Fictional Meanderings

AI dragon with jellybeans

[I wrote this earlier in my Some Thoughts on Fiction post, but then I realized it should be its own thing.]

Novels are created from a writer's imagination, as least partly, but the key for me is that they could be true, either in this world or in a fantasy world. There are all types of fiction, but for me to immerse my mind in a story, I have to find the characters and the situations believable. But what about House of the Dragon? I have mentioned my love for that show. Sure, there can be dragons (or gods, ghosts, genies, vampires, shifters, etc.), but they have to follow the rules and conform to the boundaries the writer built for the fantasy universe. Anything that is “magical” needs to follow a set of rules, preferably presented in advance, so that plot twists and resolutions avoid the dreaded deux ex machina. Non-magical events should conform to boundaries we already understand from this world, and no rules should be fudged to resolve a conflict. 

Skip this paragraph if you are familiar with the deux ex machina plot device. This is when in the stage plays of old a literal “god” (the deux) would come down from the ceiling to solve the problem. A crane-like machine would lower the actor to the stage. When we use the term now, we generally mean that the writer failed to create a resolution using the rules s/he already established in the story's universe and instead had something new swoop in to save the day. Let's consider James Bond in Live and Let Die escaping certain death via crocodiles by nimbly leaping across their backs to safety (in a suit and dress shoes!). That’s perfectly in line with the 007 character. But if the writers had decided instead to have the crocs all suddenly expire from multiple lightning strikes, that would count as a deux ex machina device and be horribly unsatisfying for the audience. Good writing always avoids this! 

Back to dragons. In these imaginary world that George R.R. Martin created for Game of Thrones, there are established rules, such as dragons don’t burn and neither will the special humans with dragon DNA, so it’s fitting that Daenerys survives infernos, but her cruel brother Viserys, who is always faking his dragon status, gets burned to death by molten gold. What isn’t believable in the story, however, is when people without antibiotics survived messy, painful, and terribly unhygienic amputations. The dragons are fine in my mind; Jaime surviving his hand getting lopped off is not.

The problem I have with most shifter romances is matter of logistics. What happens to the human clothing when a man shifts into his tiger or bear or wolf or whatever? And doesn’t he get all smelly and gross and full of parasites during his animal phase? What happens with all that when he shifts back to human form? Yes, I know that even in the spiciest novels no one talks about using the bathroom (unless that's part of the spice), but I can’t stop thinking about these “practical” issues while I’m reading, so it kind of wrecks the whole shifter story for me. 

Non-magical stories do not escape my fussy criticism either. In romance novels and romcoms, I have a huge problem with too many coincidences; often, more than one is too many. The fact that the hero and heroine meet at all is an amazing coincidence, so why pile more on top of that to make the story wobble from unbelievability? I'm a fan of Collen Hoover’s popular novel Verity (soon to be released in movie form with Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and some man), but there’s no reason for the protagonists to “pre-meet” in a coffee shop, with the requisite spilled coffee and ruined blouse, before they actually meet at the job interview. In the novel I’m currently reading, Heartbeat at My Feet by Kristin Judd, the protags will meet when Josie travels to Sorrento, Italy with Cicero (the adorable doggie), so why did Judd create an awkward encounter between Josie and Giorgio at a gelato shop before that? It makes no sense!

In thrillers, my biggest problem is usually the protagonist acting contrary to her given character or any person really simply to further the plot. If you introduce a smart, sensible businesswoman who inherited her kooky old great-aunt's mansion, you can’t have her fall apart the minute she steps into the house and begin to make the stupidest decisions. Honestly, the only intelligent thing to do when you get bad vibes from a creepy old house is to GTFO and check into a motel (not the Bates one though), not spend the night there in your filmy nightgown and explore the basement at 3AM because you heard a weird noise. FOR PETE’S SAKE!

No, I do love fiction. Good fiction. And there’s plenty of it. You just have to sift through the dreck, which I’m generally willing to do. I finish most books that semi-annoy me because I forgive imperfect writing, but they have to contain at least one redeeming quality, like a cute dog. And gelato, whatever that is ~ apparently not ice cream, as I had previously assumed, according to AI. I don't think I've ever had gelato, but now I want some.

Watch everyone comment about the gelato and not my profound observations about fiction.