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shadowkat[This thing is chock-ful of typos and I'm too bloody tired to proof or edit it, so...I hope you'll forgive me. I'll try and edit it tomorrow. Okay it is tomorrow, later tomorrow. ]
I am irrationally attached to your characters. There. I said it. I’ve reached a point where even if I don’t like everything a work of fiction does, I believe the characters enough to the point where I almost react to them as if they are real people. Do you know this feeling? It’s where a show or a book can fuck up and do some ridiculous plot you hate and you don’t care about but you still watch or read along because their faces and I just want to hold them all so tightly. - Mark Watches regarding Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV Series third season episode "Lovers' Walk".
http://markwatches.net/reviews/2012/02/mark-watches-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-s03e08-lovers-walk/
I don't know if this is true of anyone else. But every so often I will run across something said in a book, a post online, a blog, an email, or a tv show that sort of states clearly and succinctly what I've felt, but didn't quite realize it. It's obvious of course when I read it. And I think...yes, THIS, exactly.
Today, I came home and scan read this week's Entertainment Weekly, which had a lengthy article entitled Shippers. And it talked about how people become obsessed with relationships or characters in a television series - specifically in relation to the Twilight books (which turned shipping mainstream even if it existed long before that) and television series such Castle, Bones, Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries (four shows that I don't really ship anyone in and of the four, only one that I'm still watching.) Apparently David Boreanze (ex Angel, now Booth on Bones) has become a "mainstream" shipper icon thanks to Buffy, Angel, Bones, and the fact that he is 6 foot with chiseled model good-looks. (Which probably means James Marsters is the icon for the cult underground shippers like myself...I never did like the popular boys. Geek may have gone mainstream, but I haven't.)
And of course...there's my past history with tv shows and books or stories in general where I've fallen head over heels in love with the characters. I could care less about the writer - some nasty god or goddess who takes the characters in directions that do not always meet with my approval. I've been known to write better and more interesting outcomes for my beloved characters inside my own head.
It all started with Kimba - The White Lion, a cartoon that aired in the afternoons right after nursery school way back in the early 1970s. Kimba was an imaginative little cartoon, with lots of gaps in the story, lots of problem solving, and I remember getting annoyed with the writers as a child for not finishing it to my satisfaction. I was probably no more than 5 or 6 at the time. Kimba was my first television boyfriend. He was rapidly followed by Disney's Robin Hood and then Davey Jones on the Monkeys...another series that I became obsessed with. Then of course there was Star Wars.
I loved all the characters on Star Wars. I wrote fanfic on Star Wars. And obsessively read the "published" fanfic. The most memorable and the best was Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I jumped from being in love with Luke in Star Wars, to being in love with Han in Empire, and loving Princess Leia - steely and strong. It hit all my story kinks those two flicks did, and hey I was what 14 at the time? This was to be followed in kind by BattleStar Galatica - I fell for the cynical, brooding, and sarcastic Apollo. Then I feel for Starbuck soon after - the rogue space pilot with a heart of gold. I remember being furious when it got canceled. And wanting to murder the writers for the lame attempt to do a modern spin-off where the Galatica's children, a grown up Boxey, Apollo's Dad LorneMichaels Greene, and some weird kid named Z make it to Earth. But my favorite characters? Gone. With no explanation at all. How dare they ruin my show!!! But I moved on... to Raiders of the Lost Arc and Indiana Jones, and there was Battle of the Planets (another annoyingly short-lived anime cartoon). But Star Wars remained near and dear to my heart - that is, until the stupid writer/creator decided to ruin it and tear apart my beloved story. First with the digitized and edited sequels, then with those abysmal prequels.
There's a lengthy article in EW entitled, I kid you not, I WAS JAR JAR BINKS! It goes on to show all the famous people who appeared in walk-on roles in The Phantom Menace, and provided a picture of a grown up Jack Lord (who portrayed Anakin Skywalker in the first film). (The famous faces who had walk-on's include Keira Knightly and Dominic West (of The Wire) - who even had a line.)
I'd written the prequel stories in my head. I could not wait to see those prequels. There was so much potential. Doomed lovers. One goes evil. Best Friends who turn on each other. And Lucas ruined it! He ruined his characters. He cheapened it. Hurt them. Evil God. Die! George Lucas! Die!
That was Star Wars. I'm way over Star Wars. And to be honest? Was a bit ambivalent about the prequels. Most the above is tongue in cheek. And yes, for quite some time, I was obsessed with the X-Men. Don't laugh. I know they are superhero comic books - the magazine version of a daytime soap opera except with super-powers. But I fell in love with the characters...again they hit my kinks. They resonated for me. I adored them. And I've had...ahem passing flirtations sometimes intense with soap operas. Again, because, I fell in love with the characters or character relationship. Was always disappointed. The damn writers. I wanted to kick them! How dare they!
Buffy however? Do not get me started. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Joss Whedon make my Star Wars and X-Men love look like a mere fling, a flirtation. A passing fancy. Buffy - I...there are no words. I think I lost my mind, heart, and soul over that stupid series. I loved, with few exceptions, all of the characters. My heart raced in eager anticipation when I watched it. I got anxious. And I fretted, seeking out spoilers. Then I went online and interacted with equally obsessed fans. Sigh. Big mistake. After that?
It was over. Buffy owned my soul. And Joss Whedon and his crazy team of writers had a rock hard grip on my emotions. They weren't nice about it either. As Stephen King once asked Stanley Kubrick, "Do you want to hurt the audience?" I believe Whedon not only wanted to? But literally got off on it. He was a "Sky-Bully" to his characters. The fickle angry and somewhat uncaring God depicted in the old testament. For writers are the gods of their own universes. Which is why atheist writers amuse me. It's so ironic. Particularly when they write atheist characters. There's this whole meta bit going on that makes me laugh with glee. The character doesn't believe in his/her own writer. I think that's what I love most about the characters in Buffy - they were always trying to make bargains with Whedon, who has a mean streak and was far crueler to his characters than any God that he can't believe in ever was in our world. How's that for irony?
Not that I think we're all just characters in someone's story and God, whoever he/she/it may be is a writer per se. Although there was a great line in Star Trek the Next Generation (STNG) that stated that.
Who knows, Picard said after they left their latest holodeck adventure, where the holodeck characters obtained consciousness and believed they were real. [This was the one where Holmes nemesis Professor Moriarity wanted to be freed from Data's Holodeck Novel. Moriarity states to Jean Luc Picard - "I'm real. As real as you." Which I should explain for anyone out there who can't remember the episode. I don't remember what it was called. Just the basic plot, which I adored, and that it co-starred Original Star Trek alum Diana Muldare. In the episode, Data (the artificial life form crew member) sets up a holodeck role-playing game/novel with his friend Geordie. It's Sherlock Holmes. Yes, Data writes a Sherlock Holmes fanfic where he gets to play Holmes. Lt. Geordie plays Watson. The only problem is Data gets bored, he's too smart for the game. So he programs an adversary who is as bright as he is, and also gives this guy a background, a history, and creates a full-fledged character - Professor Moriarity - the original Holmes greatest nemesis. Diana Muldare's character who is a visiting pyschologist is fascinated with Data and joins him as the character Irene Adler...and she falls in love with Moriarity and Moriarity falls for her. Morarity is not longer just Data's creation - he's changed. [There's another level to add to all this - Sherlock Holmes was written by Conan Doyle over 100 years ago, but the characters have lived on past Doyle, to such an extent that they are no longer his characters. They've outlived him and been represented in new ways. Holmes is immortal, while Doyle who tried to kill him off once, is little more than dust and bones in his grave. Data barely knows who Conan Doyle is, but he knows Holmes, Watson, Adler and Moriarity.] After aiding in Muldare and Moriarity's escape into the world of virtual reality...Picard states somewhat philosophically:
Who knows maybe we are just characters and a story in someone's box or holodeck.
The Fourth Wall breaks...when the characters step out of the story and become real. Much like Professor Moriarty does in the STNG episode...he stops being Data or Doyle's creation. He becomes aware. And jumps out of the story. The characters interact with the audience or reader's minds to the point that the writer/creator no longer matters, except as a powerful entity that the audience/reader may see as holding their favorite characters hostage. If only we could free them and write our own far better tales about them. And so we do...through vids, fanart, fanfiction, radio shows, sing-a-longs, and role-playing games. Conan Doyle famously killed Sherlock Holmes by sending him over Reichenbach Falls, locked in a death grip with his nemesis Moriarity. The fandom at that time was so furious, and his publishers so insistent, that Doyle brought him back. He couldn't keep the man dead. And even if he hadn't found a why to revive Sherlock? Someone would have.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes, specifically -# Dakin, D. Martin (1972). A Sherlock Holmes Commentary. David & Charles, Newton Abbot. ISBN 0-7153-5493-0. McQueen, Ian (1974). Sherlock Holmes Detected. David & Charles, Newton Abbot. ISBN 0-7153-6453-7.
The writer ceases in some respects to be important at this point. Oh they are to the extent that the audience or reader demands more story or a continuation of the story. Just as Moriarity demanded more story be written for him in the STNG episode...so he would not lie in limbo...between books, trapped. I once wrote a story in my head about characters from stories that weren't completed sitting in a weird waiting room, blank and empty, waiting for that next bit of story that never came.
But if the writer fails to deliver to the reader or audience's satisfaction? Die Writer! Die! I'm rescuing my characters from your grip. They aren't yours any more. You don't deserve them. The characters have jumped into the global consciousness - they are no longer the author's property.
Buffy, herself, much like Sherlock Holmes before her, has become more than her creators. She's more important and more memorable and far more interesting in the global consciousness, ironically, than either the writer who created her or the actress that portrayed her. Both like Conan Doyle can't quite create a character better than Buffy, although God only knows they've tried. She much like Moriarty has fled their control. She exists in thousands of fanfic. Her story could well be rebooted and filmed by another writer or director. And when Whedon is dead and buried and little more than dust and bones...it's more than possible that Buffy will live on. Who knows? It's what happened with Sherlock Holmes. It's what happened to so many characters. Spike comes to mind as well...as does Spock from Star Trek. The characters from Star Trek and that universe have outlived their creator, Gene Roddenberry. Other writers have taken them over, most notably JJ Abahrams in the recent Star Trek reboot. Or how about Princess Leia? Indiana Jones. Elizabeth Bennett. Mr. Darcy. Hamlet. Dr. Faust. Frodo. Bilbo Baggins. Willow. Harry Potter. Remus. Snape. Albus Dumbledore. Hermoine. Ron Weasley. Or even Cinderella, Snow White, and Rumplestilskin. Do we even know the names of the people who created the fairy tales or just the one's who collected them?
The creation takes on a life of its own. And in a way it becomes part of everyone it touches. Spike and Buffy live in me. I don't see them the way Whedon does and I don't care. Whedon the writer doesn't matter to me. The characters he created do. It's a tough thing to wrap one's mind around and I'm reminded of Luigi Pirandello's play "Six Characters in Search of a Writer" along with Camus existentialist musings, and Burgess and Bester's views on free will in the books ClockWork Orange and Demolished Man respectively.
The existentialist sees the character jumping away from the writer and off the page. Spike, often seen as a trickster character, is also to an extent the existentialist dilemma. In the Buffy S7 episode Beneath You, the episode in which Spike tells Buffy that he got his soul and why...Spike hugs a Cross and pleads with a God that he's not even sure exists or wants to exist. An absent presence who he continues to ignore and argue with. No "angel" he, Spike is the man who turns his back on his creator and challenges him at every turn. He's not the fallen angel hunting his father's approval, and making bargains, he's the existentialist Cain going far east of Eden...changing his life, making his own way. When he's brought back from the dead in Angel S5, he tells Fred, who says that he's been brought back for a higher purpose, "What? No. Can't let a bloke rest? You have to pick at him some more. Have more fun? Is that it?" The character is yelling at Whedon and you can almost hear the actor portraying him doing the same, but at this point actor and writer have fallen away - stupid writer, says the character, go frak yourself. Spike was always yelling at Whedon. Just as Sherlock Holmes yelled at Conan Doyle. Or Professor Moriarity yells at Data and Picard, and calmly logically pleads his case to continue to live...to be. Let me be my own person. Give me free will.
And the reader aids these characters, they become so real to us that we stop thinking of them as fictional characters. We fight for them on our blogs and journals and essays and fanfic as if they are real. Actual. Breathing. Even if we dare not admit it. For it's crazy, no? Nuts. Or is it? I think the highest compliment you can pay to a writer is to hate them for creating characters that are so real to you that you've decided the writer should be nicer to them. Say what you will about Conan Doyle or Joss Whedon or Jane Austen or JK Rowling, or even George Lucas...their characters live on inside us. The very fact that we may want to kill them (well maybe not Austen but certainly the devilish Brontes for the pain and suffering they gave to Jane Eyre and her ilk.) - is a compliment. They made something that was fictional real. They gave it life. And that character now exists without them. To be able to do that is magic. Because not all writers can. Many never do. How many characters have you forgotten? How many do you remember? And how many do you love so much...that you find yourself referring to them at the oddest moments?
Once the fourth wall breaks and the characters enter your imagination, and take up a piece of your heart...for whatever reason, it does not matter what the writer does. He can't ruin the character for you. You can dismiss the writer. And you may even fight him or her. Rant at them. Want to kick them violently in the balls or other unmentionables. Punch them. Die! Writer! Die!
Off to bed. I've got a headache. I think I've been writing too much this week. None of it creative writing. I miss that. And it boggles my mind when people tell me that they need internet programs to get themselves to write daily - at least 750 words a day. I think - if you need someone or something to make you write, maybe you shouldn't be writing? Life is to short to make yourself do things in your spare time that you don't enjoy. I love writing. I write better than I breath, unfortunately this is very true. Be better health wise and spirit wise, not to mention for sleeping and singing, if I breathed better. I don't need writing courses, I need breathing courses and singing courses...I've decided I'm going to try to learn how to sing. It's never too late for that? Right?
[This post was edited this morning. I added a few bits and corrected things. Such as Rechenbach Falls.]
I am irrationally attached to your characters. There. I said it. I’ve reached a point where even if I don’t like everything a work of fiction does, I believe the characters enough to the point where I almost react to them as if they are real people. Do you know this feeling? It’s where a show or a book can fuck up and do some ridiculous plot you hate and you don’t care about but you still watch or read along because their faces and I just want to hold them all so tightly. - Mark Watches regarding Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV Series third season episode "Lovers' Walk".
http://markwatches.net/reviews/2012/02/mark-watches-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-s03e08-lovers-walk/
I don't know if this is true of anyone else. But every so often I will run across something said in a book, a post online, a blog, an email, or a tv show that sort of states clearly and succinctly what I've felt, but didn't quite realize it. It's obvious of course when I read it. And I think...yes, THIS, exactly.
Today, I came home and scan read this week's Entertainment Weekly, which had a lengthy article entitled Shippers. And it talked about how people become obsessed with relationships or characters in a television series - specifically in relation to the Twilight books (which turned shipping mainstream even if it existed long before that) and television series such Castle, Bones, Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries (four shows that I don't really ship anyone in and of the four, only one that I'm still watching.) Apparently David Boreanze (ex Angel, now Booth on Bones) has become a "mainstream" shipper icon thanks to Buffy, Angel, Bones, and the fact that he is 6 foot with chiseled model good-looks. (Which probably means James Marsters is the icon for the cult underground shippers like myself...I never did like the popular boys. Geek may have gone mainstream, but I haven't.)
And of course...there's my past history with tv shows and books or stories in general where I've fallen head over heels in love with the characters. I could care less about the writer - some nasty god or goddess who takes the characters in directions that do not always meet with my approval. I've been known to write better and more interesting outcomes for my beloved characters inside my own head.
It all started with Kimba - The White Lion, a cartoon that aired in the afternoons right after nursery school way back in the early 1970s. Kimba was an imaginative little cartoon, with lots of gaps in the story, lots of problem solving, and I remember getting annoyed with the writers as a child for not finishing it to my satisfaction. I was probably no more than 5 or 6 at the time. Kimba was my first television boyfriend. He was rapidly followed by Disney's Robin Hood and then Davey Jones on the Monkeys...another series that I became obsessed with. Then of course there was Star Wars.
I loved all the characters on Star Wars. I wrote fanfic on Star Wars. And obsessively read the "published" fanfic. The most memorable and the best was Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I jumped from being in love with Luke in Star Wars, to being in love with Han in Empire, and loving Princess Leia - steely and strong. It hit all my story kinks those two flicks did, and hey I was what 14 at the time? This was to be followed in kind by BattleStar Galatica - I fell for the cynical, brooding, and sarcastic Apollo. Then I feel for Starbuck soon after - the rogue space pilot with a heart of gold. I remember being furious when it got canceled. And wanting to murder the writers for the lame attempt to do a modern spin-off where the Galatica's children, a grown up Boxey, Apollo's Dad Lorne
There's a lengthy article in EW entitled, I kid you not, I WAS JAR JAR BINKS! It goes on to show all the famous people who appeared in walk-on roles in The Phantom Menace, and provided a picture of a grown up Jack Lord (who portrayed Anakin Skywalker in the first film). (The famous faces who had walk-on's include Keira Knightly and Dominic West (of The Wire) - who even had a line.)
I'd written the prequel stories in my head. I could not wait to see those prequels. There was so much potential. Doomed lovers. One goes evil. Best Friends who turn on each other. And Lucas ruined it! He ruined his characters. He cheapened it. Hurt them. Evil God. Die! George Lucas! Die!
That was Star Wars. I'm way over Star Wars. And to be honest? Was a bit ambivalent about the prequels. Most the above is tongue in cheek. And yes, for quite some time, I was obsessed with the X-Men. Don't laugh. I know they are superhero comic books - the magazine version of a daytime soap opera except with super-powers. But I fell in love with the characters...again they hit my kinks. They resonated for me. I adored them. And I've had...ahem passing flirtations sometimes intense with soap operas. Again, because, I fell in love with the characters or character relationship. Was always disappointed. The damn writers. I wanted to kick them! How dare they!
Buffy however? Do not get me started. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Joss Whedon make my Star Wars and X-Men love look like a mere fling, a flirtation. A passing fancy. Buffy - I...there are no words. I think I lost my mind, heart, and soul over that stupid series. I loved, with few exceptions, all of the characters. My heart raced in eager anticipation when I watched it. I got anxious. And I fretted, seeking out spoilers. Then I went online and interacted with equally obsessed fans. Sigh. Big mistake. After that?
It was over. Buffy owned my soul. And Joss Whedon and his crazy team of writers had a rock hard grip on my emotions. They weren't nice about it either. As Stephen King once asked Stanley Kubrick, "Do you want to hurt the audience?" I believe Whedon not only wanted to? But literally got off on it. He was a "Sky-Bully" to his characters. The fickle angry and somewhat uncaring God depicted in the old testament. For writers are the gods of their own universes. Which is why atheist writers amuse me. It's so ironic. Particularly when they write atheist characters. There's this whole meta bit going on that makes me laugh with glee. The character doesn't believe in his/her own writer. I think that's what I love most about the characters in Buffy - they were always trying to make bargains with Whedon, who has a mean streak and was far crueler to his characters than any God that he can't believe in ever was in our world. How's that for irony?
Not that I think we're all just characters in someone's story and God, whoever he/she/it may be is a writer per se. Although there was a great line in Star Trek the Next Generation (STNG) that stated that.
Who knows, Picard said after they left their latest holodeck adventure, where the holodeck characters obtained consciousness and believed they were real. [This was the one where Holmes nemesis Professor Moriarity wanted to be freed from Data's Holodeck Novel. Moriarity states to Jean Luc Picard - "I'm real. As real as you." Which I should explain for anyone out there who can't remember the episode. I don't remember what it was called. Just the basic plot, which I adored, and that it co-starred Original Star Trek alum Diana Muldare. In the episode, Data (the artificial life form crew member) sets up a holodeck role-playing game/novel with his friend Geordie. It's Sherlock Holmes. Yes, Data writes a Sherlock Holmes fanfic where he gets to play Holmes. Lt. Geordie plays Watson. The only problem is Data gets bored, he's too smart for the game. So he programs an adversary who is as bright as he is, and also gives this guy a background, a history, and creates a full-fledged character - Professor Moriarity - the original Holmes greatest nemesis. Diana Muldare's character who is a visiting pyschologist is fascinated with Data and joins him as the character Irene Adler...and she falls in love with Moriarity and Moriarity falls for her. Morarity is not longer just Data's creation - he's changed. [There's another level to add to all this - Sherlock Holmes was written by Conan Doyle over 100 years ago, but the characters have lived on past Doyle, to such an extent that they are no longer his characters. They've outlived him and been represented in new ways. Holmes is immortal, while Doyle who tried to kill him off once, is little more than dust and bones in his grave. Data barely knows who Conan Doyle is, but he knows Holmes, Watson, Adler and Moriarity.] After aiding in Muldare and Moriarity's escape into the world of virtual reality...Picard states somewhat philosophically:
Who knows maybe we are just characters and a story in someone's box or holodeck.
The Fourth Wall breaks...when the characters step out of the story and become real. Much like Professor Moriarty does in the STNG episode...he stops being Data or Doyle's creation. He becomes aware. And jumps out of the story. The characters interact with the audience or reader's minds to the point that the writer/creator no longer matters, except as a powerful entity that the audience/reader may see as holding their favorite characters hostage. If only we could free them and write our own far better tales about them. And so we do...through vids, fanart, fanfiction, radio shows, sing-a-longs, and role-playing games. Conan Doyle famously killed Sherlock Holmes by sending him over Reichenbach Falls, locked in a death grip with his nemesis Moriarity. The fandom at that time was so furious, and his publishers so insistent, that Doyle brought him back. He couldn't keep the man dead. And even if he hadn't found a why to revive Sherlock? Someone would have.
Wanting to devote more time to his historical novels, he killed off Holmes in "The Final Problem," which appeared in print in 1893. After resisting public pressure for eight years, the author wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles, which appeared in 1901, implicitly setting it before Holmes's "death" (some theorise that it actually took place after "The Return" but with Watson planting clues to an earlier date).[50][51] The public, while pleased with the story, was not satisfied with a posthumous Holmes, and so Conan Doyle revived Holmes two years later. Many have speculated on his motives for bringing Holmes back to life, notably writer-director Nicholas Meyer, who wrote an essay on the subject in the 1970s entitled "The Great Man Takes a Walk". The actual reasons are not known, other than the obvious: publishers offered to pay generously. For whatever reason, Conan Doyle continued to write Holmes stories for another 24 years.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes, specifically -# Dakin, D. Martin (1972). A Sherlock Holmes Commentary. David & Charles, Newton Abbot. ISBN 0-7153-5493-0. McQueen, Ian (1974). Sherlock Holmes Detected. David & Charles, Newton Abbot. ISBN 0-7153-6453-7.
The writer ceases in some respects to be important at this point. Oh they are to the extent that the audience or reader demands more story or a continuation of the story. Just as Moriarity demanded more story be written for him in the STNG episode...so he would not lie in limbo...between books, trapped. I once wrote a story in my head about characters from stories that weren't completed sitting in a weird waiting room, blank and empty, waiting for that next bit of story that never came.
But if the writer fails to deliver to the reader or audience's satisfaction? Die Writer! Die! I'm rescuing my characters from your grip. They aren't yours any more. You don't deserve them. The characters have jumped into the global consciousness - they are no longer the author's property.
Buffy, herself, much like Sherlock Holmes before her, has become more than her creators. She's more important and more memorable and far more interesting in the global consciousness, ironically, than either the writer who created her or the actress that portrayed her. Both like Conan Doyle can't quite create a character better than Buffy, although God only knows they've tried. She much like Moriarty has fled their control. She exists in thousands of fanfic. Her story could well be rebooted and filmed by another writer or director. And when Whedon is dead and buried and little more than dust and bones...it's more than possible that Buffy will live on. Who knows? It's what happened with Sherlock Holmes. It's what happened to so many characters. Spike comes to mind as well...as does Spock from Star Trek. The characters from Star Trek and that universe have outlived their creator, Gene Roddenberry. Other writers have taken them over, most notably JJ Abahrams in the recent Star Trek reboot. Or how about Princess Leia? Indiana Jones. Elizabeth Bennett. Mr. Darcy. Hamlet. Dr. Faust. Frodo. Bilbo Baggins. Willow. Harry Potter. Remus. Snape. Albus Dumbledore. Hermoine. Ron Weasley. Or even Cinderella, Snow White, and Rumplestilskin. Do we even know the names of the people who created the fairy tales or just the one's who collected them?
The creation takes on a life of its own. And in a way it becomes part of everyone it touches. Spike and Buffy live in me. I don't see them the way Whedon does and I don't care. Whedon the writer doesn't matter to me. The characters he created do. It's a tough thing to wrap one's mind around and I'm reminded of Luigi Pirandello's play "Six Characters in Search of a Writer" along with Camus existentialist musings, and Burgess and Bester's views on free will in the books ClockWork Orange and Demolished Man respectively.
The existentialist sees the character jumping away from the writer and off the page. Spike, often seen as a trickster character, is also to an extent the existentialist dilemma. In the Buffy S7 episode Beneath You, the episode in which Spike tells Buffy that he got his soul and why...Spike hugs a Cross and pleads with a God that he's not even sure exists or wants to exist. An absent presence who he continues to ignore and argue with. No "angel" he, Spike is the man who turns his back on his creator and challenges him at every turn. He's not the fallen angel hunting his father's approval, and making bargains, he's the existentialist Cain going far east of Eden...changing his life, making his own way. When he's brought back from the dead in Angel S5, he tells Fred, who says that he's been brought back for a higher purpose, "What? No. Can't let a bloke rest? You have to pick at him some more. Have more fun? Is that it?" The character is yelling at Whedon and you can almost hear the actor portraying him doing the same, but at this point actor and writer have fallen away - stupid writer, says the character, go frak yourself. Spike was always yelling at Whedon. Just as Sherlock Holmes yelled at Conan Doyle. Or Professor Moriarity yells at Data and Picard, and calmly logically pleads his case to continue to live...to be. Let me be my own person. Give me free will.
And the reader aids these characters, they become so real to us that we stop thinking of them as fictional characters. We fight for them on our blogs and journals and essays and fanfic as if they are real. Actual. Breathing. Even if we dare not admit it. For it's crazy, no? Nuts. Or is it? I think the highest compliment you can pay to a writer is to hate them for creating characters that are so real to you that you've decided the writer should be nicer to them. Say what you will about Conan Doyle or Joss Whedon or Jane Austen or JK Rowling, or even George Lucas...their characters live on inside us. The very fact that we may want to kill them (well maybe not Austen but certainly the devilish Brontes for the pain and suffering they gave to Jane Eyre and her ilk.) - is a compliment. They made something that was fictional real. They gave it life. And that character now exists without them. To be able to do that is magic. Because not all writers can. Many never do. How many characters have you forgotten? How many do you remember? And how many do you love so much...that you find yourself referring to them at the oddest moments?
Once the fourth wall breaks and the characters enter your imagination, and take up a piece of your heart...for whatever reason, it does not matter what the writer does. He can't ruin the character for you. You can dismiss the writer. And you may even fight him or her. Rant at them. Want to kick them violently in the balls or other unmentionables. Punch them. Die! Writer! Die!
Off to bed. I've got a headache. I think I've been writing too much this week. None of it creative writing. I miss that. And it boggles my mind when people tell me that they need internet programs to get themselves to write daily - at least 750 words a day. I think - if you need someone or something to make you write, maybe you shouldn't be writing? Life is to short to make yourself do things in your spare time that you don't enjoy. I love writing. I write better than I breath, unfortunately this is very true. Be better health wise and spirit wise, not to mention for sleeping and singing, if I breathed better. I don't need writing courses, I need breathing courses and singing courses...I've decided I'm going to try to learn how to sing. It's never too late for that? Right?
[This post was edited this morning. I added a few bits and corrected things. Such as Rechenbach Falls.]
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Date: 2012-02-11 09:01 pm (UTC)Oh yes. (I'm just still cross about The Blessing. Don't mind me.)