Deep Thoughts
Oct. 29th, 2016 11:25 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
frosted-feather.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
queensthiefI've been thinking about tragedies and happy endings as it relates to main characters. I like happy endings, but I'm willing to go through the tragedy in the middle of a story with a character.
There was a discussion here about the difference between middle grade and YA, about how a middle grade character watches a friend go through the dark night of the soul, while in YA it's the main character going through this. But something that has bothered me about a lot of modern stories is the high body count of side characters for shock value, where the really, really awful stuff happens to other people, and our characters are the slightly luckier ones.
But isn't it more difficult, and yet redemptive, to follow the story of that one who is most tormented? Our dear Gen certainly had his share. And if you've read Elizabeth Wein's "The Winter Prince" or the sequels, the same is true where readers go through the suffering of the characters with them. (Wein's book "Code Name Verity", about a captured and tortured WWII girl pilot, is an extreme example of this.)
What I'm getting at is that writing the point of view of the people most suffering is also a way of honoring them (and honoring people in the real world). They are not a tragic footnote, but their lives--or deaths--are a story all their own.
MWT handles this subject quite delicately in her books , especially as we keep getting more points of view from characters. Thoughts?
When is the tragedy/violence in a story justified? When is it too extreme? Any recommendations of redemptive endings? I like "Wuthering Heights" but it's re-readable to me only because of the happy ending for some characters.
There was a discussion here about the difference between middle grade and YA, about how a middle grade character watches a friend go through the dark night of the soul, while in YA it's the main character going through this. But something that has bothered me about a lot of modern stories is the high body count of side characters for shock value, where the really, really awful stuff happens to other people, and our characters are the slightly luckier ones.
But isn't it more difficult, and yet redemptive, to follow the story of that one who is most tormented? Our dear Gen certainly had his share. And if you've read Elizabeth Wein's "The Winter Prince" or the sequels, the same is true where readers go through the suffering of the characters with them. (Wein's book "Code Name Verity", about a captured and tortured WWII girl pilot, is an extreme example of this.)
What I'm getting at is that writing the point of view of the people most suffering is also a way of honoring them (and honoring people in the real world). They are not a tragic footnote, but their lives--or deaths--are a story all their own.
MWT handles this subject quite delicately in her books , especially as we keep getting more points of view from characters. Thoughts?
When is the tragedy/violence in a story justified? When is it too extreme? Any recommendations of redemptive endings? I like "Wuthering Heights" but it's re-readable to me only because of the happy ending for some characters.
