Hate your family? Become a fantasy hero. Or maybe not.

[fictualities]

What makes for a page-turning story? What's the engine that makes a narrative speed along like The Little Engine that Could? I've got a suggestion, one that I think works for at least some stories: hatred. You start out by drumming up a little hatred in your readers for the protagonist's enemies (like every single Harry Potter book does with the

Comments

[laurelgardner]

Hmm...there may be something to this, and I'll have to think on it for a while. But I will say this for now: I can't believe that hatred is necessary for a page-turner after reading Orson Scott Card's "Ender" series because: there are no villians at all. And you can't put them down.

[fictualities]

I've only read the first Ender book, but I think it's really fascinating! I can't speak to whether or not there are villains in the series as a whole, but in the first book, there are a lot of -- how shall I put this -- hate-drenched situations. The narrative pattern seems to go like this: Ender's put in a situation where he's under threat from hateful people (from his brother, from bullies at school, that horrifying scene in the shower, from the Buggers in the various gaming scenarios) In every case he responds with overwhelming violence that he later feels guilty about. As far as Ender's character is concerned, the violence is explained after the fact as a coolly adopted strategy (and this is what is supposed to distinguish him from Paul and the bullies who constantly menace him). As far as the reader is concerned, though, violence and hatred are an inescapable part of processing the narrative: if you as a reader do not at some level enjoy watching Ender be put under threat and then repeatedly kick the living shit out of his

[carmarthen]

I kind of thought Peter was a villain (for lack of a better term), and I absolutely hated his character when I read the books (the scene with the squirrel alone would have done it, but there was plenty of other stuff, and I don't agree at all with some of OSC's implications in writing him). But I find all of OSC's books really problematic politically and socially in some way or another.

[dichroic]

One of the flaws in Cooper's work, to me, is that plot arc (of both the book and the series TDiR) separate Will from his family in ways that are minor in the book but are irrevocable and will inevitably grow ... without giving him a choice in the matter. It's the lack of choice that bothers me more each time I reread the books, but I love them so much I still do reread. Harry Potter, in contrast, is all about the choices the characters make. (Not saying it's not flawed too, but that's one flaw it doesn't have. TDiR, on the other hand, has almost no others, at least none that bother me.)

To get to the point you make, without antipathies, I'm not sure Will even could make those choices, but if he could, they'd be all the more poignant for coming only out of love. Pity Cooper doesn't give him the chance.

[fictualities]

are minor in the book but are irrevocable and will inevitably grow ... without giving him a choice in the matter

I do see that as very sad. There's this moment in TDiR when Paul asks Will what the hell is really going on, and Will decides that he just can't answer that question. I find it so touching, and so revealing, that it's the brother with whom Will connects the most who is explicitly rejected in this way -- it shows that this parting of ways is explicitly NOT grounded in conflict but in an absolute difference between two types of being. Love can bridge the gap between Will and his family -- he'll never cease to love them. But Will is, just as you say, given no real choice -- or at least he sees none -- about the degree to which he can work with them and confide in them. And that is, yes, very painful.

[sistermagpie]

It is sad, but I don't see how it's a flaw. Some things in life *aren't* chosen, and the decision to make Old Ones without choice in the matter is obviously completely inetntional on Cooper's part. Old Ones aren't human. Will isn't being offered a chance at magic or called to a Quest that he can refuse. He's is *awakening* to what he is, and that is different from his family

[mkcs]

"It is sad, but I don't see how it's a flaw."

I've always seen it as one of the strengths of the series. Growing up involves taking responsibility for the world around us, and we can't stay warm and safe in our private family worlds all the time.

I think the way Cooper makes it clear that it's not just Will who has to make this sort of choice, but everyone, is very clever.

The best example I can think of is how Will's brother and father deal with the local bully and his father, after the incident with the Bangladeshi(?) boy. Will's father isn't able to choose to pretend the rest of the world will be fine without him, either, because, like Will, he isn't prepared to live in a world where evil actions are left unchallenged.

Will's challenging of evil is metaphorical, and at the centre of the story, but the edges are full of much more literal depictions.

[fictualities]

Another difference is that in TDIR, the enemies are not really normal people - they are messengers of The Dark in people's clothing, and they are not "baddies" because of their actions so much as their intent.Oh, this is an excellent point. You know, a few weeks ago I did this post asking about why fantasy/sf writers insist on personalizing their antagonists when they have the freedom to postulate antagonists that are so radically alien that we can't really understand them. You've made me realize that an example of someone who tried this was sitting on my bookshelf all along -- Cooper! The villains are very creepy in Cooper, but not only do the Old Ones not hate them, but it becomes pretty clear that hatred of these villains would be a category error, like hating the weather. They're sentient, but not exactly human -- they're either mortals being manipulated by a larger force or they're entities that embody such a force. It's hard to personalize a conflict with beings like that. Cooper does say somewhere in TDiR that the Dark

[mkcs]

"we can all relate to the desire to bring bullies down a peg or five, but rarely have we experienced the subtle, creeping darkness described by Susan Cooper

[p_zeitgeist]

You know, I think you've just identified precisely why I love The Dark Is Rising, and at the same time, why a huge amount of popular fiction leaves me cold. Also, why I have trouble structuring stories myself. Also, part of what I reacted to so badly in the Jackson films of The Lord of the Rings.

I can't even address your core question about the pleasures of hatred as a reader, because what you've made me realize is the extent to which I really, really don't enjoy it. The things I linger over in books, and the books I come back to, fall much more on the Dark Is Rising side of the spectrum, where what's moving the characters is more beauty and love than anything else, and even such anger and hatred as they may feel arises out of their love of whatever might be threatened. And if there's anything that will keep me from engaging with a narrative on an emotional level, it's a principal character for whom anger is a frequent response to events or interactions

[rabidsamfan]

Ah, that lovely sense of "bingo!" I was in the theater for RotK and while most the audience cheered when Gandalf hit Denethor, I just closed my eyes and winced.

[sistermagpie]

I wince at that moment every time. Worst moment in the whole series of movies by far, imo, but it gets a cheer.

[p_zeitgeist]

I bet you could use that moment to separate the members of the audience who were there because they loved the book from the ones whose only knowledge of the books came from the first two movies. That isn't the first cringe-producing moment, but it's something of a universal, I think; even people who're generally enthusiastic about the adaptation seem to wince at that one.

How many years is it now? And I still resent what they did to Denethor. Grudge, much? But of course, what I really resent is the way the extension of copyright means there's no chance of going back and doing it over. Say, as a zillion-part miniseries for HBO or Showtime or someone, so that you had time and space to structure the whole thing properly. Why will no one make me God-empress of the universe so that I can take care of this??

[msilverstar]

I'm not in a very analytic mood, but another (mostly) happy family is Meg and Charles's in "A Wrinkle in Time", and subsequent books. They act to save the family from threats, so there's something to hate, but the home is a haven in general.

[fictualities]

*bounces* Eee, I LOVE those books! That's another great example of a harmonious and happy home life, of characters who are at peace with each other. But it says a lot about TDiR that they are even MORE free of conflict than this splendid example. Meg gets along great with her family, but school's another story, and the opening chapters have a lot in them about her frustrations at being different and her anger at any adult who dares to say anything about her father. TDiR has no equivalent of that tension between the hero and the world -- he's got good friends at school (who happen not to be around during the Christmas holiday, but he's got them. He's an accomplished boy soprano who's won prizes for his singing. In some way's it's spooky how well he's adjusted to his environment

[ashkitty]

I think it's a good observation--and that though technically quite different genres there is a lot of similarity in the way Cooper and L'Engle approach some topics. :)