“It’s stupid,” the girl was saying. “Really trite.” I think her name was Sonja.
“What makes you say that?” My English Literature professor prompted.
“Well, I don’t mean Beowulf specifically,” she qualified, “I mean, it started the trend in English literature, it’s so old. But I mean the theme itself. ‘Hero chosen by Fate to overcome all odds.’ The lone hero figure is everywhere culturally, from ‘Die Hard’ to ‘Hamlet.’ It’s annoying. Real life isn’t like that.”
“What does real life have to do with literature?” Katie asked. “Isn’t it possible to just enjoy a story? Escapism has its place.”
I tried to rouse myself. Something about this was important. I kept falling asleep in class lately.
“But it becomes cliché. Trends catch on and get boring. After ‘Catcher in the Rye,’ all protagonists are insightful and brooding. After Beowulf, everything from Camelot to modern movies has a singular hero out to save the day. Wrap it up in one package, throw in a few prophecies, and you have Harry Potter garbage with Special Child Syndrome.”
“What do you mean by that?” Professor Fleur said, trying to cause more discussion.
“It’s maybe just my name for it,” Sonja shrugged. “But it’s like a disease. How many stories have you read where the unlikely hero starts with nothing and becomes practically god-like, while prophecies predict his success? It’s boring. Especially considering the deus ex machina endings. I’d rather read something a little more creative.”
“You didn’t think Harry Potter was creative?” Suzanne asked. She loved fantasy literature. “I think it’s full of great magic spells and an interesting world.”
“Are you kidding me?” I spoke up. “Potter’s roots are in Narnia, Nesbitt, Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes. If anything’s derivative, it would be Rowling’s writing. Her genius lies in marketing the themes to a new generation.”
I turned my scathing tone towards the professor and the Sonja girl.
“It’s not a trend from Beowulf. Ancient civilizations wrote myths about heroes constantly. From Mesopotamia to Greece. The Bible is filled with it. Where do you think prophecies started? Look at Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samson… Let alone Jesus and his connection to the books of the Prophets. It’s not escapism, and it’s not unrealistic. For millennia it’s been part of the human condition. People wanted to believe they had a purpose, and that the world was bigger than just them.”
Fiona spoke up from across the classroom: “Don’t you think it’s incredibly narcissistic to think that way? For a reader to connect with the one character that’s significant, doesn’t that isolate them from other people? No one is that important. It’s misleading.”
“When you couple that theme with the deus ex machina ending Sonja is criticizing, you’re connecting with the history of morality plays and Everyman stories. In them, the ordinary person is elevated to Beloved of God, with a soul worth fighting for. You’re not isolating one person from humanity, you’re saying every individual is a ‘Special Child’ to God.”
My friend Erin, sitting beside me, put a cautionary hand on my arm. “You’re a little loud,” she whispered. “Ease up a little.”
Professor Fleur’s eyes widened. I had never been quite so scornful in my tone of voice in class before. Sonja was made of sterner stuff, however.
“Putting something in a book, or even a lot of books, doesn’t make it true or even important. And repeating the trend isn’t creative.”
“It is if you subvert it. Use what people know, and their preconceptions, and then twist them, make them stand on their head. With that you can be counter-cultural, offer critique of prejudices and preconceptions. William Shakespeare does it in ‘Macbeth,’ where your ‘Special Child’ of prophecy ultimately turns out to be a tragic villain, brought low by hubris.”
Erin pulled on my shirt, trying to get me to sit down. Apparently, I had stood up in the middle of class. It didn’t slow me down.
“He does it again in ‘Titus,’ criticizing Britain by criticizing its Roman influence, by holding it up for people to see. He doesn’t come out and say ‘Hey our system is misogynist and hierarchical and unfair,’ he does it through subtlety. That’s why he’s the only writer of his era who didn’t go to prison.”
“I still think it’s uncreative. Find a new way to say something, don’t just stand on someone else’s ideas,” a young man spoke up, Patrick. “Just tell the story. No one needs all that symbolism.”
“What’s wrong with symbolism?” Another young man, Allan, said. “It’s a rich tradition, connected to folklore and old wives’ tales. It’s historical.”
“Symbolism connects you to universal truths of the human condition,” I backed him up. “You get in touch with Jung’s collective unconscious, the thoughts that are shared with the entire race. Everyone can understand and become emotionally invested in the story. And that opens the door to new ideas layered on the old ones, for critique, for allegory, for transformation. There’s nothing wrong with a clean story, but there’s also nothing wrong with one with layers. Sure, some authors fail to use the themes creatively. But that doesn’t make the themes themselves irrelevant. Holden Caufield’s misery doesn’t suddenly make depression trite. Tell that to someone who’s suffering.”
“I think we’ve had an engaging discussion today…” the professor tried to end on a positive note.
“I think I’m tired of listening.” I said, mainly to myself.
11 comments
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April 11, 2008 at 1:03 am
Bertram
This chapter is funny on so many levels it isn’t funny, but scary.
First, I had to laugh at how you used your blog friends. Very clever — Suzanne with love of fantasy, Sonja questioning everything, Patrick trying to stick with basics.
Second, you could have been discussing my work-in-progress. I had absolutely no idea I was following so many ancient themes. I knew the themes, of course, but here I am, a disbeliever in symbolism, a believer in simply telling the story finding myself using the eternal themes: hero chosen by Fate to overcome all odds, the unlikely hero who starts with nothing and becomes practically god-like, the subverted deus ex machina ending, and symbolism connecting us to universal truths of the human condition. You have to admit it’s hilarious.
(I still think your speaker attributes could use a little work, but it’s difficult to be simple when you have so many people in the discussion.)
April 11, 2008 at 1:10 am
Fiona
E.E. Nesbitt! “Four Children and It” “The Story of the Amulet” Good stuff!
A little bit like Harry Potter, but not really that much. More subtle. But Sherlock Holmes???? Where did that come from?
This is actually the closest thing to Hogwartz before Harry I’ve come across. It’s a really neat little story. And there’s maybe a teeny bit of destiny in it, in that the heroines’ name is Mary Smith, which she feels is a name that could never bring her to anything interesting in life…
April 11, 2008 at 1:59 am
Allan T Michaels
hahaha – excellent. I especially love my own defense of symbolism and folklore. Wonderful tying in of all of our little quirks/interests.
And it’s true. There’s only so many stories under the sun. Polti wrote his book “The 36 Dramatic Situations” in 1917, and no one has improved upon it, so far as I know.
Google Books has the whole thing online, for free, here – http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=SK_1PdiGXhsC&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=georges+polti&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Fq%3Dgeorges%2Bpolti&sig=_YoEvEWT58skgdcXVhdyM4hamJ4#PPA1915,M1
April 11, 2008 at 2:07 am
sonjanitschke
That was an awesome chapter.
Like you were inside my head or something!
Thank you. 🙂
April 11, 2008 at 10:51 am
nomananisland
It seems like you all liked it. I’m glad. 🙂
Harry is like Sherlock Holmes in that he and his friends investigate the suspicious goings on at the school, and then sum everything up at the end. Hermione is more Holmes’ brain power, and Ron is the bumbling Watson, while Harry does the bulk of the clue-gathering. Rowling is drawing on the entirety of English literature and synthesizing it into one story, taking the best of everything. It’s like a stew.
She won’t blatantly rip-off Nesbitt, Lewis, Tolkien or Doyle, but she certainly incorporates them. She’s like a prism in reverse: taking the many colours to make one pure white beam.
As to the discussion itself: Sonja raised an early point long ago about the Special Child Syndrome. She’s right: it’s over-used and cliche, to the point that it deserves a name. I included it as a facet of Ethan’s character entirely on purpose, not to be stereotypical or derivative, but to subvert the theme to a new purpose. It won’t be entirely clear until the ending of the story, and maybe not even then, but this discussion is a way for me as an author to tell readers an important clue: This story is NOT about what it SEEMS to be about.
In other words, like Shakespeare, I’m subversive. I hope I have more in common with him than that, but that’s enough for now. 🙂
April 11, 2008 at 11:46 am
nomananisland
36 Situations: Um, I looked this up on Wikipedia (don’t have time to read a book right now) and unless it’s a disaster, I don’t see War as a device. Plus, evil doppelgangers replacing you and killing your friends. I didn’t invent that, so I can’t take credit, but it’s still a situation.
April 11, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Allan T Michaels
“A Fatherland Destroyed” is indeed one of the “Disasters” Polti lists. And war is specifically discussed. The Fall of Humanity is also encompassed here.
War also falls under “Daring Enterprise” (Situation 9)
I’ll admit, the doppleganger is harder to find. But I’m sure it’s in there. 🙂
April 11, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Kitabare
Heh, looks like I’m trying to be the voice of reason and keep people calm. And you didn’t even know about my whole (for lack of better terms) fear of making waves, don’t draw attention to yourself, non-confrontational mindset that I get on occasion. Which is weird seeing as how I’m normally pretty outspoken.
June 4, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Merrie
Haven’t commented before but I have been reading on and off. Reason why I haven’t commented is because I can’t decide if I love or hate the story.
Just noticed a small spelling error in this chapter though
“My friend Erin, sitting beside me, but a cautionary hand on my arm. “You’re a little loud,” she whispered. “Ease up a little.””
The but should be put
June 4, 2008 at 12:18 pm
nomananisland
Thanks for catching the typo, Merrie.
Can I ask what you hate and love about the story? Or the reason for the ambivalence, maybe? I can’t really change NMAI, but I do learn a lot from comments for future writing.
June 30, 2008 at 3:22 am
srsuleski
Bwa ha ha ha!
That was my reaction the minute I read the first line of this part and saw “I think her name was Sonja”
😛
Recognized Katie and Allan too but wasn’t familiar with the other students/commenters.
Hee.
Now I have a terrible desire to steal this trick.