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Over the years, I’ve gotten into a few discussions about fiction that revolve around the hidden meanings of stories. Like how ‘Hunger Games’ is all about wealth inequality or ‘Lord of the Rings’ is an analogy for WWII. Some of the translations make sense while others are rather odd. For example, I met someone who claimed ‘Twilight’ was about the Cold War and I kind of turned off when they began with the fact that there was snow in the story. Anyway, this is only the set up for a mini-rant off the top of my head.
As an author, personal thoughts do slip into what my characters say or do. It’s inevitable and usually accidental. When on purpose, my intention is only to get the emotional react right. I might use my personal thoughts on poverty and homelessness to make sure I’m pulling on my own heartstrings. A civilization may touch on an aspect of our world that I think is flawed, but roll into something else. My confusion on there seeming to be an endless parade of divorces is a big part of Bor’daruk’s creation. It does move toward an opposite extreme too if you really pay attention to the entire tradition. This is problem the biggest and most intentional example of me accessing my personal thoughts for a fictional story. Although I’ll admit that Luke Callindor wanting to be a hero does sometimes mirror my younger thoughts on becoming an author.
Did I want it to start a conversation with Bor’daruk? Not really because my main goal has always been to entertain and provide escapism. If a debate happens then it happens. As I said, my personal beliefs and curiosities come through in my writings if there’s the opening. Typically, it isn’t even the whole belief because that would be too preachy and I immediately cut it off. It also gets chopped down in my own editing runs if I fail to notice what I’m doing. Other times, I use what I feel and do the opposite. My emotions guide me and not only the positive ones. The negative ones tell me I’m doing right by a villain or going in the right direction for a character that I would disagree with. At least I think so because it doesn’t come up as often as people may think. Again, entertainment author here and not somebody who is trying to change society beyond providing a fun escape.
A funny thing is that many people do read a story and search for the hidden meaning, which they’ll always find. Not because it’s there, but because they want it to be there and already have it in their head. Go into anything with an agenda and you’ll be able to uncover evidence. This can cause trouble too. A reader may despise an author because of what a villain does even though the author doesn’t support the action in real life. I’ve had a few complaints about Stephen Kernaghan because he’s a sadistic rapist and some people seem to think his existence means I support him. Uh, he’s a villain and writing his death scene will be (or already has been) a true pleasure because he’s pure evil. His actual purpose is to pit the champions against someone who is a true monster and has no redeeming qualities.
My point here is that you can’t take what a character does or says and think that’s what the author truly believes. Especially if there are other points of view in the story and these things are more for character coloring than plot. People seem to want authors to always stand for something, but that might not always be the case. Sometimes a story is just a story for entertainment. Looking too far into it can mar the experience and make you miss out on the fun. I always think that intention is what we should look at before making a judgement and that holds true for this. There’s a big difference between an author writing fiction to make a social point and one doing it for entertainment.
So, do you go into stories looking for social context or hidden meanings?
