Penyanyi : Guest - Noah Chinn
Judul lagu : Guest - Noah Chinn
Guest - Noah Chinn
Good morning! We have author Noah Chinn visiting us today. Noah is sharing some interesting insights on Love and Storytelling with us today. Enjoy!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love and Storytelling
Genre fantasy such as science fiction, fantasy,
or horror, can be described as metaphors for the human condition. Even when it’s simple mindless escapist fun
it often has something to say about people in it, and some of the more serious
examples out there use their technology or magic or monsters to illustrate or
juxtapose some important facet within humanity.
Often it explores what it is or how we might suffer without it.
What about love? Almost everyone is familiar with the numerous
interpretations of vampires in terms of love, lust, and sexuality. But let’s step away from that angle and look
at a broader question in stories: what is True Love®?
I’m a romantic, deep down. I believe in love and want nothing more than
to see it triumph, and yet I find myself frustrated when characters fall in
love because—for lack of a better term—the plot says so. When that happens I tend to think of Romeo and Juliet. While a great tragedy,
it’s not really a great love story. The
tragedy comes from the fact that these two felt trapped by their families and never
had the time to figure out their feelings.
But in terms of personal connection? Even most weak Rom-Coms will give
the characters more of a foundation than R&J.
But even worse (and usually a Hollywood fault) is
the cliché that there is only one perfect love out there for each of us. It’s wrong, it’s unrealistic it’s...
dangerous, quite frankly.
In my novel Bleeding
Heart Yard, I explore love in two different ways with two different sets of
characters. And while one of these relationships
is of the Destiny variety, I take the time to deconstruct even what that means,
and provide terms more grounded in reality (a hard sell in a story with magic
and monsters in it). The other romance
is of a more standard and quirky Rom-Com trope—but even there I try to both
subvert as well as serve certain expectations.
The bottom line for me is that love for me is
about compatibility and connection. It is something that is built upon but not fated. It’s entirely possible you could find someone
out there who is a perfect match, but it’s actually just as likely you could be
happier with someone who was less than perfect (it depends on how you define
perfection for one thing). Who you are
and how you approach life is just as important (if not more so) than who the
other person is.
But just as there’s more than one kind of
romantic love out there, there’s more kinds of love to be explored than the
kind that lead to bed springs creaking and breaking. Sometimes it feels like a relationship is
tacked on to a story to serve only as a motivation for the hero or heroine, a
reward for them to get at the end of their journey. We face the danger of no longer seeing it as
a relationship with two equal partners.
It shouldn't always be about reaching the endorphin rush.
What about a couple who are already in a strong,
committed relationship? There is, in my
opinion, a lack of established couples in stories. Sometimes I think conventional wisdom (which
is often neither conventional nor wise) dictates that what readers or viewers
are interested in is that tension, heat, and newness of two people figuring
each other out. The implication being
that once you get married you become dead inside, I suppose.
So when I wanted to write a mystery, I was
inspired by Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin
Man, which features Nick and Nora Charles, possibly my favorite married
couple in literature and proof that you don’t die after wedlock. James and Lettice Cote, the lead couple in my
upcoming mystery Getting Rid of Gary,
owe a heavy (though far less alcohol soaked) influence to Nick and Nora.
It also deals with the love within a family,
which brings me to my next point: The examples we've been looking at are still
about romantic and physical love. But love
for your fellow person can be just as powerful.
The love within a family is a key factor in Getting Rid of Gary, both in terms of how the plot unfolds and its
resolution.
The platonic love one person can develop for
another is one of the core themes in Trooper
#4, an end-of-days story that combines humour with horror, and even
questions the nature of reality. But at
its heart is a relationship between a state trooper and the boy she takes into
her care. Here, love is explored in terms of figuring out what is worth fighting
for, dying for, and more importantly, living
for. (And before you jump to any conclusions, the
state trooper in question is not a woman because of any mothering instincts
cliché. Trust me, it’s a lot weirder
than that.)
The love of
a child. The love of a parent or family. The love of an ideal or of humanity
itself. There’s no reason that love in a story has to be limited to a romantic
partner, and can’t be just as powerful.
It’s all in the trick of presentation, and when you’re only dealing with
endorphins they are a one trick pony.
About Noah:
Noah Chinn is at times a happy-go-lucky
world-travelling imp who tries to find humour in just about everything. At other times he is a brooding grumpy gremlin
who uses sarcasm as a chainsaw and most certainly should not be fed after
midnight. Some have said they’ve had
trouble telling which is which, however.
In actuality, Noah Chinn is a (mostly) human
writer of fantasy and horror with a strong comedic edge. He’s produced comics and articles and will
soon have his third novel under his belt, being slipped past security at the
local Chapters bookstore. He’s also
travelled through a number of countries under the delusion that it’s all for
research.
Bleeding Heart Yard
Whoever said the course of true love doesn’t
run smoothly must have been talking about Peter.
Being cursed by an honest to goodness witch is
bad enough, but what are you supposed to do when you’re not quite sure what the
curse is–or when it’s going to go off?
Of course, the sun has to shine on everyone–even
someone whose existence is shrouded in myth and urban legend. Peter has
discovered the love of his life. And if he can save her from a monster ravaging
the streets of London and stay alive himself–his best friend just might have
enough time to figure out a cure for Peter’s embarrassing little problem.
No boy meets girl story has ever been this
tricky or chaotic. Full of supernatural fun–it’s time for a damned romance!
Trooper #4
Trooper #4 is a story about the end of the
world – but not as we know it. A woman
wakes up in a motel on the outskirts of a remote Oregon city with no memory who
she is and a gun at her bedside. As she
explores it seems that civilization has come to an end.
That’s bad.
But it might also be the most normal thing that happens to her all
week.
Getting Rid of Gary
It’s August, 1985, and private investigator James
Cote has a problem.
Actually he has several.
His wife Lettice is unemployed, overactive, and
bored out of her skull. The cheating husband he’d been tailing for two weeks
has been killed by his mistress. And
someone has kidnapped his uncle Gary and shipped him off to Peru.
Someone from his own family – a family he
hasn’t visited in ten years.
Now James and Lettice have to travel 1500 miles
to Toronto under the guise of a long delayed reunion to find out who hated Gary
so much to ship him off to another country, but not enough to actually kill
him.
Coming Soon!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Lynda Again,
Very interesting insights, no? There are many forms of love and not all of them are immediately recognizable. Great food for thought! And the books sound terrific!
Have a Blessed day!
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5 Responses to "Guest - Noah Chinn"
Welcome Noah!
When I think of a married couple in a romantic SF type story, I always think of JD Robb's In Death series. Rourke and Dallas have a strong love story through all the books even though they do have discord here and there. There's acceptance of each other (as well as the endorphins you spoke of :-) ) but no matter what they have each other's backs. I like that.
Enjoyable post, Noah. I too drew inspiration from Nick and Nora for one of my stories. Best luck.
Rose
Thank you both. I am curious to see what Johnny Depp does with the upcoming Thin Man remake, to be honest ;)
Thanks for the comments! It is a subject I feel strongly about.
Hi Noah,
I really enjoyed your article. I have to say the reason I like romance is that it is about beginnings. I think the start of a relationship is all about the firsts - first kiss, first fight, first all of it, and those feelings are something that not many people get back after committing to a long term relationship. Not that it is any better than a long term relationship, but the excitement does settle in a way (hopefully not die).
I watched the Thin Man movies with my mom as a youngster, but I've never read the book and think that now I'll have to pick it up.
Thanks for sharing!
Melinda
I've got nothing against beginnings, and I love a good Rom Com ;) I just think there is an over-reliance on them and a fear of branching out in other directions.
The beauty of story is that it shakes up the everyday, so while in reality a committed relationship might settle down, whatever conflict arises in a story has the potential to shake up the relationship as well, which can make things interesting again.
That's my goal at any rate with my detective duo ;)
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