Remarkable
Both Monkey Man and I have main characters in our works in progress who are remarkable. His has mystical elements. Mine is all human, but he is remarkable because he is going to save the world. Last night, in my writers' group, my scene was meant to show that even at age five, this boy was remarkable. Something about him . . . .
The archetype has been done before. From Jesus at the temple, to Harry Potter in the crib. From Buddha beneath the tree to Arthur and the sword in the stone.
It's gotten me thinking . . . we are each special by virtue of being born. Every person has a story. Some stories may have operatic elements. But we all live . . . we all have our struggles . . . we all die. But even in our non-archetypal, real-life, non-novel lives, we meet people that are somehow different. They are remarkable. We marvel at their charisma or their genius or their compassion or their passion. What makes them stand out? Who are these remarkable people? What makes one boy born into uncertain parenthood a president and another a casualty of circumstance?
Over at Genius's sandbox, we'll be continuing our writing 201 discussion . . . and it's all part of the same whole. How do we create a remarkable novel? To me, it starts with a remarkable character. So what makes a person remarkable? Who is the most remarkable person you know?
22 comments:
You seem pretty remarkable to me, Erica. And I know that's not what this is about.
The most remarkable people in my life are my kids - they've been through more than many adults I know yet also have more wisdom, strength and compassion.
Truly remarkable people leave the world a better place than they found it.
Amy:
Kids have such resiliency and the world often asks them to handle far too much.
E
Jude:
I think many people do that. Many, many. So it's admirable, but not remarkable. Nope, I'm talking the person that awes everyone around them. The archetype.
E
Oh. Then that person doesn't exist. Not for me.
We throw the word "awesome" around casually all the time, but I'm not really in awe of any person. Not really.
I suppose we all have archetypal qualities in one form or another, but I don't think any person, by definition, can actually "be" an archetype.
At the level I think you're talking about, that's difficult, isn't it? I know many people on a day-to-day level that I think are remarkable--my brother, my wife, my sister, my kids. But how often do you run into people where you say, Hmmm, they're going to take over the world.
Here's the thing, too. I've met Michael Moore. He and I grew up in the same town. He graduated with my sister. My brother used to work at his suicide hotline back in the 1970s. When you meet Mike, is he remarkable? I'm not so sure. But clearly he is. Clearly he has a voice and a vision that is remarkable. He's always had a certain attention focused on him, even when he was a teenager in Davison, Michigan, because he's always fought the establishment, been loud and brash and confrontational, along with articulate and scathingly funny, which is part of how it works for him, I think.
So I don't know. I've met many people who I think are remarkable, for their passion, for their kindness, for the fact that they seem to be, hmmm, "professional human beings" while most everyone else is strictly an "amateur," if I can say that without being obnoxious. Some people just seem to go through life as if they know what the hell they're doing.
Jude:
Wow . . . I can list a lot of people I find remarkable. I DON'T toss "awe" around at all. There are people every day who are starting grassroots organizations to feed the hungry, or working with Doctors Without Borders . . . there are people out there who inspire awe. Viktor Frankl awed me. Now . . . people I know PERSONALLY? I still know a couple. They are people who have done amazing things in spite of incredible odds and seem to possess a sureness.
E
Mark:
I hear you. I have lately been looking at my youngest daughter's photography and find her eye frightening--I mean, a kid who is 11 should not possess the eye to take photos like a 40-year-old professional. And sometimes I think, "Kid, you are going to do amazing things with that camera of yours." I don't know though what gives one person vision, makes one person DO amazing things not just TALK about them. And so as I am creating my fictional character . . . I am thinking what makes Aleks so remarkable? He is very clever. He is very wise at a young age. He absorbs tragedy without letting it deter him from his mission. He is strikingly handsome. He is the guy everyone notices when he walks in the room. He inspires people's faith. But at five . . . what makes him so remarkable. Right now, I am tyring to paint him as an old soul.
E
I would say I am hugely impressed by some people, but not in awe. To me, awe is reserved for God.
Tangent here ... but we were talking about this last night a little bit, and I'm still thinking about it. I'm referring to Roger Ebert's remark that Harry Potter is a somewhat "sturdy" and "boring" main character. Yes, he possesses great loyalty and courage, but he's not a wild, "remarkable" character in the sense of, say, Hagrid or Dumbledore or even Snape.
I think this is part of the success of those books -- he's a strong but sort of ordinary teenager. We can relate to him. I think Frodo and Bilbo Baggins also fit this mold. They aren't remarkable as much as their circumstances are, and that's part of makes the story so compelling.
And then there's Paul Atreides (for all you Dune fans). He's the one who can see Beyond, a sort of prophet figure and the result of a thousand years of selective breeding. He's not relatable, really, because he's gifted with prescience and crazy power. But he's compelling, because of his power.
As a writer, I suppose I'm drawn to the Dune model more--characters who must learn how to use great power, rather than the more ordinary character who prevails by sheer dint of moral courage. But I think you can hang a great novel on either.
Jude:
If you read the post then I think we're talking about semantics here . . . but suffice it to say I do find some human beings remarkable as I've defined it.
E
Lurker:
That was an amazing conversation. I think, for me, Aleksei is human. He has amazing qualities. But for some reason, the sum total of his life will bring him to the point when he can save the world by accident and design of science. I think for me, it is people like Viktor Frankl, or Elie Weisel, or . . . fill in your amazing person . . . who possess some inner compass that steers them.
And yeah . . . still pondering the whole thing. I think in my case, Aleks can be related to.
"But for some reason, the sum total of his life will bring him to the point when he can save the world by accident and design of science."
This should be good!
The trick I think in a situation like this is presenting a choice, if that makes any sense. I think with regular people who do amazing things, like Viktor Frankl, it often comes down to a pretty simple choice: What is tolerable? What must I do to remain the person I am? That's real moral courage, and it's pretty amazing. It's a Garden of Gethsemane moment, itself the culmination of a thousand little decisions at every point along the way.
Anybody can turn away from greatness—and most people do—but the truly remarkable people never lose sight of their original conviction.
One of my old students, now friend, is a remarkable person and poet. He's a freshman, and the poetry editor for the Atlantic has already compared him to a prodigy, but really, he learned a bunch of different languages and then he studied poetry thoroughly. He wrote and wrote. He did the work, and his poetry is jaw-dropping astonishing now. I mean, a year and a half ago, he started having something to "say," at sixteen! He's wicked smart, has a scathing wit, and is kind and respectful and generous to older people.
I tend to write ordinary people with a twist. I want my readers to see their insecurities and desires and fears and hopes, and then make them feel comforted and inspired and loved and understood. Come to think of it, that's where I'm getting hung up on my latest. She's too remarkable, lol...
But then, the key might be an internal thing: to believe that ordinary people are remarkable.
Lurker:
Definitely. I mean, I consider Viktor Frankl one of the most admirable men who ever lived. How did he keep his walk with greatness in the face of the Nazis??? THOSE sorts of people . . . the truly great ones . . . how are they different from those who walk away from greatness or great moral moments.
I think Aleksei is one of these men for whom failure is not an option. And he is utterly driven by his love for Evie. And be BELIEVES the miracle is contained in the double-helix. That it's THERE and tangible and he just needs to stretch his brilliant brain enough to find it.
E
Natasha:
I am writing a scene now where Aleks gets good and drunk on Stoli's Elit vodka. And he is ordinary in his silliness. I want him to be fully human and ordinary, but to have a charismatic spark.
Just for a moment, Jon, let me follow your tangent about The Lord of the Rings. When I was 16, I was far more attached to the characters of Gandalf (wizard, cool!) and the Legolas and Gimli (elf & dwarf), but yeah, the key characters are Frodo and Sam, the "normal" people with the huge task ahead of them and no particular skill set to deal with them. Interestingly, though, as an adult (and a middle-aged one at that) I find Aragorn a more interesting character, perhaps influenced by the movies more than the books, but he's all about taking responsibility and facing your own destiny. So at different points in our lives we may relate to certain types of characters better.
Mark:
I loved Gandalf the first time I read it, maybe fourth grade. Over time, it was Bilbo and Frodo that fascinated me. I think as I grow older, I realize, perhaps, that what separates an ordinary person from an extraordinary one is what Jon talked about--choice, conviction, not turning back. And if you look at the LITERAL journey in the Lord of the Rings, at any point . . . they could have turned back. But did not.
I've known quite a few remarkable people - and I think there are different versions of this. Some people are born charismatic, just born that way - they enter a room and every person feels greater for being in their presence. It's a gift. Sometimes it's accompanied by some other thing - a talent for music, or words, or brilliant intellectual prowess... but I think that sort of presence almost magnifies everything else. There might be someone more talented or more brilliant, but the charismatic guy will be the one who inspires you. It really is not a measurable thing, you can't see it but you feel it and it's not common.
Some people, like your daughter, have an awe inspiring talent. They still have to do the work - we all know this... but it's in there, that kernal of greatness. In one small area or many different ones. I don't discount gifts of talent, because they can make a greater change to a vast number of people than I think society often give it credit for.
The one that wows me though, more than any other, is greatness of character. Those people who will hurt themselves to do the right thing, to help someone else, to stay loyal to a friend, to fight for what they believe in. It doesn't have to be accompanied by any special physical strength or great intellect, but it can be. Character isn't as common as we like to believe it is. And it's much harder to do the right thing when it will adversely affect you - most people can't do it, or don't even consider doing it. They do the right thing when it won't hurt. That greatness, when it's found in loyalty and courage in the face of fear (notice I said fear, not danger... a fool can be unafraid in danger, that's not brave it's just stupid)...
I think this goes back to Harry Potter, while I see what Lurker Monkey is saying, I disagree. Rowling gave him a greatness of character. For the reader, it's an extra draw because you can so relate to him in that he's not really extraordinary in any performance sense other than quidditch... but he's still remarkable, especially given his age and raising. That greatness of character was just in him.
Merry,
I think we actually kind of agree ... I might have poorly expressed my thought. Harry Potter's great traits, the ones that made him Harry Potter, were courage and loyalty. But like you said, in a performance sense, he was a pretty ordinary kid, even with his Quidditch ability. If you walked into a room full of characters from the wizarding world, he's not likely the one who would stand out.
I was trying to draw a contrast between the characters who are remarkable because of what they can do—levitate, order armies around the globe, shoot a man dead at 3,000 yards in a high wind, see the future—and those who are remarkable because of who they are. Like you said, it's the difference between "gifts of talent," as you nicely phrased it, and "greatness of character."
And I think either can anchor a great book.
Jon,
You didn't state it poorly, I read it hastily :-) I just went back to your original comment and realized that I was attributing Ebert's comment to you when I left mine earlier.
I think we're in total agreement. The Quidditch thing, I think was remarkable but I also thing it was a clever way to draw Harry's parallel to his father and to give him something, some special thing, so that all the ways in which he's ordinary don't plague the story. It would have been very easy for her to go over that way, with the character preoccupied with the fact that he's not as great as everyone thinks he is.
And I totally agree that the character has to have 'something', some uniqueness or special quality that sets him or her apart. There has to be a reason we want to root for them and follow their journey. It doesn't have to be greatness of character, that's just a personal favorite for me - in life and in fiction. But for my money, if you're making them extraordinarily good at something or a lot of things, you need to give them flaws. Otherwise I'm liable to dislike them because they're unrelatable and just don't have enough to get past.
The character that's springing to mind here is actually a movie character - Will, from Good Will Hunting. Brilliant, but so flawed, but brilliant - the kind of brilliant most of us would give our eye teeth for... but we root for him because of his flaws. (he also has greatness of character, as does his best friend, which doesn't hurt.)
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