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bedlamsbardWhat the fuck did I have this thought about? I can't remember if it was a book or a movie, though -- okay, yeah, I remember, it was The Dark is Rising. (The book, I have not been able to bring myself to see the movie. I think I saw the first two minutes and then promptly tried to rip my eyes out.)
I reread The Dark is Rising with the intent of rereading the series as part of my project to figure out what it was that had been gnawing me about The Graveyard Book in the same standing as Narnia and a couple of other classics of children's fantasy lit (and now I can't remember what they are -- I think I was also going to reread the Prydain Chronicles, but then I had to come back to school). It wasn't the first book of the Dark is Rising sequence that had struck me as being similar to the rest of the books on my list, but I haven't reread the series in a really, really long time.
Yeah, I didn't get to the others, because something about The Dark is Rising bothered me a lot, and here is what it is:
I don't like stories about extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. I like stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Extraordinary people being -- oh, Will Stanton, who finds out he is a superspecial Old One, and just -- agh, I reread the book and was kind of flailing in horror at some parts, I think especially the scene in the church with his brother and the priest, where it's all, oh, these humans wouldn't understand, and human-ness, humanity, becomes a weakness. Like -- I feel that this is actually a generational difference between, say, fantasy/sci-fi/horror written in the past decade or couple decades, and before that, and that more current work is much more focused on humanity as a strength rather than a weakness (HP and the power of love is the first example I can think of, and then most of Robin McKinley's work), but then again - it's been a really long time since I reread a lot of children's fantasy lit, so I could just be making this up. (Or conflating fanfic with original fiction, because I feel like that POV is much more prevalent in fic than in original fic, and I don't read a lot of original fantasy fiction because my tastes are so weird.
But, okay, example: One of the reasons that Narnia really works for me is because, on a core level, it's ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It's four almost absurdly ordinary schoolchildren suddenly forced into an extraordinary situation, finding out exactly what they're capable of. It's not four kids finding out they have amazing magical powers or that they're really aliens (with amazing alien powers!) or anything like that; they're still the same people they were before, just in a new, unfamiliar setting where there's suddenly so much more expected of them. Same thing with Jill and Eustace. Sure, it's an amazing world, but they're still -- just people, with all the limitations that includes.
With Harry Potter -- on one level, that sort of fits into the "extraordinary people" category, but actually -- not so much, at least for me. I mean, he's not one of a privileged few, or the only one ever, he's one out of many wizards, and he's still just human. He doesn't have any special powers because he's Harry Potter, who may or may not be the Chosen One; he's just one wizard out of many, but one who has to do absolutely crazy things.
And now we shall get a little more controversial! I think that, when it comes to Star Wars, the PT actually fits into "ordinary people doing extraordinary things" more than the OT does. I mean, the OT has ordinary as hell Luke Skywalker, but he's special, he's the one remaining Jedi! And the PT has not-so-ordinary Anakin Skywalker, who has the most amazing Jedi powers ever, but -- okay, I give up, I think this argument is falling down unless I switch the focus to a non-Skywalker character, like Obi-Wan motherfucking Kenobi. Yes? Yes. Because he is ordinary; he's just a regular guy (with some cool powers, but he's far from the only one with such skills) doing extraordinary things in extraordinary times. (Minor break for Obi-Wan flail. Obi-Wan! OBI-WAN MOTHERFUCKING KENOBI. Okay, I'm done now.)
Wow, it's a good thing I never meant for this post to be coherent, huh?
ETA: Because it probably bears repeating at this point, I was just talking about the title book, not the whole series as a whole.
I reread The Dark is Rising with the intent of rereading the series as part of my project to figure out what it was that had been gnawing me about The Graveyard Book in the same standing as Narnia and a couple of other classics of children's fantasy lit (and now I can't remember what they are -- I think I was also going to reread the Prydain Chronicles, but then I had to come back to school). It wasn't the first book of the Dark is Rising sequence that had struck me as being similar to the rest of the books on my list, but I haven't reread the series in a really, really long time.
Yeah, I didn't get to the others, because something about The Dark is Rising bothered me a lot, and here is what it is:
I don't like stories about extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. I like stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Extraordinary people being -- oh, Will Stanton, who finds out he is a superspecial Old One, and just -- agh, I reread the book and was kind of flailing in horror at some parts, I think especially the scene in the church with his brother and the priest, where it's all, oh, these humans wouldn't understand, and human-ness, humanity, becomes a weakness. Like -- I feel that this is actually a generational difference between, say, fantasy/sci-fi/horror written in the past decade or couple decades, and before that, and that more current work is much more focused on humanity as a strength rather than a weakness (HP and the power of love is the first example I can think of, and then most of Robin McKinley's work), but then again - it's been a really long time since I reread a lot of children's fantasy lit, so I could just be making this up. (Or conflating fanfic with original fiction, because I feel like that POV is much more prevalent in fic than in original fic, and I don't read a lot of original fantasy fiction because my tastes are so weird.
But, okay, example: One of the reasons that Narnia really works for me is because, on a core level, it's ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It's four almost absurdly ordinary schoolchildren suddenly forced into an extraordinary situation, finding out exactly what they're capable of. It's not four kids finding out they have amazing magical powers or that they're really aliens (with amazing alien powers!) or anything like that; they're still the same people they were before, just in a new, unfamiliar setting where there's suddenly so much more expected of them. Same thing with Jill and Eustace. Sure, it's an amazing world, but they're still -- just people, with all the limitations that includes.
With Harry Potter -- on one level, that sort of fits into the "extraordinary people" category, but actually -- not so much, at least for me. I mean, he's not one of a privileged few, or the only one ever, he's one out of many wizards, and he's still just human. He doesn't have any special powers because he's Harry Potter, who may or may not be the Chosen One; he's just one wizard out of many, but one who has to do absolutely crazy things.
And now we shall get a little more controversial! I think that, when it comes to Star Wars, the PT actually fits into "ordinary people doing extraordinary things" more than the OT does. I mean, the OT has ordinary as hell Luke Skywalker, but he's special, he's the one remaining Jedi! And the PT has not-so-ordinary Anakin Skywalker, who has the most amazing Jedi powers ever, but -- okay, I give up, I think this argument is falling down unless I switch the focus to a non-Skywalker character, like Obi-Wan motherfucking Kenobi. Yes? Yes. Because he is ordinary; he's just a regular guy (with some cool powers, but he's far from the only one with such skills) doing extraordinary things in extraordinary times. (Minor break for Obi-Wan flail. Obi-Wan! OBI-WAN MOTHERFUCKING KENOBI. Okay, I'm done now.)
Wow, it's a good thing I never meant for this post to be coherent, huh?
ETA: Because it probably bears repeating at this point, I was just talking about the title book, not the whole series as a whole.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-17 06:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-17 06:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-17 06:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-17 08:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-17 06:40 pm (UTC)I like Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence, and I think the book you most want is The Greenwitch, which not only brings back Will and Merriman, but the children from the first book, Simon, Jane and Barney Drew; they're perfectly ordinary. The book puts some emphasis on Jane because she's the only one allowed to see them make the Greenwitch, and looking at the figure she says/thinks "I wish you could be happy", which plays a very important part later in the book.
I'd point out the fourth book, The Grey King, because of Bran Davis, but Bran has his own extraordinary moment in being the son of King Arthur brought forward by his mother to be raised in 'modern' times. Of course, in the end, Bran chose to be ordinary rather than extraordinary but that might not be what you're looking for.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-17 08:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-18 04:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-18 05:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-19 03:32 am (UTC)Also, one reason Blue Beetle is so awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-19 06:24 pm (UTC)The new Blue Beetle or the old one? It's been a really long time since I was on the fringe of comics fandom, so I have no idea what's going on...
Here via metafandom
Date: 2010-01-19 05:29 am (UTC)That was actually intentional on the author's part. In "Swords and Ploughshares," an essay that appears in her book Dreams and Wishes, Susan Cooper quotes John Rowlands saying to Will, "It is a cold world you live in, bachgen. . . . I would take the one human being over the principle all the time." And then she comments:
"That cold white flame at the heart of the Light, and Will's justification of it, come from the absolute certainty I was given, when I was small, that we were right. Hitler was evil, and the greedy advance of the Third Reich across Europe was the rising of the Dark. Little Britain, Jack the Giant-Killer, was the last repository of the Light, and anything we did to defeat the Dark was okay. Even our churches confirmed this: one should pray for victory, said the Archbishop of Canterbury, adding to the prayer 'if it be thy will,' or 'for the victory of righteousness.' . . .
"The self-righteousness of the Light is no doubt preferable to the depravity of the Dark, but it too holds great dangers. It can reach the point of a holy war, fought for the promotion of one of the historically militant religions, like Christianity or Islam - and at that point the Light enters the Dark, or vice versa, and gives birth to monstrosities like the Inquisition, or the death sentence pronounced on Salman Rushdie.
"I'm with John Rowlands. I would take one human being over the principle, all the time."
Re: Here via metafandom
Date: 2010-01-19 06:25 pm (UTC)Re: Here via metafandom
Date: 2010-01-22 01:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-19 06:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-19 05:18 pm (UTC)