My dad is probably one of the most well read men that I have ever met. I would be scared to see what his Amazon.com bill is for a month or how chummy he is with his local librarians. Everyone has his or her own vices and his addiction to books is clearly in no way a hindrance.
I have been very fortunate in using my gifts to transfer over from the role of “Writer” to “Author.” And one of the things that fascinate me the most as a writer is perspective. I absolutely love the whole tale of perspective.
No army has ever marched forth into battle thinking God wasn’t on their side.
No army has ever marched forth into battle thinking they were the bad guys.
That is a pretty powerful thing to think about. Imagine being able to see stories from both sides. And that is what makes a really believable villain. Whether that villain is Darth Vader, General Francis X. Hummell, or Magneto, if you can see their point of view (what we call POV in comic book industry shorthand), you can understand their character. You can understand why they do what they do. You may not condone what they do but you can understand why they are doing what they are doing.
To the casual observer, you see a money-grubbing girl that refuses to date poor people. You immediately dismiss her as a gold digger. Well, I’m not saying she’s a gold digger but she ain’t messin’ with no broke nig— Wait. Did I just quote Kanye West? Let’s move on…
But if you take some time, you might learn this girl’s history. Then you find out that her family is gone. They have left her with nothing. Moreover, her financial dire straits have caused her to lose custody of her little girl—the only thing that ever brought her happiness. And with little education, she is looking for someone that can help support her and help make sure that she does not spiral down into darkness…
Now you may not approve of her using her feminine wiles (translation: big boobs) to try to find financial security but you can understand where she is coming from. And after you have walked a mile in her shoes, you understand why she is the way she is. So it is a thing where you can say, “I don’t trust Melanie but I can trust Melanie to be Melanie.” You can understand a person’s mindset and why they do what they do.
(Strangely, the alternative to this is the absolute crazy person like The Joker or Hannibal Lecter. They are so crazy that their motives cannot be predicted and that makes them incredibly frightening.)
It is my job to write a character that is three-dimensional and real. I don’t want mindless drone villains. I want to write believable characters. (This is why I love the Marvel Comics villains.) And in order to do this, I have to be an amateur psychologist. But I am in no way qualified for such diagnosis.
So I consider myself a “Studier of the Human Condition.”
And this line of thinking has often led me to certain epiphanies. I search for certain universal truths (believe me, that is a topic for another blog). And so here is my dad doing all of his reading and he likes to send me snippets of wisdom from his books. The last quote he sent was from Scott Turow’s Personal Injuries and it gave me pause.
From the quote, the author was talking about the pain that people feel in their hearts. I’m chopping the quote for length but this is the gist of it:
“Everybody’s got this hurt. Everybody has it somewhere in their heart. And I knew that I’d never really get away from it, and neither would anyone else. And life bears that out. It’s being poor, or being alone, or being sick, it’s not being loved enough or not loving the way you want to, it’s feeling you are a doormat to the world, or a mean crud, or just not quite as good as the people you want to be like or be with. But it’s always something, and it devouring, for most people, this parasite always eating a hole in their hearts.
“And I wondered and wondered why. Why did God make a world where everybody’s heart is in pain? I figured that out. The answer. You know why it’s like that? So we need each other. So we stick with each other, do for each other, and build up the world. Because misery does love company, and another soul’s comfort is the only balm for the wounds.
“And how would you say it? How do they put it in the Bible? ‘The shadow of God came over him.’”
The eternal question that is often lamented (typically from the gutter by people down on their luck) is “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Given my current life situation, I often look up and wonder, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”
But you find a little nugget of wisdom like this every once in a while and often feel compelled to pass it on… Maybe you learn something…
I have been very fortunate in using my gifts to transfer over from the role of “Writer” to “Author.” And one of the things that fascinate me the most as a writer is perspective. I absolutely love the whole tale of perspective.
No army has ever marched forth into battle thinking God wasn’t on their side.
No army has ever marched forth into battle thinking they were the bad guys.
That is a pretty powerful thing to think about. Imagine being able to see stories from both sides. And that is what makes a really believable villain. Whether that villain is Darth Vader, General Francis X. Hummell, or Magneto, if you can see their point of view (what we call POV in comic book industry shorthand), you can understand their character. You can understand why they do what they do. You may not condone what they do but you can understand why they are doing what they are doing.
To the casual observer, you see a money-grubbing girl that refuses to date poor people. You immediately dismiss her as a gold digger. Well, I’m not saying she’s a gold digger but she ain’t messin’ with no broke nig— Wait. Did I just quote Kanye West? Let’s move on…
But if you take some time, you might learn this girl’s history. Then you find out that her family is gone. They have left her with nothing. Moreover, her financial dire straits have caused her to lose custody of her little girl—the only thing that ever brought her happiness. And with little education, she is looking for someone that can help support her and help make sure that she does not spiral down into darkness…
Now you may not approve of her using her feminine wiles (translation: big boobs) to try to find financial security but you can understand where she is coming from. And after you have walked a mile in her shoes, you understand why she is the way she is. So it is a thing where you can say, “I don’t trust Melanie but I can trust Melanie to be Melanie.” You can understand a person’s mindset and why they do what they do.
(Strangely, the alternative to this is the absolute crazy person like The Joker or Hannibal Lecter. They are so crazy that their motives cannot be predicted and that makes them incredibly frightening.)
It is my job to write a character that is three-dimensional and real. I don’t want mindless drone villains. I want to write believable characters. (This is why I love the Marvel Comics villains.) And in order to do this, I have to be an amateur psychologist. But I am in no way qualified for such diagnosis.
So I consider myself a “Studier of the Human Condition.”
And this line of thinking has often led me to certain epiphanies. I search for certain universal truths (believe me, that is a topic for another blog). And so here is my dad doing all of his reading and he likes to send me snippets of wisdom from his books. The last quote he sent was from Scott Turow’s Personal Injuries and it gave me pause.
From the quote, the author was talking about the pain that people feel in their hearts. I’m chopping the quote for length but this is the gist of it:
“Everybody’s got this hurt. Everybody has it somewhere in their heart. And I knew that I’d never really get away from it, and neither would anyone else. And life bears that out. It’s being poor, or being alone, or being sick, it’s not being loved enough or not loving the way you want to, it’s feeling you are a doormat to the world, or a mean crud, or just not quite as good as the people you want to be like or be with. But it’s always something, and it devouring, for most people, this parasite always eating a hole in their hearts.
“And I wondered and wondered why. Why did God make a world where everybody’s heart is in pain? I figured that out. The answer. You know why it’s like that? So we need each other. So we stick with each other, do for each other, and build up the world. Because misery does love company, and another soul’s comfort is the only balm for the wounds.
“And how would you say it? How do they put it in the Bible? ‘The shadow of God came over him.’”
The eternal question that is often lamented (typically from the gutter by people down on their luck) is “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Given my current life situation, I often look up and wonder, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”
But you find a little nugget of wisdom like this every once in a while and often feel compelled to pass it on… Maybe you learn something…
1 comment:
Ryan,
U dun got dat right!
Right On! Bro.
just,
papafox
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