• Home
  • Blog
  • News
  • Events
  • About the Author
  • About the Book
  • Bookstore
  • Reviews
  • Press/Media
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Blog
  • News
  • Events
  • About the Author
  • About the Book
  • Bookstore
  • Reviews
  • Press/Media
  • Contact
D.R. Ranshaw

D.R. RANSHAW

He's Dead, Jim...

11/26/2018

0 Comments

 
Today’s post title, as any good Star Trek fan can tell you, comes from that lovably crusty old medical doctor and philosopher extraordinaire, Dr. Leonard McCoy, affectionately known to many as ‘Bones.’ McCoy spoke that line, or a variation of it, so many times in The Original Series (TOS) that it became a catchphrase. It was commonly spoken in the teaser, before the opening credits even rolled, and frequently (but not exclusively) referred to one of the hapless ‘red shirts’ --- anonymous crewmen from the ship’s Engineering and Ship’s Services Department --- who became something of a cliché in their own right because of the depressingly astounding rate at which they tended to get killed off (they became known in Trek parlance as “expendable crewmen,” arguably one of the more unfortunate labels in dramatis personae history).
 
Now, sooner or later, we all have to “shuffle off that mortal coil,” heading off to death, “the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns,” as Will famously said. And that extends even to literary characters. But the cavalier fate of those poor red shirts, who kept dying unmourned, episode after episode, came vividly back to me after watching a lovely little film titled Stranger than Fiction (StF).
 
Released in 2006 to generally favourable reviews, StF featured a stellar cast that included Will Ferrell as protagonist Harold Crick, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah and Emma Thompson. Crick is a lonely, introverted IRS agent who, out of the blue one day, starts hearing a voice in his head, narrating the events of his life in real time as they occur --- and providing one truly terrifying piece of foreshadowing: his impending death. Naturally, at first, he thinks he’s crazy. But as the film progresses, it becomes evident to him (and us) that he is really a fictional character somehow hearing the storyline of his author, Karen Eiffel (played with terrific despair by Emma Thompson as she struggles with writer’s block to type out the narrative). Eventually, Crick and Eiffel meet… which you’ve got to know would be a pretty surreal experience/shock for any writer… and it is. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really explore the metaphysical aspects of this situation at all, Dustin Hoffman’s role aside (he plays a university creative writing professor who ultimately comes to the conclusion that Crick is, indeed, a fictional character hearing his creator’s voice). Hearing our Creator’s Voice. That alone would be a pretty stunning cosmic moment for any of us, but as I said, the film rather glosses over such weighty matters, which is a shame, because exploring them would have made a good film even better, but hey --- as Cinema Sins is so fond of saying on YouTube, no movie is without sin. And in any event, I found the film rather thought-provoking, which I suppose is certainly saying something in these days of vapid, big budget, heavily CGI laden movies that mostly seem to deal with comic book franchises and cardboard cut-out characters. And spawn a host of mostly uninspired, unimaginative sequels featuring same again. But I digress.
 
Now, as a writer who’s finished my first novel (Gryphon’s Heir) and is hard at work on the sequel (Gryphon’s Awakening) in what will (hopefully) be an epic fantasy series (trilogy at least, maybe more), I’ve already killed my fair share of literary characters. Quite a few have been the equivalent of Star Trek’s red shirts, and I must confess, rather shamefaced, that I killed them off with nary a qualm. “I mean, they were extras, man… you know, static, flat characters who were little more than glorified props!” (Or as Arnie Schwarzenegger’s character said in the film True Lies when questioned by his horrified wife as to whether he had ever killed anyone, “Yeah, but they were all bad people.” Oh, well, that’s all right, then, Arnie.) But in my second book… yeah, that one, the one currently under construction… I do kill off a fairly major character. In rather a grisly fashion, to boot, when I stop to think about it. And she’s not a bad person, so I don’t even have that rather flimsy moral justification to fall back on. She’s just a sweet young woman whose life is saved by my protagonist in book 1 and who kinda-but-not-quite becomes a sorta-but-not quite love interest for him.
 
I guess, when we’re contemplating murdering a literary character, perhaps we need to ask ourselves several questions:
Is the death gratuitous? In other words, why are you killing this character? Shock value alone is neither sufficient nor in good taste (in spite of what lessons you may have absorbed through watching current television series like Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead).
Does the death advance the storyline? In other words, what is going to be gained through this character’s untimely demise? Does our protagonist stand to gain some deep philosophical or practical understanding about Life, the Universe, and Everything In It? If not, why not?
Is there any other way the storyline can be advanced without this death occurring? In other words, does the death have to occur? Is it a Needful Thing?
 
Now, yeah, I know, I know: it’s a rum old world out there --- both real and imaginary worlds --- and Bad Things Happen. All The Damn Time. Some of those Bad Things seem completely arbitrary, even capricious. (I happen to believe they’re not, but that’s a discussion for another time.)
 
But I also know I’d hate to have a fair-haired, radiantly beautiful young woman, dressed in a flowing gown, show up on my doorstep one day, gaze soulfully at me and ask with achingly sweet innocence, like Cindy-Lou Who in How The Grinch Stole Christmas, “Santy-Claus! Why? Why did you kill me?”
 
“Well, my dear, you see, it’s like this…”
 
Yikes. ‘Tis a consummation devoutly not to be wished. (With apologies to Will.)

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    D.R. Ranshaw's Blog

    Copyright 2015-2025. All rights reserved.
    ​
    Author of The Annals of Arrinor series.  Lover of great literature, fine wine, and chocolate. Not necessarily in that order.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly