Last Friday I
wrote about the challenge I have in writing LGBT antagonists. On the one hand I said that I like to write
fiction with which the readers can identify.
It’s unfortunately extremely easy for LGBT readers to identify with LGBT
characters whose stories show a struggle with the “traditional” mentality of
the non-LGBT majority. IN my writing the
LGBT character/community is the hero going up against institutionalized ignorance
and homophobia in families, religious communities, schools, and politics.
On the other hand I confess that there is a danger in always
setting up a story with this formula.
Even though I still believe that this particular formula makes it easy
for LGBT people to see themselves in the story and identify with the characters
because they share a common struggle, I also have to acknowledge that the world
isn’t as black and white as we sometimes make it out to be. Not all non-LGBT people and institutions are
bad guys (obviously) and not all LGBT people are heroes.
I’ve been chewing on this idea since I posted that 500 word
essay last week. I’ve come to the conclusion
that, though I’m obviously well intentioned, I’m feeding the beast that is one
of our society’s most challenging problems:
Oversimplification leading to polarization.
In Harry Potter and
the Order of the Phoenix, Harry is complaining to Sirius Black about the new
teacher, Professor Umbridge. He clearly
believes Umbridge could be a Death Eater, the bad guys who support
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. In response
Sirius observes, “…the world isn’t split into good people and Death
Eaters. We’ve all got both light and
dark inside us. What matters is the part
we choose to act on. That’s who we
really are.” I think this also becomes
part of the answer to the recurring question of, “If all the bad guys come from
Slytherin, why not just kick them out?”
Because it’s not that simple. Look at Snape, one of the best literary characters of all time.
What stings a little as I come to terms with this oversight
on my part is this. You would think that
someone with a background in counseling and psychology, who is a fierce
advocate for the appreciation of any individual’s story rather than summarily
dismissing or categorizing the individual based on my limited understanding of
their story—you would think I would know better. You would think that I would be more aware of
the “shades of gray” when it comes to individual morality and personality
types. To truly understand an individual’s
motivation we need to hear their story and, after hearing their story, we will
very rarely ever find that the individual does what they do because they
describe themselves as “evil.”
Here’s a great example.
Last night the season six finale of The
Walking Dead aired and it shocked
fans. I mean, Alfred Hitchcock once
said, “Always let your audience suffer as long as possible.” Well, The
Walking Dead takes Mr. Hitchcock’s advice to the next level. Last night we were introduced to the new
antagonist, a guy by the name of Negan, and by the end of the episode all we
know is that Negan has killed one of our heroes. We don’t know who. All we know is that we now hate Negan.
After new episodes of The
Walking Dead, there’s always a show in which actors, creators, and fans sit
down and process what they’ve just seen.
It really is a massive group therapy session. Last night was the creator of the show, a
producer, and the guy who plays Negan
along with someone who might be our
dead character (because we won’t know who died until the new season airs later
this year). As the audience in the studio
and at home was processing the loss of a character and their hatred of Negan, I
think it was the creator of the show that said, “Look, if we would have started
from day one with Negan instead of Rick (our main hero) and followed his story instead of Rick’s story, you
would understand Negan’s motivations better and sympathize with Negan and think
it’s Rick who’s the out of control
psychopath.” This assessment was
spot-on. The audience’s estimation of
the “evilness” of Negan rests solely on the fact that we know Rick’s story and
not Negan’s. Negan’s not “evil.” Negan is trying his best to establish order
in chaos. And it’s obviously working
because no one has taken him out yet.
You see?
In our post 9/11/01 world it’s a difficult truth to accept
because we have been so conditioned by politicians and the media to paint with
a broad brush when we use the word “terrorist.”
However, this is another perfect example of the fact that people are not
motivated by “evil.” One person’s
terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.
Over Easter weekend there was a terrorist attack in Pakistan. It’s easy to dismiss the perpetrators of the
act as “evil” but it doesn’t solve the problem.
I’m not an apologist for heinous activity, but I do know that if we took
the time to understand why people
keep blowing themselves up in their effort to blow up as many other people as
possible, we’d be further along to ending this so-called war on terror. Certainly much further than using “advanced
interrogation techniques.”
And the thing is, when it comes to my writing, I’ve written
stuff that is more nuanced when it
comes to morality and ethics. I’ve just
never done it my LGBT young adult stuff.
I suppose that’s because, going back to my first assertion, I want to
write things that readers can easily see themselves in. I’ve said it before: I try to write the kind of story that I
really wish I could have read when I was growing up.
So, setting aside real life for a while (which is what writing is all about for me),
let me briefly explain how I normally develop characters.
It’s a process, character development, and it’s usually
never done. I joked a few weeks ago that
in my current book the characters weren’t cooperating. Sometimes it’s like, “You think you know
me? Well, just because you’re the one at
the computer coming up with this crap doesn’t mean you know what I’m going to
say and do.” And it’s true! Sometimes I’ll be clipping along in a story
and BAM! I’m completely sidelined by a
comment or a reaction from a character.
When I start the story I obviously sketch out histories and goals and
motivations; these end up being parameters for the character. For example, in These are the Days, Caleb is extremely motivated to be honest about
everything. It’s one of the things he values the
most. So when it comes to dating Tyler,
who hasn’t come out yet and is actually “in a relationship” with one of Caleb’s
female friends, it causes Caleb a considerable amount of stress. It would never be in Caleb’s character to
turn a blind eye to something he thought was deceitful. Honesty is a boundary Caleb won’t cross. So, I set the boundaries but as I get to know
the characters in the first and second and all the way through to the final
drafts, they characters themselves fill in the space between the
boundaries. It’s how I work.
In planning those boundaries, I go back to something really
simple. It’s about the only thing I ever
learned by heart from my attempts at playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Character alignment.
I like this image because it gives fictional examples as
well as real life examples as it describes one of the nine basic alignments as
seen through Dungeons and Dragons. There are other ways of doing this,
identifying character traits, beliefs, and motivations which ultimately lead to
the character’s position on the “good vs. evil” spectrum. You can even go so far as to tap into
psychological theories like Bowen’s Family System’s Theory to understand the
fictional people you’re creating or even the very real people in your life—not so
that you can pigeon hole them but so that you know how to both approach them
and protect yourself. Basically, so you
know to get along with them.
I think the most important thing to remember, though, is
that charts like this are objective.
Hitler wouldn’t describe himself as “evil.” Gandhi wouldn’t describe himself as “good.” These are external estimations applied to an
individual. Again, if you really want to
understand a person’s morality, you need to talk to them and listen to their story.
Here’s another way to look at it. When you study ethics, you will learn that an
individual who behaves in what appears to be the most unethical way may
actually be a very ethical person. Ethics is the branch of philosophy
that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and
wrong. Going back to Hitler, most of the
world would agree that he was immoral or even amoral, his actions unethical. To Hitler, he had systematized and was
obviously able to defend his beliefs and actions, thus creating them, in his
mind and in the minds of his followers, as perfectly ethical. It goes back to the same truth: In order to understand a person, you have to
hear their story. We don’t do this
anymore in our world. It’s just easier to
dismiss people with whom we disagree or who we need to be enemies as “evil.”
And that brings me back to where I started. Maybe by setting up my young adult fiction
according to the simplified formula of “hero vs. anti-hero” I’m contributing to
a mentality that is crippling our society.
It makes for nice, clean story telling that doesn’t drag out with loads
of exposition to reveal internal dialogues and motives. There’s a challenge here I need to explore
more. It’s something I’ve done in other
writing but it is a more complex way
of writing.
But maybe that’s the ultimate lesson in this. Maybe I’m underestimating the intelligence of
my readers.
The bottom line is this:
It’s easy to say, particularly in our present election cycle, that this
candidate or that party is the physical embodiment of evil. I may not always agree with certain
politicians, religious leaders, high profile actors, etc., but I don’t think
any of them are “evil.” I might think of
them as uninformed and ignorant, their ideas and positions as aberrant and abhorrent,
and their policies as regressive but I don’t think any of them are actually
evil. This means I have to take the time
to understand them, why they say the things they say and why they do the things
they do.
I’m pretty sure I’m a better person for the effort.
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