Alchemists of Fiction - Part Three: See the Reality in Fiction

In the age we live in it’s difficult to get around the concept of seeing the reality in fiction. Those who might believe fiction to be a waste of time should not be scorned for their opinions. They’re entitled to it. But perhaps they didn’t know that fiction was originally a way to interpret reality – as we might know it. Fiction was used by insightful storytellers to criticise whatever they didn’t agree with, such as policies and government which is always a favourite amongst writers.

According to fictional writer, Alan Moore, he says that he deals in fiction and not in lies.
“Although I’ll admit that the distinction is a nice one and perhaps not easy for the layman to make; with fiction, with art, with writing, it’s important that even if you’re dealing with areas of complete outrageous fantasy that there is an emotional resonance. It is important that a story ring true upon a human level even if it never happened.” This is illustrated in the movie V for Vendetta, which he wrote as a comic in the 1980s, when the character Evey says that her father believed that fiction was a way of portraying reality.

Although the interpretation of reality is an aspect that still resides in fiction, another facet that still stays loyal to this genre is entertainment. For most folk, any fiction is entertaining. We want to be entertained. Storytelling has survived for thousands of years mainly because it entertains. And as a modern civilisation we thrive on it more than ever, which is why there is such a huge industry based on it. Businessmen call it the entertainment industry while theorists call it popular culture.

I’m playing the PC version of Tomb Raider: Legend at the moment and is the seventh installment of the series. There is an eighth out at the moment but I never got to play Legend so I had to give it a bash. The thing is that Lara Croft, the game’s protagonist, has firmly placed herself within the annals of pop culture. She snuggly fits between the likes of Batman and Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp. There are hundreds of unforgettable characters we can think of. Perhaps in your comments you can come up with some of your most memorable pop culture figures.

The reason why a video game character has made a mark on the people’s minds is that as civilisations rise and fall, more communicative mediums are created therefore allowing new cult figures to sprout.

Storytelling started through rock paintings and then it went to being told orally around bonfires. Two of the best recorded stories that were told around a fire were The Iliad and Odyssey by the Greek poet Homer. Then people started writing their stories on scribes, hence the bible and the Mahabharat, although many parts of the latter were actually told orally, one of them being the Ramayana by Valmiki. Audiences were delighted at stories told on stage as well. When the printing press was discovered, stories became longer and available to the rich folk. Then there was radio, cinema, television, video games and then the internet (this last medium incorporates three previously mentioned mediums as well as advertising). We all know the rest. But as these mediums evolved, so did the stories.

We can say there are three eras in the evolution of storytelling.

During the Primitive ages, the first era, rock paintings were told by people about the happenings of their own tribe, so it basically hit home. Fiction could have spawned during this era when the mythic gods that ruled the hunt and the crops. Then as civilisations grew and became more complex, especially with the advent of the city-state, stories of great national heroes and leaders were told and so began the second era. Minds were fixated on the likes of Odysseus, Marcus Aurelius, Cleopatra and Gilgamesh. People couldn’t get enough of the gods from Zeus to Odin, from Krishna to the Tuata-de-Danaan of the Celts. Then the Renaissance arrived, as well as the third era, and stories returned to its intimate beginnings. Stories were of ordinary people facing everyday challenges. Stories of love, adventure and discovery sprung up in theatres and later, in books. See the cycle? It returned to where the stories hit home.

Nowadays, they’re are still intimate and still relate to home although I must say with the knowledge humans have collected over the centuries, storytellers are able to tell a story about a normal person operating within broader, global spectrum. Storytellers now see the significance of the individual within the context of society. It’s almost as if the first two eras merged.

The third era started with people like Shakespeare and the style of telling one man’s story within boundaries of a global event is still being used today directors, video game creators and writers. Journalists, too, are getting in on the act, which is why there sensationalism has suddenly made itself the guideline to effective journalism. People want to be entertained. But at the same time they want to be informed, and be stimulated to think about certain events. This can also be the perfect formula for satire.

Alan Moore said that the bard was as feared as a magician by the ruling elite because he was able to manipulate and command words, which meant he was able to change the thinking and consciousness of people. Their satire would be able to make people laugh at the elite for decades, even centuries, even after they are dead, which is evident in that we still are attracted to classic literature, Marlowe’s plays and Shakespeare’s comedies. However, lately, we writers and artists have sold ourselves and look at what we do as providing entertainment to people. Meaning that art has lost its purpose of teaching people and helping them transform and instead have used the craft to fill pages and twenty minutes of air space to the satisfaction of our authorities, corporate giants and governments.

According to Moore, audiences tune into these TV shows and movies as a way of waiting to die. One of his statements that stuck in my mind since I heard it is that, “it is the job of the artist to give the audience what they need,” not what they want.

So pick up newspaper today. Perhaps you’ll be able to see the fiction in reality.

Recommended Graphic Novels

Hi All.

I just wanted to share with you two books I have stumbled upon in the last week. Funny thing is, they're both graphic novels, or just larger comics. This means the most progressive literary medium is the graphic novel, don;t you think. I already recommended these books to Priya. I hope she does get to find a comic book store in London so she can get them. I really hope both Sumayya and Priya are alright that side.

Blankets by Craig Thompson is a coming of age story set in a small town in Wisconsin. It's an autoboographical account about family and first love. I'm sure it will relate to many people who give this a try. It was Time magazine's number one graphic novel in 2003. The art is fantastic and the writing, superb. His words fill the pages with such poetry, but the silences are even more telling. And the actual blanket plays a role as a theme. The book is just blatantly beautiful.

Another graphic novel I recommend is Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. Also an autobiographical coming of age story, it tells of a girl's struggle with herself, and more so with her rather cold father. He shows bouts of affection but they're too few and far between. But the distance from his family is merely to protect them from his secret. It's very sombre and decadent and if you're in the mood for painful drama, this is a perfect read. The drawings are great and lends itself to the atmosphere perfectly.

Just one last thing, in between these books I filled that time re-reading Alan Moore's Watchmen. It's a fictional piece, voted number fourteen in Time magazine's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. And this is amongst a list of books like Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. However, I must point out, DC/Vertigo is part of the Time-Warner conglomerate, so I'm not surprised they added this comic book on the list. Nevertheless, it's one of the greatest stories I've ever read. It was published in the 1980s and depicted an alternate 80s where Richard Nixon was running his third term as president of the USA. Set in New York, a former super hero is murdered. Suddenly there is a conspiracy that there is someone out there targeting all former super heroes. At the same time the Cold War reaches its boiling point and the Russians just trekked into Afghanistan. The art by Dave Gibbons is asotunding, that typical 80s style. Lot of the clues are in the background of the frames and the dialogue is witty. It all reveals a pattern in life, scientifically and spiritually.

The covers of these books can be seen on my virtual Shelfari shelf on the right of this screen. Just move your cursor over the cover and a box will pop up displaying more information.

For now, Ciao.

Alchemists of Fiction - Part Two: Storytellers In Their Creations

I remember one morning when Pat Hopkins, my writing mentor last year, said, “A genius storyteller puts his or herself in their stories.”
He then mentioned Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary suspense filmmaker, as one of those storytellers who always featured in his own flicks.
He would always appear in his movies as brief as a second, such as his passerby role in Rebecca.

Another storyteller I can think of is that of Valmiki, who fashioned the epic Ramayana. He too was in this story, as a humble villager who housed Rama. It was apparent he told the story in two parts. The first being when Rama, Sita and Lakshman were journeying and the second being the pursuit of Ravan after he kidnapped Sita. He apparently told the story aurally while it happened.

Storytelling has been around since the beginning of human civilisation. When humans were unable to turn their breath into voice, they often communicated stories through pictures drawn on rock. When aural language developed, tales of wisdom were told by the shaman to the rest of the villagers while they sat around a bonfire listening attentively.

However, when language evolved into a written form – apparently the Sumerians were the first to do this – epic tales were then told. Stories such as the Mahabharata were written as poems by various authors who wanted to chronicle the events of their times, which is why the story spans hundreds of years. The same can be said of the Bible and many other lost and hidden scriptures from that era.

Often these storytellers would feature themselves. This has been done plenty of times by great writers such as Alan Moore in Another Suburban Romance.

Grant Morrison, a comic book writer, used himself in the graphic novel Animal Man to express the relationship a writer has with his own character.
Animal Man went through some traumatic experiences to finally realise that he was the creation of a British writer who wanted to kill him off. This sort of realization is similar to that of a human experiencing the trauma of self realisation and the sort of enlightment where one sees the world for what it really is.

In this story, Morrison is looked upon by the character as a sort of god who can manipulate the fabled world at his own will. And this sparks existential questions about whether Animal Man’s choices and decisions are exclusively his own or whether they were the product of a writer for the amusement of his readers. Animal Man goes berserk and soon calms down to see the significance of living in such a world.
And I must say, all this was realised by the protagonist after he popped a couple of peyote beans at the Grand Canyons.

The same writer/character relationship can be seen in the humorous movie Stranger than Fiction with Will Ferrel. It’s worth a watch.

For a storyteller, creating the story is seen as an internal journey, one that explores parts of the self that they never knew existed, which is why some storytellers feature themselves in their creations because they feel that part of their being is in this story.

If you can think of any more storytellers who feature in their own creations, share it with us in the comments section below. Another one that seems obvious is the director Quentin Tarantino who features in all his movies and always seems to get killed off i.e. Reservoir Dogs and From Dusk till Dawn.

Image references:

First Picture: Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Universal.

Second Picture: Writer Alan Moore who wrote the classic Watchmen.

Third Picture: One of the final covers of Animal Man, when he discovers he nothing but another man's creation. DC/Vertigo.