#rithmatics

“What?” Joel asked.

“You went on an adventure, you nearly got killed, you fought chalklings, and you didn’t invite me!”

He rolled his eyes.

“Honestly,” she said. “That was terribly thoughtless of you. What good is having friends if they don’t put you in mortal peril every once in a while?”

“You might even call it tragic,” Joel said, smiling wanly.

“It’s a fun tradition.”

“So was witch-burning,” Melody said. “Unless you were the witch.”

Joel Saxon is a student at the prestigious private school known as Armedius Academy. As the son of a deceased chalkmaker and cleaning lady, Joel fails to fit in with the school’s student body, which consists largely of individuals from affluent families. Joel’s love of Rithmatics and desire to become a Rithmatist alienates him further from the rest of the student body. Most of Armedius’ students leave for summer vacation, leaving Joel alone with the students who failed their classes and the Rithmatists who are forced to continue their training in preparation for their impending battle at the tower of Nebrask. Joel’s summer elective involves working as a research assistant for Professor Fitch—a famous Rithmatist and historian who specializes in defensive Rithmatic lines. At first, Joel is disappointed when he realizes that he will be maintaining records of past censuses. However, when Rithmatic students go missing, the police seek Fitch’s help in cracking the case. Since he spends the summer working for Fitch, Joel is reluctantly asked to help. Melody Muns, Fitch’s remedial student, eventually joins the hunt as well. Can the trio solve the case before it’s too late?

I adored Brandon Sanderson’s The Rithmatist; it may be the best book I have ever read. I enjoyed Sanderson’s novel for several reasons. First, the novel maintained an excellent pace. It took the time to build up to major plot points before revealing them in a whirlwind, which swept me away over and over again. Second, I appreciated the fact that Sanderson chose to develop a new magical discipline involving chalk. I would argue that it loosely resembles Summoning in the sense that Rithmatists can create chalk drawings and bring them to life, but Rithmatics is its own distinct discipline. It involves both defensive and offensive uses and resides entirely within two-dimensions. (Summoning begins in two-dimensions, but often matures into a third once the creature has been summoned). I also appreciated the great lengths Sanderson went to when it came to explaining Rithmatics. The novel included diagrams as well as pictures with fairly in-depth descriptions, which described each of the magical form’s components. The diagrams included each line’s and strategy’s abilities, including strengths and shortcomings. It was obvious that Sanderson put a lot of thought, time, and effort into the development of Rithmatics.

Third, I was blown away by the amount of detail Sanderson poured into “intense” scenes such as battles between Rithmatists and attacks made on Armedius Academy’s student body. Instead of leaving me with a mere impression as to what was going on, Sanderson took the time to paint clear pictures of the novel’s plot. As a result, I began to feel as though I was a part of the novel, an observer who never had to guess what was going on. Fourth, Sanderson created a host of well-rounded, well-thought-out, interesting, and relatable characters. Joel Saxon is a prime example because he is passionate about Rithmatics—it’s not often that one finds an adolescent who is truly passionate about something. Thus, finding an individual who was driven by their passion felt truly refreshing. Joel is relatable because he wishes that his acquaintances were as interested in Rithmatics as he is. He’s also extremely smart, excelling in several of his courses. Naturally, he prioritizes the things he’s interested in, (Rithmatics), and procrastinates or ignores the things he’s less interested in, (math). However, Joel’s status as an outsider is what makes him the most relatable to Sanderson’s readers. Joel remarks that Armedius Academy’s student body “treated him with civility… but they didn’t include him,” (Sanderson 57). Joel was ostracized because he is a member of the lower class and obsessed with Rithmatics and Rithmatists. His status makes him relatable—we have all been ostracized at some point during our lives.

Another character who proves to be both relatable and likable is Professor Fitch. He is a kindly old man who appreciates sleep. He is also a talented Rithmatist and Rithmatics professor. Despite his skill, Fitch is riddled with anxiety and self-doubt. He breaks under pressure, struggling during duels and combat. His relatability stems largely from his self-debt, which everyone contends with at some point during their lives. Melody Muns is another interesting character. She’s a free-spirited student of Rithmatics who is far more interested in relaxing and sketching than becoming a Rithmatist. She also struggles with the feeling that she lives in her older siblings’ shadow—they’re all talented Rithmatic students; she struggles to draw basic lines. Finally, I appreciated the fact that The Rithmatist was a social commentary, which subtly argued that racism, classism and segregation are ridiculous. At Armedius, there is “separation between Rithmatists and others,” (Sanderson 80). As the novel progresses, Sanderson reveals that this separation has a negative effect on the student body—the students cannot protect one another from outside threats when they remain divided. Furthermore, the separation creates unnecessary tension between the groups and instills a sense that the Rithmatists outrank the non-Rithmatists in the student body’s minds. This mindset is false and Sanderson demonstrates that the students cannot solve their current problems without each other’s help.

The only thing that I did not like about Sanderson’s novel was Professor Nalizar. I despised him because he is an arrogant and obnoxious bully. He also supports the segregation of Rithmatic and non-Rithmatic students, which puts a sour taste in my mouth. However, Nalizar’s unpleasant nature was unable to color my view of Sanderson’s novel. The Rithmatist was absolutely amazing and I highly suggest that you take the time to read it.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Glossary:

Rithmatics: A magical discipline based off the Rithmatist’s ability to draw with chalk, investing their drawings with life.

Rithmatist: An individual who practices a form of magic involving chalk.

Nebrask: An isle in the center of the United Isles; contains the Tower.

The Tower: Located at the heart of the United Isles in Nebrask. Wild chalklings emanate from the tower, forcing Rithmatists to contain them so that the isles will not be overrun.

Chalklings: Animate two-dimensional drawings made out of chalk. They have the ability to attack and kill humans. Wild chalklings are those that escape from the Tower in Nebrask; they are out-of-control and must be destroyed by trained Rithmatists.

Work Cited:

I don’t even know if anyone on here has read The Rithmatist, but as I said in my previous post about the book, I was writing a fanfic on my favorite character. well, i finished the book, so i had to change the ending to my fanfic. 

We've talked about 9-point circles.  Here is a further exploration of 9-point conics in case you are curious:

*dances around* Not only did I get to meet Brandon Sanderson and have him sign my books, I ALSO got to meet Ben McSweeney (see previous post)!

While hanging out in the bookstore waiting for the signing to start, I met a couple of other fans.  One of them had gotten there early enough to get one of the special "get a seat at the front of the Q+A" wristbands but didn't have a question.  I got him to ask what Horneater stew would be like on earth.  It is apparently based on a spicy Korean seafood soup that traditionally is made by just throwing anything acquired from the sea (shrimp, clams, mussels, etc) into the pot whole, shells and all. He gave the name of the soup. It's Korean. I would probably butcher the spelling completely, so I'm not going to try.

When I got through the line, I asked if he could draw the Blad defense in The Rithmatist.  His response was a look that very clearly said "You expect me to remember which one that is by name?" I clarified and he just kind of laughed and drew me one of the 4 point circles and suggested that maybe I could get one of the more complex ones from Ben.

I asked for something about Kaladin when he was signing WoR.  Before I tell you what he wrote, I should mention that he was halfway through writing it when I opened my rithimatics notebook and kind of distracted him. "Kaladin has known multiple lightweilders." 

So. Rithmatics.  I pretty much just started flipping through my notebook asking questions about each page.  Most of the questions got a simple affirmative. For the other things, I'm paraphrasing: 

Yes, 5 and 8 point defenses could exist.  They haven't really been explored in world though.

You can always bind more than one thing to a bind point, but binding multiple things weakens the point. It is a much better idea to add a small circle that gets 3 additional bind points. It doesn't change anything if the point comes from multiple points in the 9-point construction.

When I showed him the 9-point ellipses constructed from different triangle centers he stared at them for a moment before answering.  He hesitantly said that, yes, those constructions should be valid in theory, but that they shouldn't be used in practice.  The sides of ellipses are weak enough that if you expect to need to defend your sides you really should be using a circle.

At this point he started to say that we shouldn't hold up the line too long as I flipped to a page titled Lines of Vigor.  I was going to let it go, but he glanced at the page and told me to go ahead and ask :D

Yes, Lines of Vigor behave like light waves. (I'm so glad I was right on this)

To clarify I double checked that this means that higher frequency waves are better for doing damage, lower frequency waves are better for transferring energy (and thus moving things)

Yes, Lines of Vigor follow the rule that the angle of incidence =angle of reflection.

GUYS.  LINES OF VIGOR ALSO REFRACT.  I asked it in terms of whether they slightly change speed and direction when they move between materials like, say, concrete and asphalt.  He said yes and that you also get the wavelength adjusting.  Ben then commented that he hadn't known that. *flails*

I got "Oh, wow"'s from both of them while I was flipping through the notebook :-).  At that point, Brandon passed me off to Ben and we chatted about inconsequential things while he took one of my spare sheets of paper from my notebook and drew me a picture *flails more*

I'm still on such a high guys, it's crazy. *dances around*

Let's start with what we know for sure from the books:

Lines of Vigor can only affect chalk creations

You have to draw at least two waveforms to shoot a Line of Vigor

Lines of Vigor can damage or move Lines of Warding (and other chalk creations)

"smaller curves" are stronger [1]

A "large arc" lets them move other lines [2]

Lines of Vigor can bounce off of Lines of Forbiddance

We have previously established that the source of the illustrations in the book is playing fast and loose with the definition of curvature, so the notions of "smaller" and "larger" in the above are not entirely clear.  I know what I want them to mean though...

Theory Time

You know what this sounds like to me?  This sounds like electromagnetic waves.  EM waves are often modeled with transverse waves (the sine curves all of our examples of LoV look like are transverse waves). Higher frequency radiation, such as UV rays is better at penetration than lower frequency radiation, like infrared.  Infrared, on the other hand, is much better at transferring energy, which could very reasonably lead to a transfer of momentum here and thus lead to things moving.  As long as velocity is constant, frequency and wavelength are inversely proportional.  This means that the tighter the curve is the higher the frequency. Theory: Lines of Vigor are based on EM waves.

Possible Implications:

A EM wave with a larger amplitude has more energy.  This would suggest that a Line of Vigor with a short wave length and high amplitude would be better at punching through things and one with the same wavelength and small amplitude.  The effect could be even more pronounced with high amplitude long wave length waves that are trying to push things around

EM waves follow the law of superposition - if you stack two on top of each other you can add them at every point to get a new wave.  This would suggest that there might be more interesting LoV. Instead of just sin(x), we could get things like sin(x)+sin(x/2).  The more complicated ones could be tricky to get right, but might be able to do interesting things.

Related to the previous point, you could get interesting effects if LoV could have interference patterns like EM waves do...

EM waves travel with different speeds through different materials and you get refraction when they move between materials.  Since LoV only affect chalk, it is possible they are only affected by chalk, but if the material they move across affects their velocity, you could get refracted LoV when they move from the sidewalk to the asphalt.