Thanks to another great CSFF Blog Tour, it’s been a fascinating week around this blog. As I reviewed Blaggard’s Moon , I found myself faced with many things I could have said. I thought about writing on heroes — what they are in real life, what they are (and perhaps should be) in fiction. Blaggard’s Moon , with its very human characters, wasn’t always comfortable reading for me. I felt the same way when I read last month’s tour book, Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow . Both books reminded me of my own sinfulness. I don’t especially like that feeling.
In my own novels and stories, I tend to write about very good people. My heroes are heroic. Characters like Taerith in Taerith , Miracle in Burning Light , and Virginia in Worlds Unseen have even been accused of being TOO good. Blogger Chawna Schroeder posted at length about this issue of heroes and heroism. Here’s some of what she said:
I missed having a heroic hero . . . Yes, I know there are many kinds of protagonists in fiction, including the antihero and the unreliable narrator. But as a whole, the protagonist (the character who moves the story forward through their choices) should be fairly likeable with redeemable qualities and enough positive attributes that the reader shouldn’t feel uneasy about getting involved. This is especially true in speculative fiction, where the heroic hero is almost a requirement of the genre . . .
. . . in a world where role models frequently aren’t worth imitating and heroes are often anything but heroic, fictional protagonists who display strength, courage, compassion, grace, mercy, and other commendable traits under fire are desperately needed and deeply craved by readers today.
Rebecca LuElla Miller, who heads up the CSFF Blog Tour, commented on Chawna’s post earlier today with a counterargument :
As I see it, the world is propagating the belief that Mankind is good. A common theme in fiction, from TV to children’s books, is that all we have to do is reach down inside us and become who we are capable of becoming.
So I wonder, if a Christian writes a story with a heroic hero, won’t it look so much like that message of the world that readers may miss the point?
Both Chawna and Becky have excellent points. Personally? I think they’re both right. I think Christian fiction needs both — it needs George MacDonald-style heroes who mirror Christ and Polivka-style heroes who mirror us. We need both encouragement and warning; hope and horror. That balance should be familiar to anyone who walks in the Christian faith.
So now to you, my readers: I would love your thoughts. What type of heroes do you write? What type do you like to read about? What do you think of the points made by the bloggers quoted above?
Next week, talk of heroism continues as I review the groundbreaking film Pendragon: Sword of His Father , a feature-length movie made by homeschoolers. I’ll also be sharing an exclusive interview with Marilyn Burns, who helped write, design, produce, score, and even act in Pendgragon.
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