Hoids Curse: A Nod to the Pandemic?

[curon he/him]

As far as I understood, we know that Sanderson wrote Tress during the pandemic, right? So when Hoid said that he had "lost his sense of taste" due to the sorceress' curse, I could not help but wonder whether this was in some way inspired by the COVID induced literal loss of taste that was rather present in that period of time. What do you think? 

[RaeTheRaven]

I think this is the kind of literary interpretation we did in high-school. Trying to find some hidden, obscure meaning in random things that probably never passed anywhere near the author's mind, let alone through it lol. What I think is that Brandon found the wordplay amusing as Hoid would also find it amusing to mislead the audience into thinking he couldn't taste things and later reveal he meant "taste" in another way. 

[curon he/him]

2 hours ago, RaeTheRaven said:

I think this is the kind of literary interpretation we did in high-school. Trying to find some hidden, obscure meaning in random things that probably never passed anywhere near the author's mind, let alone through it lol. What I think is that Brandon found the wordplay amusing as Hoid would also find it amusing to mislead the audience into thinking he couldn't taste things and later reveal he meant "taste" in another way. 

Haha oh my, I clearly remember those deep af high school interpretations! Not exactly fond memories, mind you! It's interesting that you should feel this one is like them!

[Zelda Goldberry]

I hope not.  I try to avoid as much of the real world as possible. (as an agoraphobic, among other issues, this is not that hard.)  

[MapEffects he/him]

I didn’t read it that way, and I hope that wasn’t a parallel he was drawing. Brandon has made it clear in some Q&A sessions that people in the Cosmere have more highly developed immune systems so they aren’t susceptible to what we would typically see as viruses. So even if one does arise, it is quickly overcome by the populace. Hoid likely even more so due to his…special nature haha. Obviously the text is directly connecting it to the curse though, and not a natural ailment, which in my mind detaches it even further from the connection you’re making. 
 

While I suppose it is still possible, it does seem a bit too much like reading something into the text. I can see how you could, but since it doesn’t seem to be the author’s intent I don’t think it’s worth entertaining. If it was his intent…It gets a hard eyeroll from me. I hate that kind of stuff in fantasy books haha.