#226 - "I learned it from you, Dad!"*
*Applicable for other mentors who are not literally Dad.
We previously talked about areas of concern, influence, and control, focusing particularly on what characters can directly control. But what does influence look like?
Aaron Mahnke shares an anecdote about Joseph Bell, a physician and professor at the University of Edinburgh who had an unanticipated influence on some of his students:
Joseph Bell’s attention to detail, sense of observation, and ability to see what others did not created a love of storytelling in a handful of students. James M. Barrie was a student of Bell’s before writing Peter Pan. The same with Robert Louis Stevenson, author of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But one student took it even further and modeled an entire character after Bell. That writer was Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
It’s an example of how we can’t always anticipate what will influence other people. Walt Hickey and Eugenia Lostri discuss ways that pop culture can influence everything from popular baby names to the kind of government people want to have. For a more direct example, they talk about the uptick in girls taking up archery in the wake of Katniss Everdeen.
The film A History of Violence features this skewed mentorship between Tom Stall and his son Jack. When Tom foils an armed robbery at his diner by killing two men, his carefully crafted life starts to unravel. It wakes a violent streak up in his son, who brutally beats a bully in the school hallway. Tom tries to redirect, but he’s not coming from a moral high ground:
TOM
In this family, we do not solve our problems by hitting people!
JACK
No, in this family, we shoot them!
This failure of mentorship comes to a head when men from Tom’s past threaten Jack in front of the family’s house. Jack shows the exact lessons he’s learned from Tom in dramatic fashion. (Content warning: Graphic violence in this scene example) It’s not just his injuries causing Tom to suffer in this moment, but the recognition that he failed to keep his son away from the violence of his own past.
In The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly acts like an antagonistic mentor, perpetuating a cycle of abuse on her assistants that she may herself have dealt with when she was rising up. Phoebe De Jeu dives deep into the ways Emily and Andy mimic Miranda, and what this reveals about the lessons they believe they’re supposed to be learning:
In Unforgiven, there are a pair of students in search of mentors: The Schofield Kid and W.W. Beauchamp. Both of them are looking for elders who can validate their ideas about life in the west, and both wind up disappointed and confused. John and Craig take a deep dive into this, and many other layers of Unforgiven in episode 314 of Scriptnotes.
Circling back to Spider-Man and Tony Stark, Bart Bishop condenses the different relationships the two heroes have had in both comics and film, and considers why movie Peter so frequently has a villain as a mentor. George Chrysostomou looks at this from Stark’s perspective, asking why the MCU Tony would take on Peter as a mentee.
When we think of mentors in a story, often it’s about directly teaching something to a protagonist. But what about unintended lessons? What about students who learn the wrong things? Or just unexpected things?
Quote-Unquote Black Friday Deals
At this special time of year, let’s all remember the true meaning of Black Friday: Brands informing you about temporary discounts.
In our case: 25% off!
This week, we’re cutting the price on our Writer Emergency Packs and the re-released card game for word nerds, AlphaBirds!
If you’re looking for a gift for the writer in your life, or looking to find something new and quick to learn to bring to holiday gatherings, we’ve got you covered!
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Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, in last issue’s most clicked link Taryn O’Neill brings actionable advice for writers looking to take a step back from dystopian narratives and find a more hopeful form of storytelling.
What else is inneresting?
Derek Sivers on how some people are conditioned to misread questions as an indirect form of conflict.
For those who ever wanted hard data on the subject: If Miley Cyrus did try to come in like a wrecking ball, she would not be able to break any walls. It would, in fact, wreck her.
How journalist Laura Hazard Owen is changing her news consumption habits.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
Inneresting is edited by Chris Csont, with contributions from readers like you and the entire Quote-Unquote team.
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