Of Wimps and Heroes Wednesday, Dec 31 2008 

1 loveofbooks 3:37 pm

The Wimpy Attraction

In my previous blog entry, I established that there is a recurrent motif that involves the wimp who becomes a hero. I promised that I would make a honest attempt at airing my views on why this motif is so attractive to both authors and readers and that is precisely what I intend to do now. This will probably take me at least another two entries so please bear with me on this one patiently. Anyone who thinks this might be boring is welcome to skip this blog entry and go on to the next ones.

An Attraction for Wimps

The truth is that most of us readers are not heroes running around with swords and spells. We feel that it might be something fun to try for a bit and we can often think of some people who would deserve our righteous blade but that is about all that can be said for us. For this reason we readers find it quite natural to identify with the weak wimp who finds himself thrust into adventure. The wimp is just like us. He has no special powers, no great warrior skills. He is practical good hearted and honest. We enjoy reading how this wimp, who we identify with so much, goes on to battle evil and heroically save the day. It is just the sort of thing we would like to do – if only the opportunity presented itself. When the wimpy hero then discovers his hidden powers and ends up as an all time hero, why that just means that he has realized the dream that we all share in our hearts. We all know that we are special, we just haven’t discovered our hidden powers yet. Some authors who realize this fundamental concept have seen the importance of not giving the hero any real powers. In that case the hero wins the day by virtue his honesty and persistence and we can identify with the hero even more. This is seen for example with Frodo the hobbit who has no special powers or skills and is the hero of ‘Lord of the Rings’.

 

The Old Water Tower in Toulouse Sunday, Dec 21 2008 

1 loveofbooks 7:16 am

The Chateau d’Eau

Last week I was in Toulouse, France, for a few days.  Toulouse, apart from being a very old city dating back to the Roman Empire, is where the Airbus is manufactured.  Therefore, the city is very air and space oriented.  But I am not so interested in “space” and its history and its future, so I didn’t want to visit the Toulouse Space Cite with all its exhibits.  I decided to opt for a smaller museum which was also not too far from where I was staying.

The small and charming museum I discovered was the Chateau d’Eau (literally “the house of water”).  It was an old water tower which, in 1997, was converted into a museum dedicated to photographic exhibits only.  The building stands as it was originally built, of old dark red bricks, on the banks of the Garonne River.  Inside you can see the two old water wheels which, at one time, churned the river waters up into the tower to provide water for the city.  Now, of course, they are still and silent and all around the walls, on two floors, photographs are displayed.

On the day of my visit, the photographs on display were taken by one Eric Aupol.  They were photos of the inside and outside of an old hospital, and most of them were pretty grim.  I was impressed by the use of Aupol’s lighting but the subject matter was quite depressing.  The nicest part of the visit was to see how this old building has been refurbished and put to use.

 

The Journey of the Wimp Wednesday, Dec 10 2008 

Autors loveofbooks 8:16 am

A Classic Story Model

As I continue to review certain classic forms that fill the genre of epic fantasy, I would like to glance at a certain specific story model. This is the classic motif of the ‘wimp’ who finds himself forced into adventure against his will. Often, this wimp is the key character in the story and the story actually revolves about him. At times the wimp turns out to be the true hero of the story and occasionally he even turns out to possess mighty powers hitherto unsuspected by him or his allies. Of course, the wimp does not need to start completely powerless and he often has some basic skill or talent that makes him useful to his allies.

Examples From Literature

Several examples of just such a wimp come to mind. A very good example is the hobbit, Bilbo in J.R.R Tolkien’s story – The Hobbit. The same motif repeats itself in the highly praised  trilogy of ‘Lord of the Rings’. There, Bilbo’s cousin, Frodo is the innocent hobbit who must face evil and survive.  The barmaid that becomes a mighty hero in the Forgotten Realms story ‘Spellfire’ is another excellent example of just such a character. Again a physically weak character with no experience finds himself (or herself) forced into a deadly adventure. A similar character is seen in the book; ‘Lost in Translation’ (a cute story about a girl who finds herself in a fantasy world – she eventually discovers her own powers). In fact, this motif is so common and recurrent that it is worth considering precisely what it is that makes such a motif so attractive to the author and the readers. I have a few ideas as to why this is so and I hope to write more of my thoughts on this particular subject in my next blog entry. So, if you are interested in reading what I have to say about this particular subject “stay tuned”!