My husband and my daughter are talking about their respective fantasy worlds. My daughter's is based on Marvel Comics and includes a heavy dose of magic and mythology, as well as a superpowered character she identifies with.
My husband does not have a hero whom he identifies with and his world is full of interesting alien races based on scientific speculation. He does not include magic and includes a lot of adult politcal cynicism. It is assuming to see my daughter mix her creations with my husband's. If an adult mixed magic with my husband's science fiction, it would be butchery, but I'm enjoying my daughter's fluid, though still immature imagination.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Men and Violence -- Writing Escapist Heroes
The other day I read an article on Science Daily suggesting that some kind of female animal, I forget which, loses interest in males who lose fights. Their was a suggestion that human females would feel the same way. For writers the implication would be that to be attractive to female readers, a male hero should never lose a physical fight.
Though I've been attracted to men who I imagined were skilled fighters, I think that human females are a little bit more complicated than this, at least when they are sober. In popular fiction, male heroes can be skilled fighters, but two other intertwined qualities are also important.
The first is having good judgement in stressful situations. The hero shouldn't be an idiot who would charge a tank with a sword, no matter what crimes the tank driver has committed. A writer can even get a little sexist and have the hero's love interest test him by suggesting doing something dangerous. The hero should be able to refuse her. He comes across as a better man if anger, fear and lust are not able to truly corrupt his judgment.
The second quality is honor. While he needn't be and probably shouldn't be a virgin milquetoast goody-goody, he should have some lines that he won't cross. He can drink, swear, and get into some avoidable fights, but he should show fidelity to a personal code, even at some cost to himself.
No doubt men and women who have acted heroically in real life might find the above somewhat silly. After all, a real hero is often an ordinary person who did the best he or she could do in extraordinary circumstances, but I am trying to describe a type of male character that would be entertaining for me to read about, not to dissect real life heroism.
Though I've been attracted to men who I imagined were skilled fighters, I think that human females are a little bit more complicated than this, at least when they are sober. In popular fiction, male heroes can be skilled fighters, but two other intertwined qualities are also important.
The first is having good judgement in stressful situations. The hero shouldn't be an idiot who would charge a tank with a sword, no matter what crimes the tank driver has committed. A writer can even get a little sexist and have the hero's love interest test him by suggesting doing something dangerous. The hero should be able to refuse her. He comes across as a better man if anger, fear and lust are not able to truly corrupt his judgment.
The second quality is honor. While he needn't be and probably shouldn't be a virgin milquetoast goody-goody, he should have some lines that he won't cross. He can drink, swear, and get into some avoidable fights, but he should show fidelity to a personal code, even at some cost to himself.
No doubt men and women who have acted heroically in real life might find the above somewhat silly. After all, a real hero is often an ordinary person who did the best he or she could do in extraordinary circumstances, but I am trying to describe a type of male character that would be entertaining for me to read about, not to dissect real life heroism.
Arsenic Based Life?
Yesterday their was a NASA press release about a bacteria that uses arsenic as part of its DNA. This doesn't really mean that it is based on arsenic, like every other life form on earth it relies of the ability of carbon atoms to form four strong covalent bonds. Instead what is truly interesting is that by using arsenic instead of phosphorus in the backbone of its DNA the bacteria is performing a biochemical trick that nobody ever realized was possible.
The implication for science fiction that is that while realistic aliens will be limited in what they can do by basic physical laws, the details of there metabolisms would be impossible to predict. What we see as toxic minerals or dangerous industrial chemical waste might be lunch for them.
The implication for science fiction that is that while realistic aliens will be limited in what they can do by basic physical laws, the details of there metabolisms would be impossible to predict. What we see as toxic minerals or dangerous industrial chemical waste might be lunch for them.
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