Writing Forum

Joto-Kai,

Shoot, you were too quick, and I'm left with my original offense. (sigh) Ah well, let me pass on what else your question might have meant and did to me on further consideration. You asked: "Why do you need to write about geniuses, great heroes, et al?" And I thought I might answer that it is interesting to see great people in common situations and common people in great situations. The reader needs to care along with the character, or the reader needs to see the character come to care, or the character must be cared about.

There is no end of lonely people, Elenor Rigby being but one fictional one in a song, and we all empathize with loneliness. How can this be? Why can't the need be matched with like need and the problem solved? It seems so simple. Look at all the lonely people. But there is pride of life that makes us reject the need that is desperately given and seek to give our love and attention to another who does not wish it. Isn't that remarkable? Can it be otherwise in fiction? How can we care about a fictional character that we wouldn't touch in our real life? Don't we require better, smarter, wiser, more exciting? Why do we do that?

It is interesting that Sherlock needs Watson to humanize him. Sherlock is the deducting machine, coldly logical and spectacularily unapproachable in his fortress of the mind. Watson appreciates what would seem, in fiction, difficult to warm to. Holmes also has flaws that make him a little less intimidating, but I think we remain involved because Watson cares when many or most might appreciate the force of nature that the mind of Holmes is but fear to approach. There might be an example of how you write a hero or a genius, the paragon and sidekick method.

Back to the personal. I find I care what you think Joto-Kai, and so my first inclination was to defend and argue my point. Then I thought to step beyond my pique and analyse something more human, the desire to climb socially. It does not serve one well, if the ultimate goal is to receive love and respect, to seek it above our station, but don't we almost always do that? I imagine there might be a market for vanity biography where you write for the one person who will be motivated by self-love to read a book about themself, but it would seem a poor path to mass market success.

I apologize for the way that my mind wanders and jumps, but here I come back to the point. I do think that it is in the nature of people to want to look into things above their ken. We can appreciate the truly good and the truly laudable and the truly virtuous character at any social strata, but they must be involved in something greater, even if it is only their rise in the esteem of fictional others to hold our attention. The small must become bigger. The big must become biggest.

Am I missing something? No, for I point out to you what you've no doubt seen, Kim's ass.

Respectfully submitted,

LSO