Hi!
Almost missed this, but I went back and read the essay that produced it.
Have to admit I'm not overly familiar with either the fics or anime/manga
that were mentioned, but I thought I'd add my bit...
So I think that that, in inflicting cruelty and pain on characters, the
impact on the writer shouldn't be ignored. When I'm writing from a
character's viewpoint, I'm seeing through their eyes, and feeling what they
feel -- joy or laughter, or rage, grief, fear or despair. I suspect that
it's probably the same for most good writers. I've never >asked them, but
I suspect that Mike Noakes is going through all the >anger and confusion
with Ranma and Akane in "Choices", and Nick >Leifker's probably been right
there in all the painful decisions >in "Clothes Make The..." or "Iris".
It's interesting. I've had feedback from people wondering if I've lived a
fairly horrible life, or suffered my fair share of pain, and so on. In a
writing class, I had the main character of a story I wrote analysed as being
both emotionally and sexually terribly repressed - and then was asked if it
was autobiographical (it was). Despite all this, I maintain I'm a fairly
happy guy. And part of the reason for this, I think, might simply be that I
express some of the shitty things that I've undergone into my writing; I let
the characters exorsize some of my pain, and let them suffer in my stead.
(Having said that, I have to say that, yes, I -do- get involved in the
tenser moments of writing introspection, or arguments. If there's any
chance of it being good, or seeming real, then I suppose it's inevitable.
And while I'd say I don't get too emotionally attached to anything I write,
I do find I need a rest after finishing any major piece. Exhausting stuff,
it is. . . .)
Or, maybe, it's a hell of a lot simpler than that, as is so well expressed
here:
And thus, there's another reason for doing it, inflicting all that shit on
fictional characters. That reason is that, after going >through all the
dark places with these people, it's such a marvellous >joy to see them
emerge again. Defeating the pain, working through the >hard decisions, and
-- we can hope -- growing up in the process.
And that's it exactly. Who cares what I've (or any other writer) has gone
through (although it's inevitable that personal experience will emerge in
any kind of decent writing) - there has to be justification for torturing
these characters, and the best reason is their development. Inflicting harm
on someone, even fictional, for no reason other than torment for its own
sake, strikes me as obviously wrong. In any kind of literature, it's just
bad writing. But driven with purpose, it's an extremely strong tool for
characterization. To get all high-falutin', it's what they do in the first
book of the Faerie Tale, slamming the poor Redcross Knight into absolute
mush, so that, once he hits rock bottom, he can be rebuilt (psychologicaly,
emotionally, physically, your pick) into something stronger, better. It's a
great storytelling tool. It's what's driving Choices, somewhat, anyway
(with the arrogant presumption that I'm pulling it off properly).
Of course, the end result better justify the means, in this case. If it
seems important to rape, brutalize, torture, and whatnot a character -
especially when done in on-screen detail - than what comes out in the end
should be worth the character's (and readers'!) pain.
My characters in SM4200 have got some dark roads still to walk. But
when they get to the end, and it's all over, they will be very different
people from the ones that began the story.
And who wants to read a story where the characters remain unchanged? Well,
okay, that's rather unfair, since entire genres are built around that, but
there is great satisfaction in seeing a character you like grow and change
with the story. I've never read SM4200 - all this makes me rather regret
never having done so.
And maybe I will be, too.
Heh. That's probably inevitable. Heck, I've been writing Choices for over
three years now, I sure -hope- I've changed in that time (and I've always
got this nagging suspicion that, despite all the above, real people are
actually beyond such easily-defined growth... but that's an entirely
different issue - or story.)
Hm, guess that's my couple of yen, for what they're worth.
Later!
Michael Noakes
noakes_m@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/noakes_m
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