Eternal Dreams

The movie Raiders of the Lost Ark was an action-adventure set in 1936 about an American archaeologist trying to find the Ark of the Covenant in Egypt. The villains were the Nazis. The movie could have easily been set in 2016, the archaeologist is French and the Ark of the Covenant is in Syria. The villains are the Russians.

The movie Red Dawn was an action-adventure released in 1984 about the Soviet Union and Cuba invading the United States. The heroes are teenagers from an occupied town. The sympathetic antagonist was a Cuban officer. The movie could easily be released in 2024 about the United States and Germany invading Russia. The heroes would be teenagers from an occupied village. The sympathetic antagonist would be a German officer.

An American is to me what a Frenchman is to someone French. The Nazis are to us what NATO is to modern Russia.

The gist of a story is what it truly is. The particulars are costumes and set pieces, not the play itself. The names can be changed without changing anything.

My point is not politics or moral relativism. It is artistic. I am an artist, not a politician or activist. My specialty is writing books and illustrating the covers. I create the title fonts.

FICTION is the waking dreams we dream together, whether by reading, watching, hearing or playing the stories we make believe are real. The particulars customize the stories. The “enemy” of one culture may be “us” to another. The symbols of good or evil and great or common vary according to time and place.

The particulars of a fiction are important, but irrelevant if their context is meaningless. The story is the context. Bad storytelling renders it all bad, even the good parts. A good story is timeless and universal, not merely a product of its time and place. As a writer of fiction, I am mindful of this.

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