Tag Archives: literature
Classics You've Never Read Part Five: Getting Better All the Time
November 14, 2019 about writing, Age - Adult, Authors - Will Hahn, Genre - Fantasy Storiesadventure, Captain Nemo, conflict, Fantasy, fiction, Goals, History, Jules Verne, literature, Mysterious Island, survival, world-building, writing journeytrekelny
{A series first published on the Independent Bookworm site, now brought back for your enjoyment.}
"Classic. A book which people praise and don't read"
Now you know for sure I was right with the title of this series; you wouldn't dare contradict the author of Huckleberry Finn. It's a classic!
For the sixth book (trust me, I can count, we're on book 6), I come at last to a deeply embarrassing confession. I loved the book, really. But not the way I expected, not as much as I hoped. And my expectations were set in this case, because I had seen the movie first! {Oh, the shame…} And LOVED IT! But that's OK, because you probably haven't seen the movie either (not the right one anyway- there has of course been a remake).
Now you need to thank me, because the easiest thing to talk about with this book would be, ONCE AGAIN, world-building. Or at least, society-building in its lowest common denominator. But this is a tale about how life continually improves, and why, when you land on … The Mysterious Island
You map something and it's real!
I heard that wise-crack- "enough with Jules Verne already". Pipe down, you- do you realize all of his tales I could have used? And I will, if you don't behave, you watch me. But I admit this is not one of his more famous novels, which is curious because he did what we're all supposed to do as authors- went back to one of his most popular characters for a sequel. Even better, he hid him for half the book! Instead he follows more good writerly advice and whacks you between the eyes with a fabulous opening. Five remarkably-diverse but worthy men and one faithful dog escape a Confederate prison in the waning days of the war, by stealing a balloon which promptly gets caught in one of the most powerful storms of all time. Blown halfway around the world, marooned on an uncharted island… oh, you've heard this one before? Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson… guess what, Verne's first draft of the tale was titled Shipwrecked Family: Marooned with Uncle Robinson. So, there's some encouragement for you if you think the greats were never inspired by (read- cribbed from) what they read. Or never got rejected by publishers.
So yeah, it's the whole we're-alone-in-a-strange-place-what-do-we-do-now genre: at the bottom looking up. Ingenuity to the rescue- MacGuyver without phones, A-Team without helicopters: when you think about it, there's a very long standing tradition of we-can-do-without-almost-everything, one that can be really fun to contemplate. These five guys drop onto foreign soil with just one penknife and the scraps of the stuff that makes a balloon. No food, no orientation, no extra clothes or shelter or whiskey or cigars. But they're AMERICANS, by golly; once they create a fire, it's all downhill from there.
Sure enough, they construct shelters (even becoming socially mobile and moving up to better and better quarters over time). They fire bricks, smelt iron, create explosives, herd cattle, determine their latitude and longitude- it's the man-cave run wild. I kept waiting for them to make a toilet with no seat to have to put down. Which brings me to my first observation about this kind of story- survival and improvement tales are all about authority in your voice. If you do a ton of research about an historical period, or a scientific subject pertinent to your plot, you know you want to show it off to the reader. And that's not wrong- it excited YOU, there's got to be something there for them. But how?
Here's how- the castaways are struggling for their very lives, and that's an empathic situation for the reader, they wonder "what WOULD I do?". Once you introduce an authority figure- in this case, the super-genius American entrepreneur Cyrus Harding- who starts to tell the others how to do a thing, it naturally translates for the reader. See that red earth there? Here's what you do… and the reader is practically feeling like one of the workers now, going step by step, building it up and sighing with satisfaction when the job is well done. As the characters feel increasingly empowered, the reader is also carried along, thinking "wow, I could survive on a desert island". If you get there, you've got them.
Lucky they teach guys so much as civil engineers! My credulity got strained when it became clear that Harding knew everything, like the combined reincarnation of Archimedes and Da Vinci. They build a boat, a serviceable sailing ship, and while discussing whether they could make it to civilization aboard, they get a mysterious message in a bottle from another castaway on a
Hey, sustainable.
"nearby" island. Me, I'm thinking "maiden voyage, nearby means I can see it from here!" but nothing scares these guys, and they duly depute a couple to sail over and pick the fellow up. Then comes the elevator, the telegraph- OK, now I can chuckle and relax into a more normal state of suspended disbelief. After all, what did Jules Verne know about "Gilligan's Island"?
And that's the second point- do you want to be a laughing stock with your story? Isn't it kind of, you know, bad to portray nothing but uninterrupted progress throughout a tale? What about conflict, downturns, that terrific way you can play yo-yo with a reader's emotions? Your sadistic cackle of satisfaction as you picture the reader alternately throwing the book on the floor with a scream, and then snatching it back up along with a tissue, to turn the page. Is that why Mysterious Island wasn't a big hit, isn't this something you should never do?
My unhesitating response is- let me get back to you on that. I can only speak for my genre, and even there not with authority, but I think it's safe to say that epic and heroic fantasy are in a strong swing towards anti-heroes, deconstruction and morbidity right now. I've gone on and on about Game of Thrones, but GRRM is hardly alone and it's hardly been just recently. We've become more hard-bitten as an audience generally, I think; all kinds of rather horrible things get lined up under the rubric of "realism". Witness the incredible popularity of "The Walking Dead" on TV! There's a point of view that your story needs to portray the world "as it is" which is to say, going to hell in a handbasket, in order to be serious or believable. So you certainly can't afford to show the heroes constantly progressing, improving and having nothing but good times… right?
But there's so much to be gained from a rise to triumph over circumstances, against all odds. All-time best survival-struggle-ingenuity tale in history- Captain Kirk, the 23rd century starship
Well sure, all us space-age guys know the formula for gunpowder!
captain, marooned on a worthless planet against a bipedal xenophobic gila monster, manages to cobble together a prehistoric shotgun that fires diamond ammo. Man, they learn almost as much at Starfleet as a 19th century civil engineer!
I guess the only right answer is, sometimes. If readers believe their own alleged-real lives are going in the hopper- first of all, they might be right or wrong about that. And second, assuming they're right they might want to see it played out straight (fist-raised, rock-musicked, drug-smoked anti-war movies for the Vietnam generation) or to escape it (Astaire and Rodgers skating around a richly decorated ballroom for mass audiences during the Depression). We seem to be in love with bad these days, the only reason the characters get a lift is so the next drop can be even deeper. Me, I get about five hundred pages along, and realize the latest bout of good fortune is just another dead-cat bounce, and I'm done. So a movie like Mysterious Island should tank. I gather the remake in 2012 did; I didn't even get past the trailers. But it wasn't about things getting steadily better- it was another thrill-ride with crisis after crisis, you can tell.
Um, does the CRAB know it's on the menu?
The REAL movie, from 1961? Man, what a fantastic flick. Same survival theme, manly men scraping for their lives and making it better. But hey- giant crab for dinner! My debt of pure joy to Ray
Harryhausen is vast… And I have to admit, once in a while Hollywood gets it right. They put two women in- another shipwreck- and it was the right move. No big romance, but more of a balance to this miniature society.
There you go. It's not necessary to have the tale's tone be all-down, or only-up-to-go-down. But it does have to point to something else to really succeed. Swiss Family Robinson always emphasized the family above all; Robinson Crusoe found out a lot about what he didn't need (and what he still did). With Mysterious Island there is a strong aspect of what it takes to be a society: Harding is elected leader and his judgment always prevails. The members of this tiny nation have their parts to play, and work hard to reap rewards with satisfaction, overcoming their differences in the process. Others can be admitted if worthy- the castaway is a wrongly accused pirate, and while the handling of the former slave Neb is still stereotypical, it's a big step that he is accorded equal's treatment. The group even domesticates an orangutan and raises him to near-human status. Oy, give me the English ladies in the movie, who make the point perfectly well that you can admit new members who merit our interest, but still decide to reject the pirates (who show up in both the book and
Ah yes- tonight's special.
the movie). Yeah, pirates with cannons, not exactly a fun development- and by the way, lest you think this tale is Sunnybrook Farm without the little girl, did I mention the volcano is going to blow!!
The book and movie have a second theme as well- the eventual discovery of the island's former total population, Captain Nemo. Once again I found the treatment of his character and his
Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and- oops wrong movie.
part in the plot was better done in the movie- his heroic sacrifice stayed with me since childhood when I first saw the film, and I kind of realized that he wasn't all bad, but it was better he wasn't coming back to the world. Pretty serious thought for a kid of eight watching a movie- maybe things don't have to get better all the time, for everyone.
In The Plane of Dreams, the main party of adventuring heroes starts out having ejected one of their members, and admitting new ones to their society. Along the course of their new adventure, they run into some serious trouble, not quite marooned on an island but nevertheless bad. The party is looted and beaten up, and it's somewhat a wonder why they haven't been killed. Still, things are not good…
Zoanstahr was certainly surprised to awaken at all. Twice he had been the special target of an attack, and this time he had already seen the rest of the party fall before him. But the unusual fact that he was still alive paled to insignificance when he realized that he was completely naked.
Wm. L. Hahn. The Plane of Dreams (Kindle Locations 870-872).
Starting from there with literally nothing, the party starts its climb back up- and they must redeem their reputations as well as their belongings. It was a long haul for them, but a fun and ultimately rewarding one to witness. (That's all I do, by the way, just watch them in action) Even the party member they rejected at the start helps to save them all, by sacrificing his life unknown to the world. The more I think on it, the more I realize how much I've drawn inspiration from the work of others (and we both know what THAT word means!). For me, it was the movie first this time- but then, they read the book, so it's all good.
And I didn't have to wait to be rejected by a publisher before putting The Plane of Dreams out there. I guess it is getting better all the time, for me.
Classics You've Never Read, Part One: Why Pretend?
March 14, 2019 about writing, Age - Adult, Age - Middle Grade, Age - Young Adult, Genre - Fantasy Stories, Genre - Historical Storiesadventure, Characters, conflict, fantasy adventures, heroes, Heroic fantasy, History, inspiration, literature, world-building, writers journeytrekelny
Classic: a book that people praise and no one reads.
-Mark Twain
I hope you enjoy my attempt to create a series of blogs around great works of heroic fiction that most folks haven't read. Several of these I have mentioned before in one forum or another but now I want to try and do several things: amuse you, get you interested in checking them out, and perhaps find a window into the writer's craft through these past works that resonate with us so well in other forms.
There's no shame in seeing the movie, let me hasten to mention that. In nearly every case I can think of, I found the book to be better, but usually that was only after seeing the tale. When a classic is redone, it's interesting to see whether the basic inner stuff of it has changed. I find, most often not; even Hollywood doesn't always screw that up!
This Question of Disguises, Now…
For my first theme, I want to look at two great classics that share one such common idea. Their heroes, set in almost the same time period but halfway around the world, do the same thing when faced with evil. They adopt a secret identity. This raises a great question, one that classic heroic and epic fantasy seldom touches on- why pretend?
Most folks know why Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent took on a mild-mannered alter ego- freedom to act and the need to protect loved ones from harm. But Superman and Batman, it turns out, were far from the first.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is widely thought to be the first hero in history to have a secret identity. It's also one of the first heroic fantasy tales authored by a woman, the Baroness d'Orczy in 1903. There's definitely something up with that, and if I say much more I'll be accused (with justice) of chauvinism. But I'm here to tell you, guys aren't nearly as interested in hiding their powers as women are in believing this dope before them truly has hidden talents. Deep water here, and I don't swim well…
Tiny flower, BIG action.
This is a gorgeous tale of death and danger in the blackest days of the French Revolution, when the Reign of Terror was eating people by the hundreds. Faking his disinterested, foppish life as a useless English dandy, Sir Percy Blakeney conceals from everyone- including his beautiful new French wife- that he secretly commands, as one of his followers puts it, "nineteen men who would lay down their lives" for him. Guided by his brilliant mind, the Pimpernel and his gang outwit the horrid, cruel, secular (!) French soldiers and agents to save dozens of innocent French aristocrats from the guillotine's embrace. Then he returns to English society sporting the latest fashions, on the arm of his wife making witty remarks and annoying everyone- especially her- with his "inane laughter".
The Best Intentions
We discover as the story moves briskly along that there has been a terrible misunderstanding crossing the main characters, one that probably won't be happily resolved and which could lead to Blakeney's death. He had only started his career of rescuing French nobility when he married the gorgeous Parisian actress Marguerite, whom he secretly still worships. For her part, Marguerite defended her beloved brother Armand by speaking down about a leading aristocrat, and her denunciation led to the death of that entire family- staining her with suspicion of sympathy for the Revolution. Blakeney adopts the guise of a flaccid fool, always honoring his wife and giving her every luxury but never letting on that he could be the mysterious hero capable of leading such daring and intelligent escapes. She is stung by the change in her husband and resorts to sarcasm, making fun of him in an effort to rouse the man she thought she knew. All this makes her look even more guilty to Blakeney's heartbroken view. And when the dastardly French agent Chauvelin gets wind that Marguerite's brother Armand may be helping the Pimpernel, he blackmails her with the young man's life in order to enlist her help in exposing the enemy of the Revolution.
"Chicks dig that romantic crap!"
One remarkable aspect of this secret identity theme is that the hero is so obviously torn; he dare not let Marguerite know the truth because she appears to side with the enemy. Yet Percy is hopelessly in love with his wife still. After a moonlit encounter on their veranda where Marguerite implores him to be more truthful with her, he holds firm as the lazy, disinterested dandy until she turns to go. Then he throws himself to the tiles and kisses the ground whereon she walked. I'm telling you, chicks dig this stuff!
But the other aspect that may be of interest to the writer is that this situation compels us to see almost nothing directly from the hero's point of view. For at least three-quarters of the story, you search for the Scarlet Pimpernel along with everyone else (you do better than they do). Nothing is told from Percy's perspective until close to the end; there is a level of remove where you don't read what he thinks or feels, only what he says and does. This increases the tension and reveals his character beautifully, whereas an omniscient third-person view would struggle hard not to seem maudlin or cute. Much of the heart of the tale is really from Marguerite's point of view. The moment when the awful truth finally breaks down the doors of her mind- when she realizes that she has already led her husband, the man she always loved, into Chauvelin's death-trap- is the height of the story.
What Hollywood Made of It
Hugh Grant did well enough in the movie-version I would say, but the earlier flick with Leslie Howard (who played Ashley Wilkes in "Gone with the Wind") sticks in my head. Ironically, it was Howard who immortalized the phrase "Sink me!" coming from the dandy Sir Blakeney; yet in the first book of The Scarlet Pimpernel Blakeney never uses that phrase. Also Merle Oberon perfectly matches my image of Marguerite.
Sink me! Nice cravat, wot?
In summary, we have a tale in which the hero adopts a secret identity specifically to prevent his plans from being overset and to keep his men from even greater danger. And he takes this foppish guise chiefly to keep the tale away from his beloved- not because he fears harm to her, but because he suspects she is his enemy. This sets up tremendous pathos and conflict in every scene they spend together, and d'Orczy exploits this original idea with fabulous prose that cuts to the heart of the scene each time. Her descriptions, dialogue and turns of phrase are uniformly apt and convey the emotion without slowing the pace too much. I think like any reader, I had moments where I "got it already" and was a bit impatient when she lingered on an image or reinforced an emotion, but there was nothing here to take me out of the tale for a second. I would rank The Scarlet Pimpernel as classic Heroic Fantasy (using my Fantasy Solar System taxonomy), shading towards Cinematic mood in places, particularly where Percy adopts an ingenious disguise despite his enemies knowing what to watch for.
Final bit of trivia- it was first put up as a stage play and evidently struggled, but the novel was published in the same year and did wonderfully right away. And I would rank The Scarlet Pimpernel as one of my top three ever Broadway shows- "Into the Fire" still makes me stand up and cheer out loud.
Read it For Free
I downloaded The Scarlet Pimpernel for free to my phone from Amazon Kindle Classics- this is a wonderful value for me because I'm often traveling or without my laptop and can still read quite easily on the phone. I can change the background and font-size to suit my failing eyes, and the only feature I miss from the laptop version is the automatic dictionary. The free versions do suffer from imperfect formatting and there is the occasional mis-spelled word or even repeated phrase, but it's nothing to pull down your enjoyment of the tale. Here's another site to get it as an e-book, and you can also listen to it as an audio-book.
So, which tale is set at the same time, but far away and also makes use of a secret identity? Stay tuned for Part Two! And let me know how you reacted to any version of The Scarlet Pimpernel you may have seen or read.