by Louis Bertrand Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
Once you realize that you might succeed as a writer, there is some inevitablity about teaching. That might be a personal thing, and other writers might tell you something different.
That idea struck me a couple of years ago, (humble as that sounds,) and I've never forgotten it.
***
In the movie, 'The Fifth Element,' starring Bruce Willis and Milla Vovovich, pretty much everyone in that social setting accepts the hierarchical structures of the day.
The big, ugly, 'local' aliens are the only ones who don't.
Certainly the police accept their role, just as Corbin accepts his, and Mr. Zorg accepts his to some degree, although bent on overthrowing the established order.
Zorg accepts his role as a tyrant, which feels perfectly natural to him. Mr. Zorg never questions whether or not he has the right. With a brief command he lays off a million cab drivers. He is a human being with no empathy. This is an archetype common to all societies.
The 'local' aliens are a sub-group within the society, and Lelu and the weird entity in space, (as usual, it is 'pure evil,') are also aliens, but they stand outside of the social order.
(Just for the record, Lelu exhibits human qualities we all admire or identify with, and just exactly what would a character of 'Pure Good' actually look like? Would it be worse than the pure evil one, and would we have to kill it?)
Aliens are always some kind of a metaphor. The bad guys are ugly, violent, and big, they're green, and they talk with rough voices. Corbin Dallas is a working slob and they are sort of beneath him due to 'alienness' and 'criminality.' None of them guys has a job. That's a pretty stock formula. They're there to be killed. The aliens from outside the system represent Good and Evil in the most obvious terms. Whether or not this is good literature I don't know. I've never read the book! But I have seen the movie.
It is one of my favourites, probably because of the parody aspect of it.
I recently read a blog post where an individual lambasted 'zit-laced-pubescent-teen- vampire-God-I'm-worried-no-one-likes-me-and-I-might-be-bi,' type writings and dismissed it in its entirety, using some pretty harsh terms.
As far as I'm concerned the critic is actually giving non-contructive criticism with little formal training as a critic...but I digress.
It is 'alien as metaphor,' only with vampires, demons, and werewolves. It serves a purpose, or people wouldn't do it. It is a trope, a convention.
The simple answer is either don't read it, or look for a better writer, or try a different genre. Try writing one yourself and see how it goes!
***
I'm not a big fan of 'me attempting to write fantasy,' for some reason.
I won't write stuff out of pure commercial cynicism, like this is going to make me a million bucks overnight. First of all, we all know that isn't going to happen, but also the question becomes, 'How do you top the last guy?'
(Think about it.)
In my life I have read science fiction, fantasy, horror, westerns, detective fiction, biographies, history, science, engineering, physics, geography, zoology, everything. I read some of those books at a very young age. I read books on Neanderthals, dinosaurs, soldiers, doctors, politicians, pilots, all kinds of books.
If you don't read well, you will not be able to write well.
The fact that I am reading very little fiction these days is both a blessing and a curse. The curse is that I don't know the fashion of the day and who is publishing what sometimes.
That way I can't really imitate anyone. I think that's a good thing.
Tough as it is, we are on our own! Seriously, there are plenty of classic models to refer to.
People really do learn by imitation. They like something, they want to do that, they want to be like that. They either quit after a while, or they keep going. They might dabble in it for their entire life.
My plan is to go at it systematically, for however long it takes. It it takes ten thousand hours of training to become proficient at something, then get the training.
After that, you can do what you want. I mean that in its most literal sense--you will be able to do anything you want with a story.
All good writing begins as fan fiction, okay? I would prefer to encourage beginning writers rather than condemn them.
The world needs good writers, as never before.
