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Writing From the Real World:
A Hero Ain’t
Nothing But a Sandwich.
-Victor D. Infante
To paraphrase NoCal writer R. Eirik Ott, there is
one conversation that every American boy in junior high school has: “who’s
cooler, Han Solo or Indiana Jones?” There are variations of course. Who’s
cooler, “Batman or Superman?” or, “Who’d win in a fight, Batman or
Spiderman?”.
And while any right thinking person knows
the answers are A, B and B, it does lead one to consider what makes a
hero. Is it just a person who helps other people, who protects those weaker than
them. Maybe. Is it, as our President would have us think, someone who fights
evil, whatever the Hell that means? Maybe that, too. But y’see, we live
in morally gray times, where sometimes you strip away the veneer of the
so-called evil ones and find they’re fundamentally no different than anyone
else. The President talks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and accuses
critics of U.S. policies in the region of dwelling on nuances. Truth is, it’s
all nuance. That’s what life is, and in fiction, it’s what makes a
story or a hero compelling.
It’s “nuance” that transforms a character from a
mere protagonist into a full-fledged hero. In a recent Internet discussion, for
instance, one person pointed out that what was interesting about novelist John
LeCarre’s “heroes” are that “many of
them are essentially bad guys on our side.”
But--LeCarre and Joseph Campbell aside--there are
dozens of heroic archetypes out there: the straightforward, altruistic boy scouts
like Superman and Luke Skywalker; the otherwise normal folks who hold to the
mantra, “With great power comes great responsibility,” such as Spiderman and
Buffy the Vampire Slayer; the heroes by circumstance, such as Han Solo and
BtVS’s Spike, who seem destined to fight the good fight almost despite
themselves; the soldiers against the dark driven by great personal tragedy,
a la Batman.
The lists go on, but really, it’s
horribly easy to make a hero too bland--as Superman’s been in many incarnations.
Too perfect, too uninteresting. It’s the flaws that allow us to associate with
them. Much of this has been discussed before, often. One area that does
seem to get a short shrift, however, is the issue of violence. For a
variety of reasons, the overwhelming majority of cinematic heroes are
exceedingly violent. I don’t really have a beef with that--I write some violent
material myself (and believe that some brands of Hollywood violence are actually
cathartic, rather than encouraging of bad behavior.) What always strikes me as
odd is that the people I see as heroes in real life are inevitable
non-violent: Jesus, Gandhi, MLK. I guess Batman turning the other cheek against
Mr. Freeze makes for lousy viewing.
Or does it? In the
season finale for BtVS this season, Xander managed to save the world in a
non-violent manner, by bringing the out of control witch Willow back to reality
with love. “I’ve got powers of my own, you know. This carpenter’s gonna drywall
you into the next Century.” Snerk. Xander’s a Christ
figure!
I liked it. For once, I got to see a hero win
the day with values I actually hold in the real world, not with ones I play out
in the world of make-believe.
There probably isn’t an
easy answer here, but if there’s a point, perhaps it’s this: if your hero needs
to resort to behavior that you yourself wouldn't’t to save the day, why are they
still a hero? The answer to that should be complex, and in that complexity lies
the nuances you need to make your hero real.
(Victor
D. Infante is a regular contributor to OC Weekly and the Worcester
InCity Times, and the author of the recent screenplay, Nihilist Chic.
You can visit him on the web of
http://www.quantumredhead.com/victor.)
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