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Essays of Interest
Fantasy Characters: Tolkien's Forgotten Contribution
by Oreja, CVN Expositor
With the release of the film adaptation of The Two Towers, the second volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, I've been reminded of a serious problem in modern fantasy: characterization. I've also been reminded of the origins of this problem. Few fantasy fans will dispute that many of the fascinating and memorable characters created by Tolkien, especially his villains, have been overused and rendered clichés by subsequent fantasy authors. Indeed, these archetypes have become so passé that it's easy to forgot just how original Tolkien's work is.
The really odd thing, however, is that one of Tolkien's most fascinating characters hasn't been picked up by later authors. Gollum, for some reason, hasn't been overused in the same way that wizards, dark lords, and sword-swinging warriors have. His persona, for some reason or other, hasn't been rendered a typical fantasy archetype. The question is: why?
First of all, let's examine exactly what's so different about Gollum as a character. In typical fantasy, villains come in two varieties: the mastermind and the thug. The mastermind, typified by Saruman and Sauron, may have a lot of physical or magical power, but has even more political power. Masterminds will never do their own dirty work if they can get others to do it for them. Then, there's the thug. Typified by the Orcs in The Lord of the Rings, the thug has physical strength and fighting prowess, but not necessarily the most impressive mental faculties. They do the mastermind's dirty work, often being reduced to cannon fodder in the name of the mastermind's ambition.
Gollum, on the other hand, is neither a mastermind nor a thug. Like a mastermind, he's clever and devious. Like a thug, he's perfectly willing to use his own bare hands to achieve his goals. The main difference, however, is in those very goals. A mastermind's goal is to achieve as much power and wealth as possible. A thug is a wage slave, caring mostly for a good salary and the opportunity to torture the squealing animal of his choice. Gollum, however, cares neither for wealth nor power. His only ambition is to get the Ring, the object of a five hundred year long obsession. Essentially, Gollum is a junkie.
This obsession with the Ring is the source of his intriguing persona. His mind is split between his desire for the Ring and his hatred of it. One part of Gollum remembers sunshine and well-cooked food as sources of pleasure, while the other part of him hates such things with a vengeance. One side of him still has some morality left, while the other side is willing to do anything and everything to once more possess the evil Ring. As the Hobbit Sam Gamgee points out, Gollum is divided between "Slinker and Stinker." As such, his behavior is unpredictable. Although his obsession is powerful, there is always a faint glimmer of hope that he may be redeemed.
After seeing the movie adaptation of The Two Towers, the lamentable lack of good characters in modern fantasy has become painfully obvious to me. So many overly simple stereotypes have been fashioned from the compelling characters of Tolkien's work, but the fact that Gollum hasn't been reproduced to such a degree still fascinates me. Perhaps Gollum simply hasn't intrigued fantasy authors the way he's intrigued me. I think the most likely reason, though, is that modern writers have tried to reproduce the wrong aspects of The Lord of the Rings .
Tolkien, as many of us know, virtually created the modern fantasy genre in Western film and literature. His innovative and enchanting tale has had an impact on modern storytelling and moviemaking that can hardly be exaggerated. However, most modern fantasy tries to recreate the environment that Tolkien invented and has largely ignored his compelling approach to storytelling and characterization. Remember, Tolkien's characters are interesting not because of their fantastic powers or their strange anatomy but because they feel real. Their desires, their fears, and their lives have all been fleshed out to make us love them or fear them as we would love and fear real people. I've used Gollum as an example because his personality is so complex and compelling that few fantasy writers have dared reproduce him.
Many aspiring fantasy authors should take a look at Gollum and the other fascinating personalities in Tolkien's work as examples of how to make a good story. Instead of trying to reproduce the characters they find, modern writers would do well to try making interesting characters of their own, characters with personalities that have never been seen in fantasy. Remember, my dear writers, that storytelling is an art which is meant to cut directly into people's emotions. Realistic characterization is just one tool in the writer's repertoire, but it's one of the most potent and important building blocks of storytelling. Start with good characters and the story will follow.
The Beauty of Darkness
by Oreja, CVN Expositor
We don't always appreciate darkness. We largely ignore its richness, its depth, its beauty. Indeed, we spend most of our time trying to avoid the dark or eliminate it from our sight. It appears as a flat, solid sheet of black. In truth, it is a widely varied landscape of shadow.
I must admit, I didn't appreciated darkness for much of my life. I was too afraid of the boogeyman hiding in my closet to gaze into the shadows around me. Even in my development as an artist, I didn't look at darkness on its own terms. I considered it merely an antithesis, a compliment to light. It wasn't until one summer night that I came to understand how rich and eclectic darkness could be. It was in my backyard. I was taking a relaxing stroll. The moon wasn't quite full, for was it quite new. Its light was soft and tenuous, and the grass appeared blue in its radiance. I gazed at the shallow hills before me, my eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light, and the shadows revealed their beauty to me. It wasn't a sudden epiphany. It was slow, incremental. I gradually became aware of increasingly subtle differences among the shadows. As my eyes acclimated themselves, I began to see more and more levels of darkness: deeper and lighter darks, shadows crisscrossing one another, countless layers of overlapping shade. Everything was so soft, so serene, so lush. I was drawn into the depths of the darkness, staring into it, scrutinizing the richness of the shadows. I lost all track of time gazing into this landscape of shadow. I couldn't help myself. It was just so beautiful.
I now understand that black is more than simply black, and darkness isn't strictly an either/or phenomenon. It's much more lush, more diverse, more complex than merely the lack of light. It changes widely in richness and solidity. It can be opaque or translucent. It can be warm or cool, but never harsh like light can be. It's not an energy that changes in intensity. It's a fluid changing in consistency. There's always a heavier black and a lighter black to be found, always a new texture, always a new temperature of dark to seek, a new variation to add to its richness.
Don't be afraid to gaze into the night. Just let yourself get used to seeing the darkness. Let its fullness reveal itself to you. You can't force it, you can't speed it. The darkness will become clear to you in its own time, which is really the best way. Each different layer of dark will appear to you one by one. Enjoy each subtle, minute change as it becomes visible to your eyes. Don't think of darkness as the opposition to light. Examine it in its own right. See how it shifts and mutates, how it folds in on itself. See how its depth changes, how its thickness varies. Let yourself truly see the black, and you'll realize how lush and diverse it really is. You won't forget it, and you won't forget it. I know I never will.