Not all things real are meaningful. Not all things true
are inspiring. My imagination does not languish. It is beyond the tiring
mediocrity of our real world.
Disease is a miserable drudgery. The language barrier is
insincere and an affront to individuality. Weapons of mass-destruction are
impersonal and spiritless. My Strange
Galaxy is clean of all such realistic nonsense. In my fictional world of
many worlds good and evil are the issues to be dealt with. What is meant is
what is said. Courage and prowess cannot be bested from afar.
Stark reality is boring but sheer fantasy is ridiculous.
Even a fairy tale has no point if it is not telling a truth. Disease is never
mentioned in Strange Galaxy but it is
also never disclaimed. Yes, the language barrier divides our world but it is a
false barrier: true meaning was never a matter of sounds and scribble. As for
weapons of mass-destruction, every war is won by warriors, regardless of the weapons.
Well, the problem with WMDs is they take the spirit and soul out of the fight. Its only a war fought by machines, and as we know, machines don't really care who lives and dies. They are cold and uncaring just like the people who deploy these weapons. As a plot device for a story, it can also demonstrate this indifference, but if it is being displayed in a glorious way, ultimately, the innate failures of the weapon will affect the poignancy of the story as a whole.
ReplyDeleteIn order to get anything of real interest spiritual or otherwise, we need to show that it is people, not big, broken weapons, that make war interesting. War is a warrior's story, and unless we acknowledge that, we are only promoting the heartless aspects of the struggle--which in the end means nothing at all.
Indeed! Bright flashes and thunderous explosions garner attention but do nothing to inspire. Courage and prowess are all about people. A good story is only ever about people.
DeleteRealism is something that can make or break a story. If the work is too much like real life, it is depressing. If it is not enough like the real world, it cannot be taken seriously. Verisimilitude makes it feel real without sucking all the joy out...
ReplyDeleteSo true! Discretion is the better part of good fiction.
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