he revealed his arrogance again – perhaps unintentionally – when he said:

“One of the greatest pleasures of reading this series is seeing J.K.Rowling develop as a writer, and she certainly spreads her wings here”.

This is nothing short of scandalous. Paolini is so convinced of his superiority that he feels he can talk down about the great J.K.Rowling. By talking about her in this way, he makes it clear that he believes he is a better writer than she is, and he does it without embarrassment, in public.

I’m sure he thinks he has a might grasp of Olde English too.

By SlyShy
on Oct 16, 09:56 PM

He could have gotten a pretty good grasp of it if he had read Beowulf in the original language, but he read a translation. Pitty, learning opportunities shouldn’t go wasted. That said, it would be an enormous undertaking.

By Virgil
on Oct 16, 10:02 PM

Yeah, Beowulf might be short, but not in the original language.

By Carbon Copy
on Oct 17, 08:14 AM

Paolini’s use of archaic and rare words illustrates my point that he is technically proficient, but lacks self-restraint. He knows he’s smart, and he likes to show off with this kind of thesaurus abuse. He fails to realise that truly great authors do not need to prove anything to their readers.

Writers should strive for simplicity and economy if they want beautifully crafted literature. The best writers know that words create a barrier between the reader and the world of the book. If you can explain a situation in five simple words, don’t use ten complicated words. Basically, your words should become invisible. Your reader should never have to stop and think “what does that mean?”

When you read Paolini’s prose, it often feels like he was given one of those “word of the day” calendars for Christmas, and every time he learns a new word, he just HAS to use it. Just because you know a “cool” word, that is not a good reason to use it.

By Zahano
on Dec 15, 01:40 AM

Or one of those books designed to help students study for English exams where they cram every vocabulary word they could. Maybe this was an extension of his homeschooling-

-Chris, spell and define “Ameliorate”, “Tenacity”, and “apparel”. Use them in a sentence.
-Okay, Mommy! “Arya sighed gratefully once Eragon ameliorated her of the tenacity of her apparel.” Is that good?
-Yes, sweetie. Good job!