I feel like this “reveal” falls flat because we haven’t seen Brom act all that fatherly towards Eragon. From what I remember of Eragon Brom was quite rough towards Eragon, showing little love for his son outside of the required Sue praise (which doesn’t count). And when Eragon talks to Brom about names for Saphira, he acts as if this is his first time talking to Brom. You’d think that Brom would try to talk with and engage with his son, even if he can’t let Eragon know that he’s the father.
This is true, and raises a couple of questions... namely, did Paolini do that because he doesn't know how to write a character being fatherly, or did he write it like that because that's how his father treated him?
While that’s true, it may have stemmed from parental over-protectiveness. Even if Ken Paolini’s aggressiveness was based on greed, it doesn’t mean that he’s distant from his son. (It just means that he’s an asshole).
That is fair. Still... he seems like the kind of helicopter parent who's emotionally distant from their child even as they shelter the crap out of 'em.
Different guy from the one above, but I sometimes think this community over-estimates the extent to which Paolini projects his family life into his work. Mainly because I think that takes a kind of skill that he lacks-if he were really gonna base something on his dad, it’d be the same broad panegyric as for his sister-insert, at least in this conjecture by an anonymous asshole.
That's fair enough, but I'd like to point out that I'm not claiming that he's doing this intentionally. In fact, if he is basing his characters (other than Angela) on people in his life, I'm pretty certain he's not doing it intentionally. Writers of Paolini's ilk tend to be prone to accidentally airing their issues in their writing. I'm not sure exactly why, but my guess is that it's because they aren't especially creative and have a hard time imagining their experiences as anything but universal, or at least more universal than they actually are.
That’s also fair enough! I’d like you to know I wasn’t trying to take a shot at you, just noting an observation of a line of questioning I didn’t find as convincing as other ones.
I suppose I was coming from a place of writing-as-communication, in that plenty of authors channel their personal experiences and the people they’ve met into their works. F. Scott Fitzgerald, for instance, translated both his experiences with Zelda and his alcoholism into The Great Gatsby. The line I’m going to draw is that in this case, Fitzgerald knew both how he felt and how to communicate it. There is sincerity and self-awareness in his writing, both traits Paolini seems to have trouble exhibiting. Perhaps it’s that his life story isn’t that interesting.
Who else of his ilk have you observed this trait in? It’s an interesting topic now we’re on it!
Stephenie Meyer. It's particularly apparent in Breaking Dawn, where a whole lot of the ridiculous bullshit surrounding one Renesmee Carlie Cullen feels like Meyer is airing all her dissatisfaction with how pregnancy and motherhood actually work, and with the sons she got instead of the daughter she wanted. The result is extremely uncomfortable.
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I suppose I was coming from a place of writing-as-communication, in that plenty of authors channel their personal experiences and the people they’ve met into their works. F. Scott Fitzgerald, for instance, translated both his experiences with Zelda and his alcoholism into The Great Gatsby. The line I’m going to draw is that in this case, Fitzgerald knew both how he felt and how to communicate it. There is sincerity and self-awareness in his writing, both traits Paolini seems to have trouble exhibiting. Perhaps it’s that his life story isn’t that interesting.
Who else of his ilk have you observed this trait in? It’s an interesting topic now we’re on it!
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