Here is an interesting article on Kate DiCamillo. Interesting because the author of the article points to the way Kate’s father abandoned the family and then remarks on how so many of her characters have been abandoned by their parents.
Write what you know, we’re told. And then Christian writers are criticized for writing books with characters that are too sweet. But Kate Dicamillo’s characters are sweet. Many of them, anyway.
I just read Louis Sachar’s new book, Small Steps, yesterday. Definitely worth the seven-year wait. I loved it. It has that same wonderful feeling that Holes had–that feeling of a jigsaw puzzle that is fitted together perfectly. Full of twists and turns built together with no extra parts left over.
The characters are wonderful. Certainly not Christians, but real kids and ones you can love.
So Sachar and DiCamillo are writing very different books. Different characters, different styles. Completely different. And yet, both excellent.
The problem with Christian books is not that the characters are too sweet, I think. It is the same thing that is wrong with a lot of children’s books. It is that the authors are too sweet. They don’t give their characters sufficient trouble.
This is probably why I love fantasy. There are usually life and death stakes in fantasy books. Trouble presses on all sides.
This is one thing I see in The Tale of Despereaux and Small Steps that I find lacking in many Christian books. Danger Will Robinson, danger!
Writing teachers call it conflict, I guess. It’s really important.
But that’s not all there is to it. It’s more than just danger that’s needed. It’s pain. There has to be some real pain for us to care about a character, I think. We want to see the poor guy get rich, the weak guy get strong, and the lonely guy get the family. The more pain our character is in, the greater the payoff is when he makes good. It’s like the kid who works hard and saves his money to get the toy. He loves and cares for that toy a lot more than the rich kid who never had to work or wait for anything.
I’m not saying anything new. I’m just thinking out loud. Most Christians have lived through some deep pain. God refines us in the furnace of affliction. We need to harnass some of that pain for our books, maybe.
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Great thoughts. I suggest that the pain, not the cause of it, is more important for the reader to see. So a story about child abuse, for example, doesn’t have to have gritty scenes of a child being smacked around. The pain the child is in emotionally as a result of the abuse is more compelling, I think. I wonder if men would agree with that statement.
Becky
Despereaux–hard to spell, hard to pronounce, wonderful to read.
Sweet characters are sometimes a problem, because they encourage children to see themselves as all good or all bad. I prefer Tolkien’s characters, who struggle with temptation, over the perfect heroes of George MacDonald.
I think some people consider books too sweet because of the happy endings, as well. But they give me openings to remind my children about the cursed state of our world. Aren’t we all yearning for a happy ending?
And the books without the happy endings–the ones they call “Young Adult” books–do we want kids to read bleak, depressing books which tell them there is no hope? There is hope, and our children need to know where to find it.
The thing I really hate is that we forget old books. A book does not have to be current to be worthwhile. Thank goodness people haven’t forgotten the Narnia books yet. Where will we ever read a line as precise as, “There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
Hmm…
That’s a thoughtfully nodding “Hmm…” not a questioning “Hmm…”.
Hmm…
Oh, Caspian’s Mom! You are so smart.
I do love George MacDonalds sweet, sweet characters, though. Love, love, love little Gibby. And I also loved Cosmo. But I loved them all.
But other than that, I have to agree with everything you said. I love the happy endings precisely because I long for that day when we will have our happy ending. And I don’t like the YA books that are bleak and ugly. And I adore the opening line from Dawn Treader.
RK! Thanks so much for that deep, deep, profound, “hmmm.” I had never seen it all in that light before. I’m forever in your debt.
=0)
What you’ve used all your lovely words writing book 3?
When does book 2 hit the stores? I want it. I want it now!
March 2006? Next week? Two weeks? When?
Could I have a statement, please? http://tosuhohytuc.de.tl little girl fantasy i know this sounds dumb but she would be hotter if she gained a few pounds so she was even bustier
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