I do love how CW and Peter mirror each other. Both wanted to be great fantasy novelists, and both never came to the level of popularity and talent that they wanted to. And it destroys CW, but not Peter.
And it’s HARD. It’s clear that this is Peter’s dream, that he wants so badly to be one of the sci-fi greats, to be remembered, to inspire a generation of readers like he was inspired. And he just...doesn’t make it.
But he has an inner kindness and self-respect, and he holds onto them. And he bares the burden of not seeing his dreams fulfilled, and he does it gracefully.
He was married to one of the sci-fi greats, and they had over 40 years of love together. He has daughter who adores him, he has a comfortable existence with a huge house, he was able to make his career writing.
I just...I love how Mythic Quest gives a nod to a character that’s not represented much. So often we hear “Follow your dreams and you’ll get what you want!”, and in this case we see a character who doesn’t. Not because he doesn’t work for it or want it. Just because...sometimes people don’t have that talent. Sometimes dreams DON’T come true.
And we see someone recognize this, and instead of letting it destroy him, he takes that lesson and still manages to be kind and dignified. And because he’s able to do that, he does still get a good life. He doesn’t get everything he wanted, but he still made something wonderful out of his life, and nobody will ever really know how hard it was, how much it took for him to do so.
