Kitty Update.

I just got the call back from the vet. They did a blood test on him yesterday and they said that his white blood cell count is rather low. Chaucer needs to go back in today so that they can do a double check. Vet says it means that he has a virus of some kind. And then he had to go and bring up Cat HIV, Luekimia and Feline Distemper. So now I'm having an anxiety attack about this.

My ability to work has just been all shot to hell because of this. I'm just very worried about him. Mom says that I should think that the test will be negative and keep that in mind, but that still doesn't help the anxiety attack I'm going through right now.

More Inheritance Cycle News.

This just in from antishurtugal: The Fourth Brick has been named.


The title of the book is... Brisingr.

There is, however, a problem with naming the book Brisingr. The title of a book is supposed to draw in readers. It's supposed to elicit curiosity about what the book is about, give them an idea of what is to be expected or what might happen.

For example:

Jurassic Park Dinosaurs and a park.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Harry dealing with something called the Deathly Hallows.
A day in the life of the Soviet Union ... well that one's obvious.
Brisingr ... cat on the keyboard? Random letters pulled from a hat? Typo?

The point is, it doesn't invoke any idea of what the story is supposed to be about, which is the entire point of a title. He may be constrained by wanting to only use one word, but there are hundreds of other words that he could have used instead of a made up one that no one will understand unless they've read the previous two books.

What it feels like, instead, is that Paolini is trying to be clever. While the word may "touch on Eragon's inheritance" it doesn't let anyone but him know that. It gives him an air of superiority. He is using a word that in old Norse means "fire" and isn't he clever for knowing that? And not only that but he's sophisticated and intelligent and up in that ivory tower with all the other professors who study such things like Old Norse. He's even in the same league as Tolkien because Tolkien studied such languages.

But Tolkien never needed to show off. (And he had the decency to write titles that people could understand.) At least not in the title. He used his languages subtly and never in such a way that people went "buh" to try and understand what was going on. He didn't use them to show how clever he was for making up a language but instead to help create the feel of a different world, make it rich and look like there was much more going on than what was happening in the story being told.

He didn't aspire to be the next something or another, he just aspired to tell a story and to share his world. Paolini however, and this maybe one of his biggest problems, tries so hard to be the next Tolkien that he's lost sight of the primary purpose of writing, which is to tell a story. Instead he throws in things that will make him look like an intelligent and great writer who deserves to be next to Tolkien without really seeing if it makes sense, which gives his world that patchwork feeling.

And I just COMPLETELY tangented, didn't I?

Kitty Update!

Chaucer is doing much better! The Vet said his white blood cell count was up twice from yesterday and he seems to be fighting this virus by himself.

He's also been eating. I left him some food before I went out to dinner tonight and it was half gone when I came back. Right now it's all gone. He's also been perkier too. So, all is well.

Thank you for all the good and well wishes it meant a lot to me and Chaucer. :D