Plot, Character, and Something More
How are the WIPs going?
I got a little done on my dragon hunters' story, and I'm waiting on some promotional material for Post-Mortem.
I was thinking again this week about the dichotomy of plot vs. character. Some people prefer to focus on character, or characters, on the relations between persons in the story and their internal changes of perspective and behavior. I have a hard time thinking up examples for this in literature. The "Wind in the Willows" comes to mind. The events of the plot are almost interruption and seem to only exist to give the characters opportunities to show themselves. Outside of literature, however, something like Scooby-Doo appeals to me; the plots are almost always the same in broad strokes while the details are often absurd. Scooby and the gang are the ones we love and come back for no matter how indefensibly silly the events become.
Plot, however, has its champions as well. Offhand, the "Foundation Series" comes to mind. The first book, at least, is almost a screed against character. Characters only exist for the great plot to roll over them. When their part is played, they have no more worth. "World War Z" might be the best example of this. Though any particular character might drive a particular chapter, the overall mosaic, the grand image built by these individuals, is the main focus of the book.
Of course, one wants both. Agatha Christie might be the best for this. "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case" is a great synthesis of the two where it is hard to say that one or the other, plot or character, is not giving its all. Yet that seems, to me, to bring out the problem. The thing I like about the story is served by these elements but is not necessarily one of them or even the relationship between.
The best word I can find is atmosphere, but I think Barfield's concept of a poetic effect is what I mean. I can love a character or be awed by a plot, but what I want is that moment your soul touches something living, where you find some aspect of life suddenly brought out.
To me, this is the great genius of Poe. Something like the "Mask of the Red Death" or "The Cask of Amontillado" have character and plot in the barest essentials. They are there only to serve a moment, an ecstasy of dread.
I find the whole debate a little silly, the point, as far as my tastes are concerned, is neither. The point is the ineffable, the touching of the livewire of reality.
Anyway, I hope your writing has gone well this week. Have you been working on character or plot? Do you agree with me about the poetic effect or do you think it's all hogwash?
