The Wise Man's Fear/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The Adem don't know that sexual intercourse causes pregnancy because their women have so much sex that no one never linked the two. However, they do practice animal husbandry. Wouldn't that have clued them in? Without selective breeding, they would not be able to domesticate their livestock. All of their animal products, like meat, leather and wool, would be inferior to those outside their borders.
    • Kvothe makes the comparison to cats, and the woman in question points out that humans and cats are not the same--which Kvothe admits is true, he was using a fallacy. They just think they're different that way. After all, humans don't give birth in litters either.
      • The Adem don't believe that animals reproduce through sexual intercourse either. They believe that sex has nothing to do with reproduction. They don't even have a word for father. If they did conceed that animals reproduce sexually, just not humans, then the argument would have been much different. The culture would also have a word for father, because they'd need to use it for animals.