Absolutes

“Reality is unforgivingly complex.”

Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird, uses this line to explain why authors occasionally write their own morals into stories. This is a simplification of her argument, but this chapter is not what I would like to discuss. It is the line itself which stopped me in my reading.

Why do we write? It’s an age old question and one that I will no doubt come back to time and again because the answer is as varied as the stories we tell. One reason that we write is to make sense out of our complex reality.

Some of the most timeless tales have clearly defined heroes and villains. You know exactly who to cheer for, who wants to fight for truth, justice and the American (Canadian/Mexican/Brazilian / et cetera / ad nauseam) way. Conversely, you know who wants to do dastardly things because of some childhood trauma, girl rejection or plan for world domination. Am I oversimplifying things with this description? Yes, but that’s just to get my point across. Heroes can have flaws and flirt with the dark side and villains can be sympathetic and cuddly (who hasn’t wanted to give Darth Vader a hug…you haven’t? Just me? Okay, we’ll just gloss over this part).

The point is that we want to know that heroes can still be heroic and villains can still be defeated. No matter how complex the good guy vs. bad guy story is, it all boils down to the fight between good and evil. In reality, however we live in a world of greys, where good and evil are immensely complex terms, depending on your point of view, and good doesn’t necessarily conquer evil.

There are always stories that break from this mould. Some stories are told from the villain’s perspective, some have the villain winning and some have no heroes and villains to speak of. And then there are some set in our complex reality and the story comes from characters’ attempts to navigate our topsy-turvy world.

But some writers, or at least this writer, want to create escapism stories. These stories take us away from the pressures of work, bills and the world’s woes. In these tales, the hero beats the villain, the boy gets the girl and the side of good always triumphs. Are they predictable? Some would say yes, but for me it is the journey that is worth the price of a paperback. The greatest stories I have read are the ones that transport us away from reality and into a world where we can believe in the absolute terms of good and evil.