I love my friend dearly, but sometimes his suspicious nature can be burdensome. He can't believe every writer doesn't have some ulterior motive they're trying to push when writing their stories. I don't think he truly believed me when I told him I don't have an agenda, especially in my fantasies. Maybe that's why he doesn't read or understand fantasy. 99% of the time it's just good vs. evil.
Of course it got me to thinking and wondering. Do I have a theme or agenda I put into my stories without consciously thinking about it? I really don't think so, but what am I trying to accomplish with my story telling?
I purposely set my stories on worlds totally separate from our own so I'm not tempted to comment on the economic and social atmosphere that exists in our world today. I try to focus on my characters, and even though they occasionally have to endure physical hardship, I'm more interested in how they deal with emotional issues. How do they handle rejection and feeling inferior? What goes through their minds when someone actually accepts them for what they are? How do they deal with death?
I know for me, one of the deep seated reasons I enjoy reading and writing fantasy is because of feeling totally helpless as a child without the power to protect others or myself. I always fantasized having some kind of super power where I could change my world, protect those I loved, and punish those who I thought deserved it. I've come to believe, after many years of talking to others, this is not uncommon.
You won't find the characters in my stories being mercilessly abused over and over as if that will somehow make them better. The only thing it did for me was make me thankful I survived. I certainly don't believe it made me a better person. All it did was make me hard and cynical especially towards people who whine and snivel about how rough their life is. They have no clue.
If there's a theme to my books, it's to provide the reader with a character they can relate to. Someone to share in their joys and sorrows. I also hope to transport them out of their reality for at least a moment in time where they can forget their problems and be entertained.
Thank you for reading!
PS: Years ago I used to post snippets of my writing here, but I rarely received comments so I stopped. Would anyone be interested in reading them again?
"Explain the theme of the story" was always the English exam question that made me moan and mutter a dirty word. I never set out to write with a theme in hand. I'll leave that to English Majors to parse and pry loose as they desire.
ReplyDeleteAs to story snippets...I dunno. Maybe if they are used to illustrate some point in the blog, but otherwise a snippet starts in the middle, ends in the middle and is essentially an undercooked canapé.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea to use snippets only to illustrate some point I'm trying to make in the blog. Thanks.
DeleteI would tend to agree with your friend. I write with an underlying message, if that is a theme, then okay.
ReplyDeleteYet, in the quest to make characters the reader will care about, place obstacles in the way for him or her to overcome, and eventually overcome is natural formula writing. There has to be some theme there. As to it being deliberately done to push some secret author's agenda is true somtimes. I think there are those that do that. Some are veiled in that and others just lay it out.
That is looking at theme in a negative light. That, of course, is not the case most of the time. The book I just finished has a main theme of things are not always the way we think they are. The protagonist goes through a lot to come to that point, resolve it and get on with life in a healthy way.
Even cookie cutter books play to a theme, like the Mack Bolan series. Organized crime is full of bad people and a smart determined man can wrack havoc on them and to the tune of 40+ books. The theme is crime doesn't pay.
Most all the great books that Big Murray groaned about have themes. All deal with the characters struggling with something, be that the government or a fish as in Hemingway's The old Man And the Sea.
If in the author's mind for instance, feels killing animals for any reason is a sin, he can write a book where the hero wins out without eating any meat products and convinces or mandates (becomes King) that no one else will kill and eat meat. There is our message and theme.
Fantasy is no different, all the same messages and themes are inbedded. Only the place and tools available to the characters is different.
Snippets are always fun if there is a purpose for them.
My lack of excitement towards the "Theme Question" was the guessing game with the teacher. I'd cite "a man's struggle to pull himself up by his bootstraps to try and make something of his life." I've had too, too many instances where the teacher would wave that away with a somewhat supercilious air. "Yes, anyone can see THAT theme. Might as well say it's about the hero wearing pants. The real theme is the hero's, and hence the author's, homophobic struggle with proto-Marxist communism."
DeleteOr words in that price range.
And yet, somehow, my English marks were still solid. I guess I answered the more concrete questions accurately enough.
Your English teacher sounds like the one I had for Art appreciation. He could write a thesis on the meaning of a painting that looked like an arthritic monkey got a hold of some paint brushes and had a seizure.
DeleteAt least I now know what my problem is. It must be my life long homophobic struggle with proto-Marxist communism!