Held Captive by a Story

There are certain stories I can’t get out of my head. They’re rather insidious, laying eggs in my brain like some sort of Lovecraftian monster redesigned by the unholy lovechild of H. R. Giger and Steve Carell. The eggs hatch and latch onto my various creativity glands and refuse to let go.

And thus there are certain stories I return to over and over again.

I wrote a novel… oh, gosh, years ago. The rough draft of the novel is about as old as my first child.

Now I feel old.

Why do I hurt myself like this? Continue reading “Held Captive by a Story”

Stories of Christmas Past

Why do we love A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens so much?

First published in 1843, this slim volume has been adapted and readapted and transformed so many times. It’s a world that has become so pliable that Mickey Mouse, Twilight Sparkle, Patrick Stewart, and George C. Scott have all taken cracks at it. (Incidentally, if you think that the Muppet Christmas Carol isn’t the best adaptation, you’re wrong, but I suppose we can still be friends. Probably.)

There are certain stories that our culture comes back to again and again. I’m not talking about TV Tropes, though be careful if you click that link. You’ll be lost for hours. I’m not talking about the Hero’s Journey, though that’s also a compelling narrative. Obviously.

There are certain stories that we can’t seem to let go of. Stories like Cinderella. Stories like Robin Hood.

And A Christmas Carol falls into this pattern, too. There have been so many adaptations, and more than their fair are pretty entertaining. What is it about this world that we love returning to it in so many different shades of color?

You could argue at this point it’s simply a cultural touchpoint; everyone knows it, so if your tv show wants to do a Christmas special, simply slot your characters into the various positions and poof! You’re set to go!

(Incidentally, I really want to see Jean Luc Picard play Ebeneezer. Not Patrick Stewart, mind you. We already have that one. I want to see the cast of Star Trek: the Next Generation slotted into the roles. Imagine Worf as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, or Barclay as Bob Catchit!)

I think there’s more to it than it simply being a cultural touchpoint – otherwise it would never have made it to being a cultural touchpoint in the first place.

It doesn’t follow a lot of normal story beats. I mean, the bad guy protagonist isn’t exactly normal even now, is it? Sure, we have Wicked and Maleficent and all that now, and so many good guys are really gray guys in dark worlds, but Scrooge is set up to be the guy we cheer against!

And time travel wasn’t exactly a normal trope when it was originally written. (Time travel isn’t a normal trope for most TV series adapting it, either.)

Really, none of the “main characters” have much agency in the story, either. Scrooge is carried along by the ghosts. He doesn’t even agree to the process. It’s forced on him. While Scrooge surely grows through the story, it’s not by his own doing. Bob Cratchit, who in most stories would be the protagonist, is ogled by Scrooge as he’s carried along, but Bob just keeps on keepin’ on. The most agency he has is asking for some more coal!

And really, how many stories these days come with morals, especially as typically up-front as this story is?

In other words, A Christmas Carol has a lot going against it when it comes to “normal” storytelling. I want to note that I’m not claiming any of this is bad; I’m simply noticing that it’s unusual. I have a feeling if I analyzed the story structure with any standard “how to write book” I’d wind up tossing the whole thing out.

So why is the story adapted so many times? Why is it so well-loved?

I think it comes down to a message:

If you shape up your life, you won’t be dragged to hell.

Isn’t that the main message? Marley visits Scrooge, and tells him to listen to the ghosts to come if Scrooge would avoid his fate. The original story has Marley show Scrooge many other ghosts condemned to see others in need and never be able to help. If Scrooge just starts helping others, he can save himself.

What’s fascinating to me is that this message is pretty blatantly anti-Christian.

John 3:16 may be the most famous summation of Christianity: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” I prefer Ephesians 2:8-9 myself: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Christianity is not about what we do, but about what Jesus did for us. And with Christmas being the day Christendom celebrates Jesus’s birthday (though he was more likely born in the springtime), it’s interesting that story that’s about what we do to rescue ourselves gained such traction.

But I understand. It’s an attractive message, isn’t it? Work hard, and you to can rescue yourself.

Which isn’t what I believe. (Usually I save these theological discussions for my other blog, but this has more to do with a story than theology!)

Any which way, it’s still a story I love, even if I disagree with the moral as usually presented. And yes, the Muppet Christmas Carol is the best adaptation.

Come at me, bro.

What about you? Why do you think this story is so well-loved?

When Worlds Die

Don’t you just hate it when worlds die?

I’m not talking about when planets explode in the interest of a story. Alderan is not on my mind as I type this, nor am I pondering of the post-apocalypse of Walking Dead or 13 Monkeys. I’m not even talking about the natural and writer-intended conclusion to a story, whether that be a great series finale (lookin’ at you, Babylon 5) or the perfect ending of a book (the Sabriel trilogy comes to my mind).

(Side note — Babylon 5‘s finale may be one of the best in televised science fiction. It still gets me every time I watch these last few minutes. If you’ve not seen the series, it’s worth it. Watching these five minutes without context probably won’t do much for you, though.)

If every story is a world built of syllables and ideas, then every one of those worlds ends eventually. If it’s as its creator(s) intended, all is good.

But when the story ends before it was meant to…?

The last… but should it have been the last? 

I don’t know if Larry Maddock intended his Agent of T.E.R.R.A. novels to be a spanning opera of building plots. The series lasted four volumes, and all of them were fun little adventures putting a James Bond-esque character into different time periods. The last volume in particular actually tied a number of plots from the previous installments together and left them in a pretty little package that left me wanting more. But… there is no more. That world has died.

(I have recently discovered that he had written more stories about one of the characters, Webley, before he was Hannibal Fortune’s partner. I will likely have to pick them up at some point, but I understand they’re more humor-based than adventure-based.)

When a series ends unexpectedly, I have this sad melancholy. It’s like all the people who lived in that world don’t get to say goodbye. They just pause at the end of a day, waiting for another page to be written, but it never will. A literary purgatory, if you will.

I never get this feeling from worlds that have single installments. If it’s a single movie or novel, I nod and say, “Well done.”

Nor do I get that feeling when a series comes to a planned end. Sure, Friends had a finale, but it had been expected (at least at the beginning of that season) and written for. The characters were all left in good places, and we all got to say goodbye.

But when a series ends in the middle of things, when sales weren’t high enough or a writer runs out of ideas or, you know, heartbeats… it’s just left hanging. The worlds they created wither.

Seriously. Pick this up. Give them a reason to start the series back up. Do it for me. 

I think of Scales and Scoundrels, a fantastic comic series that was clearly intended to go on quite a bit longer. I loved the characters. A dwarf afraid of the dark? A dragon (kind of) choosing to be human? Great adventures? Add to solid writing the perfect art… ah. Each installment was a delight.

But those pesky sales weren’t high enough, apparently.

And now… the world is paused. The creators are trying to bring it back some way, and I’ll be there to support them when they do.

But until then… the world has paused. I suppose it’s not a death, as it may continue. But for right now… it comes out to about the same.

How about Firefly?

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, get thee to Facebook. You can watch it for free right now. You can thank me later.

Think about all those great TV series that last not long enough.

Think about the comic series that end far too soon.

Think about the novel series that will never conclude.

Don’t you hate it when worlds die?

What do you do when that happens? I know a lot of people turn to fan fiction, but I’ve never been able to do that. I’m too focused on “official” stories. It’s not that there isn’t craft in such tales. (I’ve seen some My Little Pony fan songs that blow me out of the water… so I guess I can’t say I’ve never gotten into fan fiction stuff.) The problem is that I want it to “count.” Maybe that’s the comic geek in me, sifting through what’s in continuity and what’s out.

But for my sake, if you’re writing a series… please write a conclusion so that if something untoward happens to you, the ending is there ready to go.

It’ll help me and your world.

But probably mostly me.

It’s Not Just Bookshelves…

Bookshelves have a certain gravity. They suck me in. The reason they suck me in? So many stories are suggested there that I cannot resist their allure.

Of course, bookshelves aren’t the only things that hint at stories.

When I was but a young tot, there was this show on PBS, often airing Sunday afternoons. My family watched it pretty often. You might have heard of it… Doctor Who?

Anyway, I pretty distinctly remember this particular opening theme sequence:

So, maybe for you that one minute is a curiosity, an abomination, or maybe something terribly dated. But for me? Seeing that galaxy swirling in the background, and then to see the Tardis – that wonderful Time And Relative Dimension In Space – that blue police box zooming around the cosmos, knowing that every pinprick of light could be another destination for the Doctor and his companion (only one at the time), oh, that lit my mind afire. All those stories! Where would they end up next? The planet of the Happiness Patrol? Maybe visiting The Greatest Show in the Galaxy? It could be anywhere – maybe even earth! (Though I admit I usually didn’t care for those episodes at the time.)

Something similar would happen with this opening sequence:

That map.

That map.

How often do television shows open with maps?

(Yeah yeah Game of Thrones, but that’s so recent. It certainly didn’t affect me as a child! I’m hoping it doesn’t overly affect too many children directly… I’ve read the first novel and enjoyed it, but it’s hardly kid appropriate now, issit?)

But every time I saw that map, I couldn’t wait to see the show. Where would we go this time? What part of the map would we get to see?

For neither it particularly mattered to me where we would be this episode (usually); just knowing it could be anywhere blew me away. Each place on the map, each star, could be another story.

Did any television show openings do that to you? Invite you in with the incredible possibility of stories to be told? Now, I’m not asking what was a good television theme. There are so many of those! I’m asking specifically about ones that tickled with all the possibilities of so many different stories. I suppose A-Team did that fairly well, too, come to think of it!

What do you think?

As for me… I’m going to go do some nostalgic listening of old TV themes now…

The Gravity of a Bookshelf

Introvert problems.

Also book-lover problems.

As I’m writing this, I’m visiting my aunt and uncle and their kids (my cousins) for Thanksgiving revelry. We all have family that we experience… difficulty enjoying time with, but I love spending time with this part of my family in particular. We have a lot of common interests and spend our lives in similar ways.

And you know what I’m doing right now?

Well, besides writing this. Obviously. I mean, here I am.

I’m sitting in their guest room… gazing lovingly on all their books. They’ve got a great selection of Doctor Who books from the “dark time” between Classic Who and New Who. I’ve been gobbling up the back cover solicitation text, imagining all those stories I’ve never encountered before.

At the moment, I’m choosing Doctor Who novels over my family. Continue reading “The Gravity of a Bookshelf”