| The Eddings Myth | Contributor: Martin | Posted: 12/02/07 | 14:56 |
| Features - Author Focus | |
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page 4 of 4 Despite the smattering of strong female characters littered through the various novels, their horizons are almost laughably confined to the wife and mother stereotype. Polgara for example cannot wait to escape the tedious confines of power and politics in order to get married and have children, while the deadly lady-spy Velvet has only one aim in life, which is to marry Silk. Predictably the male characters are reluctant but ultimately happy bridegrooms, while single-parent families are a result only of death and never of separation. The casual and unreflective violence is also deeply shocking, even in a genre where body counts tend to be massive and death with gory details is commonplace. Garion, Sparhawk and friends slaughter their enemies in huge numbers at intervals of 20-50 pages without ever pausing for reflection - or if they do reflect, that reflection never seems to have any impact on their further murderous actions. As an example, Garion who is throughout The Belgariad portrayed as a sensitive, well-meaning young man kills the Murgo villain Asharak with magic in Queen of Sorcery, the second book of the series. Garion plunges into deep introspection after the act, but later casually kills without a second thought.  Meanwhile, David Eddings recently burned down his office and destroyed most of the manuscripts of his early novels, when he accidentally set fire to a pool of petrol he'd drained from a broken-down sports car. One of the few incidences of a celebrity living to a ripe old age (he's 75) and being involved in a serious sports car accident. Perhaps the best moral that can be drawn from a critical re-evaluation of the Eddings is a pretty simple one: re-visiting childhood favourites is always fraught with danger. For every beloved old book that reveals new levels of subtlety when reread by the adult mind, there is another old favourite which turns out not to be as special as memory made it, and few favourite authors lose their magic as swiftly as David and Leigh Eddings. |
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